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Watt’s Next? The AI Bros Discuss AI’s Impact On Entertainment And Energy

In this engaging new eighth episode of the AI Bros podcast, hosts John Lawson III and Bruce Burke delve into the dynamic world of artificial intelligence and its profound impact on various industries. The conversation kicks off with a discussion on the latest developments in AI, highlighting the massive investments being made by tech giants like Mark Zuckerberg, who recently acquired a significant stake in Scale AI. This move underscores the growing importance of data labeling in training AI models and the relentless pursuit of achieving Artificial General Intelligence (AGI).

The hosts explore the implications of AI on global infrastructure, particularly focusing on the energy demands required to support AI advancements. They discuss the necessity of building new data centers and the potential role of nuclear energy in meeting these demands. The conversation touches on the strategic moves by companies to secure energy resources, emphasizing the critical need for the U.S. to catch up with countries like China in terms of infrastructure development.

Transitioning to the realm of marketing and content creation, John and Bruce highlight how AI is revolutionizing these fields. They share insights into how AI tools are being used to automate tasks that were traditionally outsourced, such as virtual assistance, graphic generation, and scriptwriting. The hosts discuss the potential of AI to create high-quality content quickly and cost-effectively, as demonstrated by a recent AI-generated commercial aired during the NBA finals.

The episode also addresses the broader societal implications of AI, including the potential need for universal basic income (UBI) as AI continues to displace jobs. The hosts debate the feasibility of UBI in the U.S. and the challenges of implementing such a system. They reflect on historical technological advancements and the new job opportunities that AI might create, while acknowledging the uncertainty surrounding the pace and scale of these changes.

Throughout the episode, John and Bruce provide a balanced perspective on the opportunities and challenges presented by AI. They emphasize the importance of staying informed and adaptable in a rapidly evolving technological landscape. The hosts conclude with a forward-looking discussion on the future of AI in entertainment, speculating on the possibility of AI-generated feature films and the evolving role of AI in creative industries.

This episode is a must-listen for anyone interested in the intersection of technology, business, and society. It offers valuable insights into the transformative power of AI and its potential to reshape our world.

Join Bruce and John for the latest episode of The AI Bros Podcast. Subscribe, like, follow and share with your network. Thank you!

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Three-dimensional reconstruction of inertial confinement fusion hot-spot plasma from x-ray and nuclear diagnostics on OMEGA

Multidimensional effects degrade the neutron yield and the compressed areal density of laser-direct-drive inertial confinement fusion implosions of layered deuterium–tritium cryogenic targets on the OMEGA Laser System with respect to 1D radiation-hydrodynamic simulation predictions. A comprehensive physics-informed 3D reconstruction effort is under way to infer hot-spot and shell conditions at stagnation from four x-ray and seven neutron detectors distributed around the OMEGA target chamber. Neutron diagnostics, providing measurements of the neutron yield, hot-spot flow velocity, and apparent ion-temperature distribution, are used to infer the mode-1 perturbation at stagnation. The x-ray imagers record the shape of the hot-spot plasma to diagnose mode-1 and mode-2 perturbations. A deep-learning convolutional neural network trained on an extensive set of 3D radiation-hydrodynamic simulations is used to interpret the x-ray and nuclear measurements to infer the 3D profiles of the hot-spot plasma conditions and the amount of laser energy coupled to the hot-spot plasma. A 3D simulation database shows that larger mode-1 asymmetries are correlated with higher hot-spot flow velocities and reduced laser-energy coupling and neutron yield. Three-dimensional hot-spot reconstructions from x-ray measurements indicate that higher amounts of residual kinetic energy are correlated with higher measured hot-spot flow velocities, consistent with 3D simulations.

Pulsar Fusion unveils nuclear fusion rocket concept for space travel

The company says that unlike the large amounts of fuel required for a chemical rocket, the relative tiny amounts of the deuterium and helium-3 fuel mix required means “a spacecraft would launch with a fixed supply, sufficient for missions like Pluto in four years, with no mid-flight refuelling needed”. (Repost)

The Sunbird nuclear fusion rocket concept has the potential to more than halve the time to travel to Mars and cut travel time to Pluto to about four years, the UK’s Pulsar Fusion says.

The company says its in-house team has been working on the project for a decade and it is “rapidly advancing toward in-orbit testing, with components of the system’s power supply set for demonstration later this year” and then demonstrated in orbit in 2027. They hope for a production-ready Sunbird in the early 2030s.

