DeepMind, Google’s artificial intelligence division, has trained an AI to control the superheated plasma inside a nuclear fusion reactor, paving the way for unlimited clean energy to arrive sooner.
Nuclear fusion is the method by which our sun and other stars generate energy, yet it remains frustratingly out of reach despite decades of research.
Nuclear fusion has enormous potential, according to physicist Dr. Arthur Turrell, who recently described it as “a breakthrough in human history comparable to the advent of electricity.”
One of the most difficult aspects of doing so is shaping and maintaining a high-temperature plasma within the reactor. Inside a nuclear fusion reactor, temperatures can reach hundreds of millions of degrees, turning matter into a plasma state that is neither solid nor liquid.
In order to extract energy from it, scientists need to somehow hold the plasma together. In stars this is achieved through gravity, however on Earth the process requires lasers or magnets.
DeepMind used its powerful deep learning technologies in partnership with the Swiss Plasma Center (SPC) at Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (EPFL) to manipulate superheated plasma within a magnet-based reactor known as a tokamak.
By taking 90 different measures 10,000 times per second and modifying the magnetic field accordingly, DeepMind’s AI was able to maintain constant control over the plasma.
“Our simulator is based on more than 20 years of research and is updated continuously,” said SPC scientist Federico Felici. “But even so, lengthy calculations are still needed to determine the right value for each variable in the control system. That’s where our joint research project with DeepMind comes in.”
DeepMind added: “This is another powerful example of how machine learning and expert communities can come together to accelerate scientific discovery.”
DeepMind rose to prominence after developing AI algorithms capable of mastering video games and defeating the world’s best human players at the notoriously difficult board game Go.
Demis Hasabis, the company’s founder and CEO, has stated that the company’s ultimate goal is to use AI as “the ultimate tool to accelerate scientific discovery in almost any field.”
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