8 ms·
AI for American-produced cement and concrete
- barbazoo 7mo ago> Meta’s AI for concrete model can help suppliers more quickly incorporate U.S. materials into their mixes through an approach called adaptive experimentation. > Proposes high-potential candidates: The AI suggests new mixes most likely to meet target specifications and can compare performance between U.S.-made and foreign materials US imports 22% of its cement > In 2024, Portland and blended cement were produced in 99 plants in 34 U.S. states, led by Texas, Missouri, California, and Florida. Nevertheless, there was significant import reliance. Net imports were 22% of total consumption, with the major source countries being Turkey (32%), Canada (22%), and Vietnam (10%). U.S. exports of cement last year were negligible. https://www.constructconnect.com/construction-economic-news/key-material-inputs-to-construction-materials-is-the-u.s.-dependent-on-imports https://www.constructconnect.com/construction-economic-news/.... I'm assuming this isn't for national security reasons, probably more to help the domestic industry deal with tariffs. I hope Meta used their extensive connections to the government.
- CrazyStat 7mo agoGiven the model is several years old, I assume this write up with its focus on incorporating domestic materials is so Mark Zuckerberg has something “America First” to point to next time he meets with Trump. This is not to denigrate the work—experimental design can be a huge force multiplier and making it more accessible to people on the ground is a great thing to do. One of my favorite grad school courses was an experimental design class with four students where we spent about half of the semester doing real life experimental design for a chemistry phd student who was trying (and mostly failing, before we got involved) to create a molecular filter with specific properties.
- wxw 7mo agoAwesome. People take concrete for granted. Even at small scales (e.g. your patio) with formulas provided on the cement bag, concrete can go wrong (crazing, scaling, cracks). There's a lot of unappreciated craft in the work, not only in the composition and mixing, which is what this research seems dedicated to, but also in the placing, leveling, curing, finishing.
- alephnerd 7mo ago^ This. Civil Engineering is hard, and concrete is a perfect example of how something as "simple" as concrete in reality requires significant interdisciplinary collaboration with domain experts in ChemE, MatSE, Physics, Applied Math, and CS. Some of the most robust HPC applications I saw back when I was an undergrad were done by Civil and Structural Engineers in the ONG space.
- cucumber3732842 7mo ago[flagged]
- Silamoth 7mo agoThat’s funny because I don’t see civil engineers being “glazed” much online. Usually they’re the butt of jokes and ridicule from other engineering majors who perceive civil engineering as less ‘rigorous’ than other disciplines. I’m curious where you see this civil engineering “glazing”?
- cucumber3732842 7mo agoThey're usually held up to as the pinnacle of "real engineers" in discussions where software people are trying to portray software as insufficiently rigorous. Yeah the other varieties of "real engineer" think of them about the same way that NPs think of MDs.
- blitzar 7mo agoAll I know is that PhDs are real doctors, MDs are fake doctors.
- GorbachevyChase 7mo ago[flagged]
- seemaze 7mo agoFirst there was the rampocalypse. Then there was cementpocalypse. Let just hope the AI datacenters don't latch on to biofuel to supplement their energy requirements. It's just more profitable for farmers to sell calories to the AI overlords, the consumer food market is just a low margin grind.
- alephnerd 7mo agoMost large scale DC projects I've know are primarily leveraging solar with grid batteries because of the low upfront cost and state incentives.
- seemaze 7mo agoApologies for the sarcasm. I appreciate the drive for renewables the current AI DC buildout brings with it. I have real fears that building materials will experience the same inflationary pressures computer memory is currently experiencing. The U.S. TSMC and Intel fab construction alone in the last couple years has had an outsized impact on building costs.
- elictronic 7mo agoThe US construction industry does about 3 trillion in revenue per year. Those two fabs are something like 20 billion per year. 2% is a lot but markets can handle that just fine. Local markets will have higher prices.
- gwbas1c 7mo agoI honestly thought this was going to be an April Fools gag.
