Google is adding SandboxAQ’s ‘large quantitative models’ to its cloud marketplace, pairing Gemini with AI trained on scientific equations and laboratory data.
The large language models that power most of the AI industry are very good at words and surprisingly unreliable at numbers. Google’s latest move is an admission that, for science, a different kind of model is needed.
The company said it will start offering specialist AI models from SandboxAQ through Google Cloud, adding what SandboxAQ calls large quantitative models to the cloud marketplace. The aim is to widen enterprise and research access to AI built for drug discovery, materials science, and semiconductor manufacturing, the announcement said.
The distinction is the whole point. Large language models are trained on text and excel at generating it. Large quantitative models, by SandboxAQ’s description, are trained on numerical data and scientific equations rather than prose, which is meant to make them better suited to problems in chemistry, biology, and physics, fields where the right answer is a number or a structure, not a fluent paragraph.
The 💜 of EU techThe latest rumblings from the EU tech scene, a story from our wise ol' founder Boris, and some questionable AI art. It's free, every week, in your inbox. Sign up now!On Google Cloud, researchers will be able to combine these with Gemini, using the language model for reasoning and interface and the quantitative model for the underlying science.
