Artificial intelligence (AI) is revolutionizing the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI). A new study has identified eight potential signals from distant galaxies that could be evidence of intelligent life beyond Earth.
The research, published in The Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series, was conducted by a team of scientists at the University of California Berkeley and Breakthrough Listen—a SETI project backed by Russian billionaire Yuri Milner. Using AI algorithms to analyze data collected from two radio telescopes, they discovered eight unusual signals that stand out from natural phenomena like pulsars or quasars.
“This work represents an important step forward in using machine learning to identify promising SETI candidates,” said Gerry Zhang, lead author on the paper and a graduate student at UC Berkeley’s Department of Astronomy. “We can now use these techniques to prioritize our follow-up observations more efficiently.”
The team used two powerful radio telescopes: the Green Bank Telescope in West Virginia and Parkes Observatory in Australia. They analyzed over 2 million stars within 500 light years of Earth looking for narrowband signals—narrow frequency ranges that are unlikely to occur naturally but could indicate intelligent activity elsewhere in space. After filtering out false positives caused by terrestrial interference or other sources, they were left with 8 intriguing signals worth further investigation.
These findings demonstrate how AI can help speed up SETI searches significantly compared to traditional methods which rely heavily on manual analysis and interpretation of data sets too large for humans alone to process quickly enough. By automating certain aspects of signal detection and classification, researchers can focus their efforts on areas most likely to yield results rather than wasting time chasing dead ends or false leads generated by human error or bias.
“Our goal is not only finding signs of alien civilizations but also demonstrating how artificial intelligence can contribute substantially to fundamental problems in astronomy,” said Andrew Siemion, director of UC Berkeley’s Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence Research Center (SETI) and co-author on the paper.” This work will serve as a foundation upon which future AI-enabled SETI projects will build.”
AI technology has already been used successfully in many fields such as healthcare diagnostics and autonomous driving systems; however this is one its first applications towards searching for extraterrestrial life forms outside our solar system – something humanity has dreamed about since ancient times! While it may still take some time before we know whether any these 8 mysterious signals actually come from aliens living far away galaxies – this exciting breakthrough shows just how much progress we have made when it comes understanding universe around us better through science & technology!
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