Artificial intelligence may help develop clean, limitless fusion energy

Artificial intelligence (AI) may help develop safe, clean and virtually limitless fusion energy for generating electricity, scientists say. A team, including researchers from Princeton University and Harvard University, are applying deep learning to forecast sudden disruptions that can halt fusion reactions and damage the doughnut-shaped tokamaks or apparatus that house the reactions. Deep learning is a powerful new version of the machine learning form of AI, according to the findings published in the journal Nature magazine. "This research opens a promising new chapter in the effort to bring unlimited energy to Earth," Steven Cowley, director of US Department of Energy's (DOE) Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL). "Artificial intelligence is exploding across the sciences and now it's beginning to contribute to the worldwide quest for fusion power," Cowley said in a statement.