Small Modular Nuclear Reactors Increasingly Popular, Even in the EU

Image: Design for Construction Facility for Small Modular Reactors by Hitachi

It has been clear for several years now that the increased use of artificial intelligence will require a lot of energy to power both the training and daily queries. So where will this energy come from? Most likely nuclear power. Amazon just announced last week that they are investing in three different U.S. companies (X-Energy, Energy NorthWest, and Dominion Energy) to explore the development of small modular reactors. Google announced they have made a similar agreement with Kairos Energy. The European Commission has now formed an Industrial Alliance on small modular reactors with the objective of installing the first ones in Europe in the early 2030s. I suspect that in the next 10 years, small modular reactors will become increasingly popular, especially in the energy-heavy industry, because it will make companies independent of national electrical grids. Prototypes have so far proven to be more expensive and time-consuming than projected, but one can reasonably hope that will improve with more experience.

This episode of Science News covers aliens. In the past few days, we have seen several headlines claiming that an announcement is coming up that the SETI institute has found signs of intelligent extraterrestrial life. I've had a look at what we know about the rumours.

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Quantum Computing Startup Zapata Ceases Operation

Just two weeks ago, I mentioned Zapata as an example of a publicly traded company that claimed to be working on questionable uses of quantum computing, such as curing cancer. I did not know then, however, that Zapata’s fate was already settled. According to Quantum Insider, Zapata’s board just announced they are ceasing business operations and, on October 8, informed the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission that the company is unable to meet its financial obligations. Zapata owes about $5 million to investors. I suspect that we will see more quantum startups falter in the near future.

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Smart Move: Google Shifts AI-Development to DeepMind

According to Reuters, Google (or, technically, its parent company Alphabet) has restructured its research and development department – more specifically, it has moved its artificial intelligence sector to Deepmind. The originally British company Deepmind was acquired in 2014 by Alphabet. They are currently the only well-financed AI company that does not bank on making Deep Neural Nets bigger and bigger. With tools such as Alphafold (which recently won the Nobel Prize for Protein Folding) and Alphaproof (which has rapidly made headway on proving mathematical theorems) they are instead combining deep learning with symbolic reasoning. I personally believe that this is the right way to go…and pretty much the only way to save Google from fading into obsolescence.

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