The Sunbird concept is for the fusion-powered ‘tugs’ to be permanently based in space, able to dock on to spacecraft and propel them at high speed over vast distances. Pulsar Fusion says it foresees a compact nuclear fusion engine providing both thrust and electrical power for spacecraft, including as much as 2 MW of power on arrival at a destination.

Scientists make mind-blowing discovery after studying material that only exists exists for billionths of a second: ‘Previously unimaginable’

Scientists have made liquid carbon in a lab for the first time, Interesting Engineering reported.

Liquid carbon was thought to be impossible to study under normal conditions. The material only exists for billionths of a second under extreme pressure and temperatures of about 4,500 degrees Celsius, making this record-breaking technology limitless in its potential.

Nuclear fusion, combining light atomic nuclei to release massive amounts of clean energy, has long been considered the holy grail of power generation. Fusion could change society by providing unlimited electricity without radioactive waste, helping cities, individuals, and companies save money compared to resource-intensive traditional energy methods.

UC San Diego a Key Part of New Project Led by General Atomics to Advance Fusion Energy

The University of California San Diego is part of a new research partnership led by San Diego-based General Atomics that was recently awarded funding by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). The project, called the Target Injector Nexus for Experimental Development (TINEX), aims to overcome critical obstacles in developing and scaling up inertial fusion power plants.

It is one of six awards, collectively totalling $107 million, made by the DOE as part of the Fusion Innovative Research Engine (FIRE) Collaboratives.

“The TINEX project will be important for our collective efforts to make inertial fusion energy practical,” said mechanical engineering professor Javier E. Garay, director of the Fusion Engineering Institute at the UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering.

Major funding milestone for world-first prototype fusion plant

The government has announced a record £2.5 billion investment in fusion energy, which includes support for a prototype fusion energy plant in Nottinghamshire.

The new prototype plant, known as STEP (Spherical Tokamak for Energy Production) will be built at the site of the former West Burton A coal power station near Retford and Gainsborough. The site was chosen by the government in 2022 as the location for the project, with the project’s delivery expected to create over 10,000 jobs ranging from construction to operations. The announcement shows the government’s firm commitment to becoming a “clean energy superpower” by turbocharging innovation in an area that’s produced conventional power for generations.

The record funding for fusion research announced this week shows the UK government’s firm commitment to clean, sustainable energy.

Securing Your Airspace: Detection of Drones Trespassing Protected Areas

Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) deployment has risen rapidly in recent years. They are now used in a wide range of applications, from critical safety-of-life scenarios like nuclear power plant surveillance to entertainment and hobby applications…

Biggest boom since Big Bang: Astronomers uncover most energetic explosions in universe

Astronomers from the University of Hawaiʻi’s Institute for Astronomy (IfA) have discovered the most energetic cosmic explosions yet discovered, naming the new class of events “extreme nuclear transients” (ENTs). These extraordinary phenomena occur when massive stars—at least three times heavier than our sun—are torn apart after wandering too close to a supermassive black hole. Their disruption releases vast amounts of energy visible across enormous distances.

The team’s findings appear in the journal Science Advances.

“We’ve observed stars getting ripped apart as tidal disruption events for over a decade, but these ENTs are different beasts, reaching brightnesses nearly ten times more than what we typically see,” said Jason Hinkle, who led the study as the final piece of his doctoral research at IfA. “Not only are ENTs far brighter than normal tidal disruption events, but they remain luminous for years, far surpassing the of even the brightest known supernova explosions.”

Memory matters for quantum atomic motion on metals

In a variety of technological applications related to chemical energy generation and storage, atoms and molecules diffuse and react on metallic surfaces. Being able to simulate and predict this motion is crucial to understanding material degradation, chemical selectivity, and to optimizing the conditions of catalytic reactions. Central to this is a correct description of the constituent parts of atoms: electrons and nuclei.

An electron is incredibly light—its mass is almost 2,000 times smaller than that of even the lightest nucleus. This mass disparity allows to adapt rapidly to changes in nuclear positions, which usually enables researchers to use a simplified “adiabatic” description of atomic motion.

While this can be an excellent approximation, in some cases the electrons are affected by nuclear motion to such an extent that we need to abandon this simplification and account for the coupling between the dynamics of electrons and nuclei, leading to so-called “non-adiabatic effects.”