DeepMind Has Trained an AI to Control Nuclear Fusion

Plus: Spotify it's acquiring two major podcast tech platforms, Can Bitcoin Be a National Currency? and more ...

Jose Montes de Oca

Feb 17, 2022

Happy Thursday everyone! Here is what’s on today’s edition:

DeepMind Has Trained an AI to Control Nuclear Fusion. (Amit Katwala via WIRED)
Spotify says it's acquiring two major podcast tech platforms. (Ashley Carman via The Verge)
Can Bitcoin Be a National Currency? El Salvador Is Trying to Find Out. (Kejal Vyas via Wall Street Journal)
Why Central Banks Are Getting Inflation So Wrong. (Javier Blas via Bloomberg)
Inside Peloton's epic run of bungled calls and bad luck. (Andrew Edgecliffe-Johnson and Patrick McGee via Financial Times)
Twitter officially launches labels to identify the 'good bots'. (Sarah Perez via TechCrunch)
Why you can't rebuild Wikipedia with crypto. (Casey Newton via Platformer)

That’s it for today, see you tomorrow!

— Jose Montes de Oca

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Today’s pick

DeepMind Has Trained an AI to Control Nuclear Fusion. The Google-backed AI firm taught a reinforcement learning algorithm to control the fiery plasma inside a tokamak nuclear fusion reactor. (Amit Katwala / WIRED)

Amit Katwala @amitkatwala

New from me: DeepMind has trained an AI to control a nuclear fusion reactor. Its scientists taught a neural network to manipulate the plasma in the reactor into different shapes using magnetic coils. It could speed up the race to fusion power @WIRED

wired.comDeepMind Has Trained an AI to Control Nuclear FusionThe Google-backed AI firm taught a reinforcement learning algorithm to control the fiery plasma inside a tokamak nuclear fusion reactor.

Spotify says it's acquiring two major podcast tech platforms. The company announced it's acquiring both Chartable and Podsights — two of the most prominent podcast marketing and ad attribution companies. (Ashley Carman / The Verge)

Ashley Carman @ashleyrcarman

damn, by next week everyone at hot pod summit will work for spotify

theverge.comSpotify is acquiring two major podcast tech platformsSpotify continues its podcast acquisition spree.

Can Bitcoin Be a National Currency? El Salvador Is Trying to Find Out. The country made bitcoin legal tender last September and now is aiming to raise $1 billion to fund expansive economic policies by cashing in on the crypto craze. But the IMF warns bitcoin is too risky, and Salvadorans are mostly sticking to dollars. (Kejal Vyas / Wall Street Journal)

Santiago Pérez @PerezEnMexico

“Most bitcoiners are willing to die on this hill, and right now, that hill is El Salvador” wsj.com/articles/bitco… via @WSJ

wsj.comCan Bitcoin Be a National Currency? El Salvador Is Trying to Find Out.The country made bitcoin legal tender last September and now is aiming to raise $1 billion to fund expansive economic policies by cashing in on the crypto craze. But the IMF warns bitcoin is too risky, and Salvadorans are mostly sticking to dollars.

Why Central Banks Are Getting Inflation So Wrong. Monetary policy makers have hamstrung their own efforts by misjudging commodity markets. (Javier Blas / Bloomberg)

Javier Blas @JavierBlas

COLUMN: Central banks continue to use the oil price curve as it was a forecast. It isn't. And that's one reason they have got the commodity-driven inflation so wrong. My latest @bopinion with @marcusashworth #OOTT

bloomberg.comBloomberg - Are you a robot?

Inside Peloton's epic run of bungled calls and bad luck. It was a darling with investors and customers. What went wrong? (Andrew Edgecliffe-Johnson and Patrick McGee via Financial Times)

A Edgecliffe-Johnson @Edgecliffe

As Peloton’s stock surged in the first year of the pandemic, co-founder John Foley said it was a trillion dollar stock in the making, not just a “Covid story”. @PatrickMcGee_ and I explain how it fell to earth for @FTMag

ft.comSubscribe to read | Financial TimesNews, analysis and comment from the Financial Times, the worldʼs leading global business publication

Twitter officially launches labels to identify the 'good bots'. Twitter last fall introduced a new label that would allow what it calls the “good bots” on its service to identify themselves. (Sarah Perez via TechCrunch)