- ajkjk 7mo agoThey sure are stretching to find a way to make this have something to do with being pro-America.
- Mr_P 7mo agoI had to double check that this wasn't an April Fools joke. The GitHub project has commits from 2 weeks ago, so it's not. Looking more closely though, this looks a lot like the Google "AI Cookie" from 2017, which also used Bayesian Optimization: https://blog.google/innovation-and-ai/technology/research/makings-smart-cookie/ https://blog.google/innovation-and-ai/technology/research/ma...
- sebastianeament 7mo agoGoogle's "Smart Cookie" indeed also used techniques from Bayesian Optimization. For some technical detail, see their write-up here: https://static.googleusercontent.com/media/research.google.com/en//pubs/archive/46507.pdf https://static.googleusercontent.com/media/research.google.c... Our work on concrete here differs in that the problem is both 1) an inherently time-varying, and 2) multi-objective. See our write-up here for details: https://arxiv.org/pdf/2310.18288 https://arxiv.org/pdf/2310.18288
- kevin_thibedeau 7mo ago> As a result, producers need a way to rapidly explore and validate new formulations without spending months in the lab. How do you bypass the normal process of pouring test articles and testing them months and years after cure? This is fundamentally a research activity that needs to conduct verifiable science. Not something you can guess at with an LLM.
- bluedino 7mo agoAll the chemical companies do it. They pair it with testing, but still.
- tartoran 7mo agoThey have a new scapegoat to blame if things turn out badly.
- plagiarist 7mo agoWhy do they need AI for that? Just create another LLC, manslaughter any number of people, then have that LLC declare bankruptcy. Zero consequences.
- parliament32 7mo agoEmitting a shrug and "AI made me do it" is cheaper.
- postexitus 7mo agoWhat part of move fast and break things did you not understand?
- ortusdux 7mo agoWhat could possibly go wrong? https://dailygalaxy.com/2026/03/rubber-used-in-undersea-tunnels-decay-fast/ https://dailygalaxy.com/2026/03/rubber-used-in-undersea-tunn...
- simianwords 7mo ago
- AngryData 7mo agoJesus I hope they do proper testing for these experimental mixes and don't trust whatever random garbage AI decides you should mix in. This is exactly the kind of thing AI is absolutely terrible at because it has no logical skills or direct experience or ability to test it. If your AI coded stuff goes belly up, you get to try again. If your multi million dollar cement foundation turns out to be sub-par, thats multi million dollars to tear it out and then millions more to do it again right, and that is a best case scenario. The alternative is people dieing when their apartment building collapses.
- sebastianeament 7mo agoWe use Gaussian processes trained on vetted test data from academic and industry partners. We use these predictions to recommend mixes for onsite testing to accelerate finding mixtures with optimal strength-speed-sustainability trade-offs. None of the data and predictions go untested. The blog post goes into this in more detail.
- m4rkuskk 7mo agoWhat do you mean by "onsite testing"? Wouldn't this be part of the pre-submittal process?
- mrbonner 7mo agoCan you at least read the article before criticizing them? They explicitly call out that they use Bayesian Optimization (Gaussian process) thing for this. It is "AI" but not "LLM" like you think it is.
- k33n 7mo agoAI isn’t just LLMs.
- ortusdux 7mo agoTangentially related, but there is a new generation of trucks that mix the concrete on-site. They can output small batches and change the mix on the fly. They solve a lot of headaches! https://cementech.com/volumetric-technology/ https://cementech.com/volumetric-technology/
- zozbot234 7mo agoConcrete mixer trucks are not new at all actually, they've been around for a long time.
- richwater 7mo agoTraditional trucks pick up cement from a facility and rotate it to keep it from setting. They don't mix it on the fly. Any extra is considered waste is poured out.
- coryrc 7mo agoWhere did you get the idea that rotating is "to keep it from setting" and not mixing?
