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DeepMind applies AI to controlling nuclear fusion reactors
Venture Beat ^ | 02 16 2022 | Staff

Posted on 02/16/2022 7:42:32 PM PST by yesthatjallen

DeepMind, the AI lab backed by Google parent company Alphabet, today announced that it used AI to successfully control superheated matter inside a nuclear fusion reactor. The lab claims that the system, which is detailed in a paper published in the journal Nature, could allow scientists to investigate how such matter reacts under different conditions.

While DeepMind remains engaged in prestige projects like systems that can beat champions at StarCraft II and Go, the lab has in recent years turned its attention to more practical domains, such as code generation, language processing, weather forecasting, app recommendations, and video compression. DeepMind licenses many of its innovations to other Alphabet-owned businesses, like autonomous car company Waymo and YouTube, and it recently launched a spinoff outfit — Isometric Labs — focused on drug discovery.

“While there is still much work to be done … we are pleased that the results indicate the power of AI to accelerate and assist fusion science, most likely augmenting human expertise in the field and serving as a tool to discover new and creative approaches for [fusion reactor control] and beyond,” Martin Riedmiller, a research scientist at DeepMind, said during a press briefing this week. “[The work] also suggests that there might be potential for wider adoption of deep reinforcement learning on physical systems for complex scientific and industrial machines, from simple motor control to complex robots.”

Nuclear fusion — the reaction that powers stars, including the Sun — promises clean, limitless energy by smashing and fusing hydrogen atoms into helium. Unlike some energy sources, fusion produces no greenhouse gases and only small amounts of radioactive waste. But at the lower pressures possible on Earth, the temperatures to achieve fusion must be very high, typically over 100 million Celsius.

SNIP

(Excerpt) Read more at venturebeat.com ...


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: ai; deepmind; google; nuclearfusion

1 posted on 02/16/2022 7:42:32 PM PST by yesthatjallen
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To: yesthatjallen

Proto-Skynet.

Enough said.


2 posted on 02/16/2022 7:43:38 PM PST by InsidiousMongo
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To: yesthatjallen

This’ll be working in 20+20 years.


3 posted on 02/16/2022 7:44:10 PM PST by Steely Tom ([Voter Fraud] == [Civil War])
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To: yesthatjallen
Introducing a nonlinearity into a control system ... THIS ought to work out well! /s
4 posted on 02/16/2022 7:47:31 PM PST by The Duke (Search for 'Sydney Ducks' and understand what is needed.)
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To: All

5 posted on 02/16/2022 7:48:14 PM PST by Diana in Wisconsin (I don't have, 'Hobbies.' I'm developing a robust Post-Apocalyptic skill set. )
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To: The Duke
Introducing a nonlinearity into a control system ... THIS ought to work out well! /s

Well.... an A/D converter is a whole lot of nonlinear things that are connected together to be nonlinearly linear.

6 posted on 02/16/2022 8:01:30 PM PST by Steely Tom ([Voter Fraud] == [Civil War])
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To: yesthatjallen

“DeepMind applies AI to controlling nuclear fusion reactors”

Dave: HAL, drop the emergency control scram rods to stop that run-away nuclear meltdown!

HAL: I’m sorry, Dave, I can’t do that.


7 posted on 02/16/2022 8:12:14 PM PST by catnipman (Cat Nipman: In a post-covid world, ALL "science" is now political science ...)
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To: yesthatjallen

“Would you like to play a game?”


8 posted on 02/16/2022 8:18:47 PM PST by bigbob
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To: Steely Tom
"Well.... an A/D converter is a whole lot of nonlinear things that are connected together to be nonlinearly linear."

I guess a human operator might also be considered a nonlinearity. (Why am I thinking of Homer Simpson?)

9 posted on 02/16/2022 8:19:05 PM PST by The Duke (Search for 'Sydney Ducks' and understand what is needed.)
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To: yesthatjallen

The “Blue Screen of Death” takes on a whole new meaning.


10 posted on 02/16/2022 8:53:16 PM PST by NonValueAdded (It seems the only immunity the vaccines provide is that big pharma can’t be sued.)
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To: yesthatjallen

OMG! Google and a drag queen controlling USA’s nuke development. Time to move to Jupiter.


11 posted on 02/16/2022 9:24:34 PM PST by NetAddicted ( Just looking)
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To: yesthatjallen

The 100. What could go wrong?


12 posted on 02/16/2022 10:23:15 PM PST by M_Continuum
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To: M_Continuum
What could go wrong?

The biggest moneymaker for AI right now is outsmarting the dumb money in the stock market. It's kept very quiet for obvious reasons. It will be a wild ride once until neural networks figure out how to freak each other out.

13 posted on 02/16/2022 10:35:31 PM PST by Reeses
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