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AI Technology

US, EU To Use AI To Seek Alternate Chemicals for Making Chips (bnnbloomberg.ca) 17

The European Union and the US plan to enlist AI in the search for replacements to so-called forever chemicals that are prevalent in semiconductor manufacturing, Bloomberg News reported Wednesday, citing a draft statement. From the report: The pledge forms part of the conclusions to this week's joint US-EU Trade and Technology Council taking place in Leuven, Belgium. "We plan to continue working to identify research cooperation opportunities on alternatives to the use of per- and polyfluorinated substances (PFAS) in chips," the statement says. "For example, we plan to explore the use of AI capacities and digital twins to accelerate the discovery of suitable materials to replace PFAS in semiconductor manufacturing," it says.

PFAS, sometimes known as forever chemicals, have been at the center of concerns over pollution in both the US and Europe. They have a wide range of industrial applications but also show up in our bodies, in food and water supplies, and -- as their moniker suggests -- they don't break down for a very long time.

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US, EU To Use AI To Seek Alternate Chemicals for Making Chips

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  • Subject line left me thinking potato chips for some reason which seemed like a really extreme use for AI.

  • What, and stop using my favorite chemical ? The one that goes FOOF! if you look at it funny and that has no known method to extinguish ? The one that can set water or sand on fire on contact ? Just read its description [science.org], it's a riot...
    • Nothing that reacts that violently to such a wide array of chemicals can hardly be considered a "forever chemical". It's a "5 seconds and it's something else" chemical.

      • by stooo ( 2202012 )

        >> "5 seconds and it's something else" chemical
        the problem is the "something else". Usually it is very stable.

    • The original "things I won't work with" said there was actually a Chinese supplier listed, and he poked fun of them for listing a 1kg container because as far as he knew that much had never been created. That was not the cause, but the idea that somebody might order it and they would actually attempt fulfillment made me think of this. [youtube.com]

  • Perhaps it should be eliminated from food packaging - I cannot imagine that computer chips use more PFA chemical than food wrappers.
    • A lot of liquide chemicals for chip manufacturing are distributed to the point of use with PFA tubing, valves, pump etc. maybe they are referring to that use.
    • I cannot imagine that computer chips use more PFA chemical than food wrappers.

      Because it already is eliminated... The only PFAS you get in food packaging in the USA, EU or Canada are those that get in there with trace contaminants.

      Also PFAS is a minor coating for when it was used in food packaging, whereas PFAS is a fundamental consumable (and is disposed of poorly into the environment) for semiconductor manufacturing. Your imagination is lacking. Semiconductor manufacturing uses far more PFAS than food packaging did.

      • You can make nonstick surfaces without PFAs. In general, non stick surfaces are plastic. I'd rather worry about something sticking to a (paper) wrapper so that even if I ingest the paper, it's only cellulose, rather than getting plastic in them. And likely it will be years until ALL the PFA wrappers get used up.
    • I'd explain it more as... our digestive tract is designed to put stuff in our bodies. Chips often remain outside them. Food wrappers including PFA's is like rubbing them on our food as if they're a seasoning or herb. Maybe that's what we need to do? Show the stupidity outside the companies that still do this.

      Isn't the company that sued in Texas and won a good target? At minimum an online campaign to expose who uses their products, and boycott the companies should work as well.

  • I can't wait to bite into one of those chemical-flavored chips!

    Oh wait, most chips probably already are chemical-flavored.

  • Is they're going to task spicy autocomplete with this, which is going to spit out plausible sounding bullshit that doesn't work, while wasting shitloads of cash on implementing plausible sounding garbage that can't possibly work. Plagiarized Information Synthesis Systems (PISS) are not AI.

    Other things that most Slashdotters should be able to remember getting called AI in our lifetimes: The way Amazon uses browser cookies, NPCs in video games, cruise control, spicy cruise control with lane assist, the enti

  • The chipmaking industry famously uses some of the most hazardous chemicals known to man, but contains them with double-walled piping with sensors which detect when the internal piping has leaked. And yet they have never had a leak of these chemicals, or at least one so bad it has to be acknowledged (and it takes very little of a leak to be that bad.) Why can't they also contain their PFAS?

  • Won't somebody please think of all the poor chemists and materials engineers that will be put out of work by these nasty job-stealing AIs?

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