- ortusdux 7mo agohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concrete_mixer#Concrete_mixing_transport_trucks https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concrete_mixer#Concrete_mixing... "Special concrete transport trucks (in-transit mixers) are made to mix concrete and transport it to the construction site. They can be charged with dry materials and water, with the mixing occurring during transport. They can also be loaded from a "central mix" plant; with this process the material has already been mixed prior to loading. The concrete mixing transport truck maintains the material's liquid state through agitation, or turning of the drum, until delivery. " Y'all both right.
- m4rkuskk 7mo agoThis may work on a small scale, not in most commercial use cases. A typical deck pour (400cy) will pour at 70-80cy/hr. you got 9-10cy/truck. Meaning you have 7 to 8 minutes to back in the truck, empty it into the hopper and leave. You barely have time to add water to the mix. Most high-volume concrete plants are "dry-batch", which means all the ingredients get dumped into the drum and the concrete will get mixed while driving to the project site. Also, changing mixes on the fly will not "fly". No one is going to authorize the adjustment, because what happens when the mix doesn't meet specs... It will need to get chipped out.
- simonw 7mo agoI hate April Fools day so much. Is this a joke? I genuinely cannot tell.
- danbrooks 7mo agoIt's not a joke - but it sure feels suspicious :D
- triceratops 7mo agoNot nearly entertaining enough to be one.
- charcircuit 7mo agoThe date on the article is March 30th.
- martinclayton 7mo agoWet cement is kind of sloppy, so this makes some sense.
- gostsamo 7mo agoThe masons just showed up their involvement with AI and everything wrong in our times. The masks have fallen. /s
- Animats 7mo agoHand-held devices for testing concrete properties would be more useful. Most concrete problems come from a bad mix - too much water, not enough cement, etc. Concrete testing usually involves cutting a core out of the poured slab and sending it to a lab. Something where you stick a probe in the mix and can reject it before pouring would help. Here are some on-site concrete testers.[1] They're heavy and a pain to use. There should be an app for this. But that's so last-decade. [1] https://store.forneyonline.com/concrete-testing-equipment/fresh-concrete-test-sets https://store.forneyonline.com/concrete-testing-equipment/fr...
- harimau777 7mo agoI'm surprised the ratios for a given situation isn't standardized by now. Is it just people cutting corners?
- Aurornis 7mo agoWorking with multiple tons of material that dries out as you move it around is hard. There are a lot of steps between the concrete being mixed and when it finally reaches the pour. Cutting out a piece of a slab and sending it to a lab is for post-pour validation in serious construction. There are pre-pour tests that are much simpler depending on the seriousness of what you’re building. The slump test is rather simple, for example: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concrete_slump_test https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concrete_slump_test It’s basically a cone with handles and a procedure that’s easy to learn.
- m4rkuskk 7mo agoThey are standardized for a given mix. A mix design that is based on a trial badge is submitted to the SEOR prior to pouring anything. The mix design shows the ratios ingredients (cementitious materials, find and coarse aggregates, water, air, admixtures). But Concrete is still a non-homogeneous material with lots of variations. Take for instance aggregates, if it rained the last two weeks, the moisture content will be higher but it may only be a layer on that pile. Same goes for gradation (particle size of the rock). Sometimes you get a batch with smaller rock. There are a 100 things that can go wrong to get bad mud. But yeah, there are concrete plants that cut corners and try to save on cement (the most expensive part of the mix), which depending on the project may bite them in the ass when they have to pay to fixing it.
- scythe 7mo agoThe website talks about making cement, but only describes making concrete. Making concrete involves mixing cement and fillers with water under controlled conditions. Making cement involves heating calcium carbonates and oxides with silicon dioxide or calcium silicate to form alite at a temperature of (so far as we understand) no less than 1250 C. Usually this is done with fossil fuels and any impurities in the raw materials (which are cost-constrained) go up the flue, making cement plants rather polluting. Carbon dioxide is a nearly inevitable byproduct (CaCO3 + SiO2 >> CaSiO3 + CO2) and is either captured at source (not implemented at most facilities) or released. There is plenty of room for improvement in cement production. I'm not sure exactly how to apply AI to it but I guess I was hoping for more than this. If we are going to have the infrastructure renaissance that keeps being talked up by reformists of various stripes, we need more cement. South America is also a surprising laggard in cement production, which is odd considering they have the materials and they need the roads. I think that environmental concerns and a continental aversion to coal might contribute.
