00:02:08 · Sebastian Johnson, Alex Higginbottom
[00:02:08] S0: And was there a moment in time where... Was it like an epiphany moment where you're like, this is not it. I need to be, like, sort of more in an arena building, or was it a sort of like a slow gradual build up that maybe you you you kind of crept up on you that actually you could probably have more value by building a company? [00:02:25] S1: Yeah. It's a really good question. I think it was, like, it was... There was definitely several epiphanies, I think. You know, partly actually working in the fusion industry, you know, we've seen everyone hears fusion. They think it's thirty years away. But in the last, like, five, ten years, we've had about 80 fusion companies start, And they've made more progress, I would argue, in just a few years than, you know, governments and and academia did in in decades. And so that was extremely inspirational. And and now, you know, with seeing, the progress unlocked by AI at DeepMind, you know, in AlphaFold and, you know, OpenAI and and and others. You know, I was just so excited about how can we take this kind of startup velocity, this kind of incredible technology that is AI, and solve some of the most important problems. And... [00:03:18] S0: As if you... Yeah. I was gonna say, fusion, it sounds like that's kinda like your... Where you've come from. Are there are there approaches to fusion or are there companies kind of out of those 80 that you think are... That you've got your money on or that you're particularly excited by?
00:03:18 · Sebastian Johnson, Alex Higginbottom
[00:03:18] S0: As if you... Yeah. I was gonna say, fusion, it sounds like that's kinda like your... Where you've come from. Are there are there approaches to fusion or are there companies kind of out of those 80 that you think are... That you've got your money on or that you're particularly excited by? [00:03:32] S1: That's a good question. Yeah. I think there are some that have very exciting approaches, and they have the money to do it. So, you know, we we can't work with everyone right now. We don't have the bandwidth. So we are being quite selective in in who we're working with and trying to work with the ones that we, you know, really believe in in the long term. [00:03:54] S0: I think... Can you... Maybe if you can't share those names, can you talk about, you know, within fusion, there are different schools of thought. And even within those schools of thoughts and approaches, there are even more sort of different... Are there approaches where your technology makes more sense? Is it with tokamax or whatever? Like, know, other particular simulations or or approaches where your technology is being used, you know, at the moment?
00:03:54 · Sebastian Johnson, Alex Higginbottom
[00:03:54] S0: I think... Can you... Maybe if you can't share those names, can you talk about, you know, within fusion, there are different schools of thought. And even within those schools of thoughts and approaches, there are even more sort of different... Are there approaches where your technology makes more sense? Is it with tokamax or whatever? Like, know, other particular simulations or or approaches where your technology is being used, you know, at the moment? [00:04:16] S1: So, yeah, this is something that we've been really... From day one, in fact, much broader than fusion. But within fusion, we've wanted to be as comprehensive as possible in covering... Being a true foundation model for plasma. So that means being useful for, tokamax, but also laser fusion, every kind of confinement type. That's And really important because as I said earlier, we don't know who the winner's gonna be, really. So we need to be able to work with with all of them. And this is... You know, we'll be launching our first world model next week, and this is the first time that any... Like, this is really quite a quantum leap, I would say, in in the field of AI for... In general, but also in in fusion. It's the first time that we've had different confinement types in one model. And, you know, we're going much much broader than that still. We're building world models for extreme physics overall. So this obviously has massive applications in semiconductor manufacturing and aerospace and beyond, which we are just as excited about as we are fusion.
00:04:16 · Alex Higginbottom, Sebastian Johnson
[00:04:16] S1: So, yeah, this is something that we've been really... From day one, in fact, much broader than fusion. But within fusion, we've wanted to be as comprehensive as possible in covering... Being a true foundation model for plasma. So that means being useful for, tokamax, but also laser fusion, every kind of confinement type. That's And really important because as I said earlier, we don't know who the winner's gonna be, really. So we need to be able to work with with all of them. And this is... You know, we'll be launching our first world model next week, and this is the first time that any... Like, this is really quite a quantum leap, I would say, in in the field of AI for... In general, but also in in fusion. It's the first time that we've had different confinement types in one model. And, you know, we're going much much broader than that still. We're building world models for extreme physics overall. So this obviously has massive applications in semiconductor manufacturing and aerospace and beyond, which we are just as excited about as we are fusion. [00:05:24] S0: And you you spoke about, you know, your own frustration in that these simulations can take such a long time. You almost, like, program it. You get them up and running, and then you kind of have to just, like, leave them to to work. That I imagine that's very painful as like an academic or a researcher, even more so for kind of building these companies. How short can you bring that that time frame down to? Like, what can be the real impact for somebody who could be using this technology?
00:05:24 · Sebastian Johnson, Alex Higginbottom
[00:05:24] S0: And you you spoke about, you know, your own frustration in that these simulations can take such a long time. You almost, like, program it. You get them up and running, and then you kind of have to just, like, leave them to to work. That I imagine that's very painful as like an academic or a researcher, even more so for kind of building these companies. How short can you bring that that time frame down to? Like, what can be the real impact for somebody who could be using this technology? [00:05:46] S1: Yes. That's really, right now, our key value proposition. And if you... Just to kind of set the stage here, you're building a fusion reactor, and there are literally trillions of different ways to put it together. You know, different shapes, different temperatures, different, you know, magnetic field shapes, all of this kind of thing. And right now, a single simulation on a high performance computer takes ten hours to multiple days. So how can you ever build something optimal if you're if you're trying to search trillions of combinations, but you can only search... You know, like, it's like picking up random grains of sand on the beach. Whereas what we've developed gives you the same results but in milliseconds, So it's a million times faster.
00:05:46 · Alex Higginbottom, Sebastian Johnson
[00:05:46] S1: Yes. That's really, right now, our key value proposition. And if you... Just to kind of set the stage here, you're building a fusion reactor, and there are literally trillions of different ways to put it together. You know, different shapes, different temperatures, different, you know, magnetic field shapes, all of this kind of thing. And right now, a single simulation on a high performance computer takes ten hours to multiple days. So how can you ever build something optimal if you're if you're trying to search trillions of combinations, but you can only search... You know, like, it's like picking up random grains of sand on the beach. Whereas what we've developed gives you the same results but in milliseconds, So it's a million times faster. [00:06:31] S0: Wow. That's crazy. That's not even like... That... That's not... Yeah. That's like a... Not even order order of magnitude. That's crazy. That... That's so much faster. And so where are you at in your journey? Right? So, you know, I know you're you're releasing this model next week. How closely are you working with certain companies? Are they starting to see value from it now? What does that look like in terms of, like, product development and and real value being used by... Being realized by end users?