Seoul:Samsung Electronics Co. has announced an ambitious plan to utilize artificial intelligence (AI) to significantly reduce the time required for developing new semiconductor materials.

According to Yonhap News Agency, the company revealed this initiative during a forum hosted by the Korea Industry Association Forum, where the integration of AI in industrial research and development was a key topic of discussion.

Choi Young-sang, an official at the Samsung Advanced Institute of Technology, stated at the forum that the goal is to shorten the development period for new semiconductor materials from five years to two years. This will be achieved by using AI to increase the number of promising material candidates by more than fivefold. Currently, semiconductor materials are composed of multiple thin-film layers, resulting in over 100 million potential combinations for a seven-layer structure. However, researchers are limited to conducting only about 50 experiments each month.

Choi emphasized that the conventional method, which depends on researchers' experience and intuition, can take extensive time to identify candidate materials, with data from failed experiments often underutilized. Samsung aims to decrease the number of experiments needed to find optimal conditions by more than 80 percent.

Additionally, Samsung anticipates that this AI-driven approach will not only lower development costs but also expand the application of AI into other sectors, such as battery materials.