AI for fusion
Ok, a little different from food printing. A Nature article today adds to the inflection point that AI is creating in science and engineering advances. One of the big (multiple) obstacles to achieve fusion energy is the avoidance of plasma instability. Controlling the system away from instability is an existential necessity, ideally done before the instability begins: the Princeton team here mixes a predictive multimodal model with an AI controller that keeps the system in a high plasma pressure but low instability probability state. The fact that this predictive controller was tested successfully on DIII-D, a real, large magnetic fusion facility, is very exciting for the potential of fusion energy.