- ValveFan6969 7mo ago[dead]
- deleted 7mo ago[deleted]
- georgeburdell 7mo agoWrong day to release this. I had to read halfway through the release before realizing it’s legitimate.
- jmathai 7mo agoIt's legitimate? I was like wtf until I saw the date and then closed the tab.
- tempaccount420 7mo agoThe article says "POSTED ON MARCH 30, 2026"
- Rebelgecko 7mo agoConcrete has entered the agentic era
- lo_zamoyski 7mo agoA good abstract would have helped.
- Gigachad 7mo agoYou're absolutely right — that rebar was severely corroded. I should not have poured that concrete without first checking the integrity of the rebar. This was a catastrophic error in judgement. Let's go over next steps—
- nerdralph 7mo agoConcrete mixes have become more complicated over time. Flyash has been around for a while, GU/L is relatively new and seems to set faster, often requiring retarders. Many different water-reducing additives are available. Air entraining agents tend to reduce strength. Fibers or steel pins added to the mix can improve crack resistance. Batch plants will design mixes so some water can be added on site to improve workability. If you don't add water, the concrete will likely exceed spec. A slump test is only one factor if many that impact concrete strength.
- hedayet 7mo agoOnly (April) fools would trust Facebook's technology with anything as safety critical as construction work.
- quickthrowman 7mo agoMeta spends a ton of money on concrete, a 1M sqft data center with a 6” slab has one yard of concrete for every 54 sqft of floor, which is around 18,500 cubic yards of concrete. Any improvements to concrete mixes will benefit them.
- Gigachad 7mo agoMove fast and break things coming to high rise and bridge construction. Testing your concrete takes too long. Just vibemix it.
- largbae 7mo agoI love this concept but the introduction is very odd. It feels like the first, third and 4th paragraphs make the same point (1/4 of cement is imported). It gets better as it gets technical.
- taurusnoises 7mo agoIf it reduces the cost of concrete (which has been going crazy in NYS), have at it. If it's just another clever bot trick, save it.
- Hasz 7mo agoman, I fucking love concrete. So cool. If you like concrete, check out [Tyler Ley's youtube channel](https://www.youtube.com/@TylerLey/videos https://www.youtube.com/@TylerLey/videos). Anyways, I am curious why Meta is investing in this. They use a lot of concrete no doubt, but it's nothing compared to a highway, all the commercial builds, etc. I would have expected them to release something like a very general materials optimization framework to explore a space, but glad to see it applied specifically to concrete. There are a lot of alternative cements to portland, interested to see if that is in-scope. The list of admixtures is also very long and also fairly secretive. UHPC is a pretty cool development, and I am especially bullish about removing rebar and replacing it with FRP bar to limit the eventual rust cracking that comes with the gradual march of carbonation. Anyways, very cool and looking forward to the mix developments that come out of this framework.
- anarticle 7mo agoThis also feels like "we're about to build a bunch of datacenters and we cannot meaningfully verify the quality of the concrete at our sites." This enables them to monitor the variables and probably not pay if it's out of spec would be my guess. In my concrete mixer experience that's just one part of the process, lot of other crap goes wrong, forms, vibing, water, additives. I'm not pouring foundations, so my xp is only to say there's a lot going on. Guess it's a first step?
- HeytalePazguato 7mo ago[dead]
- modo_mario 7mo agoTangential question: Does anyone here have experience with or knowledge of diy wood ash cement? I produce a fair bit of ash. Often enough from hardwood or something close enough and keeping it and going trough the calcification process in the fireplace sounds easy enough. I wonder if I could produce enough for hobby projects and if it would hold up outside.