Author: The Conversation

Today, we know of more than 5,000 exoplanets: planets outside our solar system that orbit other stars. While the effort to discover new worlds goes on, we’re steadily learning more about the exoplanets we’ve already detected: their sizes, what they’re made of and whether they have atmospheres. Our team has now provided tentative evidence for a sulphur-rich atmosphere on a world that’s 1.5 times the size of Earth and located 35 light years away. If confirmed, it would be the smallest known exoplanet with an atmosphere. The potential presence of the gases sulphur dioxide (SO₂) and hydrogen sulphide (H₂S) in this atmosphere hint at a…

Two years since the release of ChatGPT, teachers and institutions are still struggling with assessment in the age of artificial intelligence (AI). Some have banned AI tools outright. Others have turned to AI tools only to abandon them months later or have called for teachers to embrace AI to transform assessment. The result is a hodgepodge of responses, leaving many kindergarten to Grade 12 and post-secondary teachers to make decisions about AI use that may not be aligned with the teacher next door, institutional policies, or current research on what AI can and cannot do. One response has been to use AI detection software, which relies on algorithms to try to…

In the 1970s, images from the NASA Mariner 9 orbiter revealed water-sculpted surfaces on Mars. This settled the once-controversial question of whether water ever rippled over the red planet. Since then, more and more evidence has emerged that water once played a large role on our planetary neighbour. For example, Martian meteorites record evidence for water back to 4.5 billion years ago. On the young side of the timescale, impact craters formed over the past few years show the presence of ice under the surface today. Today the hot topics focus on when water appeared, how much was there, and how long it…

When small Chinese artificial intelligence (AI) company DeepSeek released a family of extremely efficient and highly competitive AI models in January, it rocked the global tech community. The release revealed China’s growing technological prowess. It also showcased a distinctly Chinese approach to AI advancement. This approach is characterised by strategic investment, efficient innovation and careful regulatory oversight. And it’s evident throughout China’s broader AI landscape, of which DeepSeek is just one player. In fact, the country has a vast ecosystem of AI companies. They may not be globally recognisable names like other AI companies such as DeepSeek, OpenAI and Anthropic. But…

American quantum computing startup PsiQuantum announced yesterday that it has cracked a significant puzzle on the road to making the technology useful: manufacturing quantum chips in useful quantities. PsiQuantum burst out of “stealth mode” in 2021 with a blockbuster funding announcement. It followed up with two more last year. The company uses so-called “photonic” quantum computing, which has long been dismissed as impractical. The approach, which encodes data in individual particles of light, offers some compelling advantages — low noise, high-speed operation, and natural compatibility with existing fibre-optic networks. However, it was held back by extreme hardware demands to manage the fact that photons fly…

Generative AI systems like large language models and text-to-image generators can pass rigorous exams that are required of anyone seeking to become a doctor or a lawyer. They can perform better than most people in Mathematical Olympiads. They can write halfway decent poetry, generate aesthetically pleasing paintings and compose original music. These remarkable capabilities may make it seem like generative artificial intelligence systems are poised to take over human jobs and have a major impact on almost all aspects of society. Yet while the quality of their output sometimes rivals work done by humans, they are also prone to confidently churning out factually incorrect information. Sceptics have also…

Generative AI tools such as ChatGPT and Midjourney can produce text, images and videos far more quickly than any one person can accomplish by hand. But as someone who studies the societal impacts of AI, I’ve noticed an interesting trade-off: The technology can certainly save time, but it does so precisely to the extent that the user is willing to surrender control over the final product. For this reason, generative AI is probably most useful for things we care about the least. Ceding creative control Let’s use the example of AI image generators. You probably have a rough idea of how they work. Just type…

OpenAI’s “deep research” is the latest artificial intelligence (AI) tool making waves and promising to do in minutes what would take hours for a human expert to complete. Bundled as a feature in ChatGPT Pro and marketed as a research assistant that can match a trained analyst, it autonomously searches the web, compiles sources and delivers structured reports. It even scored 26.6% on Humanity’s Last Exam (HLE), a tough AI benchmark, outperforming many models. But deep research doesn’t quite live up to the hype. While it produces polished reports, it also has serious flaws. According to journalists who’ve tried it, deep research can miss key details, struggle with recent information…

NASA will soon launch a new telescope which it says will create the “most colourful” map of the cosmos ever made. The SPHEREx telescope is relatively small but will provide a humongous amount of knowledge in its short two-year mission. It is an infrared telescope designed to take spectroscopic images – ones that measure individual wavelengths of light from a source. By doing this it will be able to tell us about the formation of the universe, the growth of all galaxies across cosmic history, and the location of water and life-forming molecules in our own galaxy. In short, the mission –…

Food insecurity is one of humanity’s most pressing challenges, impacting more than two billion people worldwide. Paradoxically, as so many suffer from lack of access to food, more than 30 per cent of the world’s food is wasted each year, driven by inefficiencies in production, distribution and consumption. Outdated, imprecise and often incorrect labelling systems — such as printed expiry dates — contribute to these huge problems, leading to the unnecessary disposal of safe, healthy food, increased greenhouse gas emissions and financial losses. Addressing these crises requires bold investment in sustainable technologies that are already tested and available. These include smart food-packaging innovations that provide…