> Vijay Murugesan at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Washington state was one of the scientists who picked up the phone. He and his colleagues suggested additional screening criteria for the AI. After more elimination rounds, Murugesan’s team ultimately picked one of the AI’s suggestions to synthesise in the lab. It stood out because half of what Murugesan would have expected to be lithium atoms were replaced with sodium. He says that this is a very novel recipe for an electrolyte and that having the two elements together opens questions about the basic physics of how the material works inside a battery.

Seems it wasn't quite so obvious.