Tech bosses think nuclear fusion is the solution to AI’s energy demands – here’s what they’re missing.

Dot.@feddit.org to Technology@lemmy.world – 86 points – Tech bosses think nuclear fusion is the solution to AI’s energy demands – here’s what they’re missing
theconversation.com

nuclear power produces long-lived radioactive waste, which needs to be stored securely. Nuclear fuels, such as the element uranium (which needs to be mined), are finite, so the technology is not considered renewable. Renewable sources of energy, such as solar and wind power suffer from “intermittency”, meaning they do not consistently produce energy at all hours of the day.

fusion technologies have yet to produce sustained net energy output (more energy than is put in to run the reactor), let alone produce energy at the scale required to meet the growing demands of AI. Fusion will require many more technological developments before it can fulfil its promise of delivering power to the grid.

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They're missing a fusion reactor capable of positive energy output?

"Tech bosses think warp drive might get us to Mars faster..."

Tech bosses think nuclear fusion is the solution

No they don't; this is literally the first thing I've ever read claiming that. Tech bosses are perfect happy to power AI with nuclear fission and don't give the slightest fuck about the waste.

(As well they shouldn't, TBH, since it really ought to get reprocessed anyway. But that doesn't excuse them for wanting to waste the power on bullshit.)

Theyre missing the fact that cold fusion doesn't (currently) exist? (haven't read the article)?

Renewable sources of energy, such as solar and wind power suffer from “intermittency”, meaning they do not consistently produce energy at all hours of the day.

If only we had some way of storing energy for use later. Oh well.

Lithium batteries and their associated wastes and byproducts are an ecological catastrophe though in fairness

We do not currently have the battery tech to have a fully renewables-powered grid where batteries are used for the regular dips in production wind and solar have.

We likely won't have infrastructure like that in place for decades.

So maybe they will invest to get it further. It's not a 9 women can make a baby in a month .. but sufficient funding for next gen nuclear and fusion will help progress.

Fusion will likely happen in this century. Fission is a great temporary power source to get us there alongside renewables.

Maybe AI can help us break the fusion hurdles. Oh. It's still telling people to eat rocks, just used to create waifu porn and as a mass spy application? Nothing else, really? Well shit.

I know you're being reflexively downvoted by who hate everything AI, but this is the sort of thing AI should be most useful for, which is finding patterns within large problem spaces with many variables.

They're mocking AI, why would they be being downvoted by people who reflexively hate anything AI?

Nothing else? Please do not speak for other people if you can not grasp what others do with this tool.

Sorry, I didn't mean to leave out the bestiality porn creation as well. That was unintentional on my part.

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The real solution is the thing that the fossil fuel companies have been buying up the tech for and burying it for decades...batteries.