Bill Gates-backed TerraPower builds momentum for nuclear power ambitions

Many companies building small modular nuclear reactors have stumbled in recent months. Bill Gates-backed TerraPower, however, is pressing on with big plans this year and beyond. GeekWire reporter Lisa Stiffler got a look inside the company’s cavernous laboratory north of Seattle and spoke to CEO Chris Levesque (above) about the road ahead. Read more.

Joseph Sirosh, a former AI leader at Amazon and Microsoft, launched a secretive new startup that aims to let creators build their own conversational AI agents. CreatorsAGI allows authors, YouTubers, media producers, and other creators to build AI assistants that reflect their own content or personality — and earn money through a new revenue stream. Read more.

Seattle startup reveals plans for robotic moon harvester: Interlune calls it “technologically and economically feasible” to extract helium-3 from moon dirt and send it back to Earth for applications ranging from quantum computing to fusion power. Read more.

Time to vote for the 2024 GeekWire Awards! Learn more about the finalists and cast your ballot to help honor the best in Pacific Northwest tech, May 9 in Seattle. 

Hot Links:

• Amazon’s new “Big Spring Sale,” March 20-25, is notable in part because non-Prime members can shop, although members will get access to exclusive deals. (About Amazon)

• Dialpad and T-Mobile are launching a new AI feature that automatically summarizes phone calls. (Dialpad)

• Chatbot for Portland’s startup scene: Rick Turoczy, a longtime startup leader in Portland, Ore., recently launched a “friendly AI concierge” that can answer questions about the city’s startup ecosystem, and now it’s available within Slack. (Silicon Florist)

• New electric vehicle charging stations installed by Puget Sound Energy in Pierce County, south of Seattle, were vandalized multiple times in recent months. (KING5)