An AI has started dreaming up its own physics formulas that are actually better than anything humans have ever come up with.
March 30, 2026
Original Paper
Automated near-term quantum algorithm discovery for molecular ground states
arXiv · 2603.26359
The Takeaway
Quantum computers are so complex that their logic often escapes human intuition. By using an evolutionary AI platform, researchers discovered new shortcuts for calculating molecular chemistry that outperform the current world-record designs created by human experts.
From the abstract
Designing quantum algorithms is a complex and counterintuitive task, making it an ideal candidate for AI-driven algorithm discovery. To this end, we employ the Hive, an AI platform for program synthesis, which utilises large language models to drive a highly distributed evolutionary process for discovering new algorithms. We focus on the ground state problem in quantum chemistry, and discover efficient quantum heuristic algorithms that solve it for molecules LiH, H2O, and F2 while exhibiting sig