1. One thing that helps
You know what they say, if you want to maintain nuclear fusion – you’ve got to prevent tearing instabilities. OK maybe they don’t. But you do. If we can remove disruptions from the fusion process, we could be rewarded with a near limitless energy source.
Researchers from Princeton University and the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory have trained an AI to predict and repair fusion instabilities. The AI has demonstrated that it can predict a tearing-mode instability 300 milliseconds in advance. This allows the system to prevent the tear and keep the plasma confined in the fusion reaction. This means it can keep on producing the energy we need.
The researchers hope they can train the AI to recognise other fusion instability types and sort them out too. If we can keep these reactions going, our energy issues may be a thing of the past.
2. One to be wary of
ChatGPT, with the safeguards removed – and trained on dark web data. What could go wrong? Large language models like ChatGPT are being used by hackers and scammers to create scam campaigns that could include fake websites, phishing emails, impersonation and even malware.
AI companies are hard at work to ensure that safeguards exist to avoid exploitation of their services. As usual, the hackers are already ahead of them. Chatbot services specifically tailored to scamming are easily found on the web. The “advantage” of these chatbots is that they can be trained on leaked or hacked personal data from the dark web. That means each email can be as personalized as the scammer wants, and almost indistinguishable from real emails.
So double down on your vigilance. Don’t click on anything that seems suspicious. Keep your financial details to yourself no matter what. Pick up the old-fashioned telephone and call your service providers before assuming a payment request is from them. In this instance, it pays to be suspicious.
3. One to amaze
OK, so it might have broken a leg and fallen over but still, we finally got something back to the surface of the moon.
Last month, NASA and Intuitive Machines landed an American spacecraft on the moon – something that hasn’t been done since 1972!
‘Odie’, as the lander is affectionately called, is the first commercial spacecraft to land on the moon and is carrying some unexpected payloads. Including :
Colombia Sportwear’s Omni-Heat thermal reflective technology will be testing its effectiveness in space. It is used in fabrics to give instant warmth to the wearer without compromising breathability. This tech may be incorporated into future space suits.
Miniature cube sculptures named for the likes of Plato and David Bowie. A digital twin of each will be kept on earth and if you have the money and the inclination you can purchase the NFTs that link them.
Lonestar’s Independence Mission tests Disaster Recovery as a Service (DRaaS) from the moon. The company wants to transmit data to and from the moon so that when disaster happens here on Earth, they can retrieve our precious data from the moon. Out-of-this-world data management and security!
Odysseus has landed at the south-polar region of the moon, the first spacecraft to do so. It tipped over but, surely, we all know by now tech projects don’t always work at version 1!