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One small deviation can completely alter the outcome of an experiment, often leading to frustration and confusion among laboratory staff. Biological systems, such as cell cultures, are frequently unpredictable and sensitive to tiny changes in their environment. Medical research is hugely challenging and can be incredibly tedious. The technology could indicate the direction that medical lab research is likely to take in the coming years, where robots complete arduous experimental work. The robot improved the percentage of stem cells within a culture that differentiated into RPE cells from 50% to approximately 90% over six months of experimentation, and the researchers estimate that it would have taken humans approximately 2.5 years to achieve the same thing. In a proof-of-principle, the researchers set the robot the task of optimizing cell culture conditions to create a maximal number of retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) cells. Researchers at the RIKEN Center for Biosystems Dynamics Research in Japan have developed an AI-powered robotic system that can perform laboratory experiments in regenerative medicine, learn from the results, and perform iterative rounds of experimentation to achieve a certain goal.