’No small feat’: University of Toronto’s Anatole von Lilienfeld is using AI to explore the vastness of ’chemical space’

Anatole von Lilienfeld is one of the world's brightest visionaries on the use of computers to understand the vastness of chemical space. 'No small feat': University of Toronto's Anatole von Lilienfeld is using AI to explore the vastness of 'chemical space' The University of Toronto's Anatole von Lilienfeld  navigates space - but rather than exploring the depths of the universe, his artificial intelligence-powered work focuses on "chemical space" and the untapped potential of undiscovered chemical combinations. The inaugural Clark Chair in Advanced Materials at University of Toronto and the Vector Institute for Artificial Intelligence - and a pivotal member of University of Toronto's  Acceleration Consortium - von Lilienfeld is one of the world's foremost visionaries for the use of computers to understand the vastness of chemical space. Von Lilienfeld, a professor jointly appointed to University of Toronto's department of chemistry in the Faculty of Arts & Science and the department of materials science and engineering in the Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering, was a speaker at the Acceleration Consortium's first annual Accelerate conference earlier this year. The four-day program explored the power of self-driving labs, an emerging technology that combines AI, automation and advanced computing to accelerate materials and molecular discovery. Writer Erin Warner  recently spoke with von Lilienfeld about the digitization of chemistry and what the future holds. How big is chemical space?