GPT-5.4 runs its own chemistry lab and boosts a stubborn reaction's yields
OpenAI connected GPT-5.1 to Molecule.one's Maria, an agentic chemistry AI wired into an autonomous high-throughput lab, and handed it one open-ended goal: improve Chan-Lam coupling. The model picked hard-to-reach primary sulfonamides as its target and found that TEMPO-type oxidants lift yields for over 80% of tested substrates across real experiments. Humans stayed in the loop on prompts and final validation, but the hypothesis-to-experiment loop itself ran largely on its own. The result nudges AI from reasoning partner to hands-on bench chemist.