Google DeepMind Partners With Fusion Startup

Original story by: Slashdot.org Last updated: Oct 16, 2025

Context: Artificial intelligence (AI) is being explored as a crucial tool in overcoming significant challenges in achieving fusion power. The primary difficulty lies in maintaining the high temperatures and confinement of plasma within a reactor, a task that AI's advanced computational capabilities can address.
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Detailed Summary:
- Fusion power generation faces a major hurdle in keeping plasma hot and contained, as it lacks the natural gravity of stars to achieve self-sustaining reactions.
- Magnetic fields are used to contain the plasma in reactors, but precise and continuous adjustments are required to react to changing plasma conditions.
- The complexity of these adjustments exceeds human capacity, making AI an ideal solution for optimizing control software.
- AI is recognized by experts as a key technology driving recent advancements in the fusion industry.
- Commonwealth Fusion Systems (CFS) is constructing its demonstration reactor, Sparc, which is expected to be completed in 2026 and potentially achieve net energy gain.
- Google's collaboration with CFS involves exploring how AI, specifically reinforcement learning and evolutionary search models, can optimize fusion energy generation and reactor operation.
- The goal is to find efficient and robust methods for producing more energy than is consumed by the reactor.