Author: The Conversation

Astronomers have been working to better understand the galactic environments of fast radio bursts (FRBs) – intense, momentary bursts of energy occurring in mere milliseconds and with unknown cosmic origins. Now, a study of the slow-moving, star-forming gas in the same galaxy found to host an FRB has been published in The Astrophysical Journal. This is only the fourth-ever publication on two completely different areas of astronomy describing the same galaxy. Even more remarkable is the fact that a single telescope made the discovery possible – from the same observation. Fast radio mysteries FRBs, first detected in 2007, are incredibly powerful…

Artificial intelligence (AI) has become such a part of our daily lives that it’s hard to avoid – even if we might not recognise it. While ChatGPT and the use of algorithms in social media get lots of attention, an important area where AI promises to have an impact is law. The idea of AI deciding guilt in legal proceedings may seem far-fetched, but it’s one we now need to give serious consideration to. That’s because it raises questions about the compatibility of AI with conducting fair trials. The EU has enacted legislation designed to govern how AI can and can’t be used…

In Dan Simmons’ 1989 sci-fi classic Hyperion, the novel’s protagonists are permanently connected to an artificial intelligence network known as the “Datasphere” that instantly feeds information directly to their brains. While knowledge is available immediately, the ability to think by oneself is lost. More than 30 years after Simons’ novel was published, the rising impact of AI on our intellectual abilities might be thought of in similar terms. To mitigate these risks, I offer a solution that can reconcile both AI’s progress and the need to respect and preserve our cognitive capacities. The benefits of AI for human well-being are wide-ranging…

For some people, the term “black box” brings to mind the recording devices in airplanes that are valuable for postmortem analyses if the unthinkable happens. For others it evokes small, minimally outfitted theaters. But black box is also an important term in the world of artificial intelligence. AI black boxes refer to AI systems with internal workings that are invisible to the user. You can feed them input and get output, but you cannot examine the system’s code or the logic that produced the output. Machine learning is the dominant subset of artificial intelligence. It underlies generative AI systems like ChatGPT and DALL-E 2. There…

A machine can only “do whatever we know how to order it to perform,” wrote the 19th-century computing pioneer Ada Lovelace. This reassuring statement was made in relation to Charles Babbage’s description of the first mechanical computer. Lady Lovelace could not have known that in 2016, a program called AlphaGo, designed to play and improve at the board game “Go”, would not only be able to defeat all of its creators, but would do it in ways that they could not explain. In 2023, the AI chatbot ChatGPT is taking this to another level, holding conversations in multiple languages, solving riddles and even passing legal…

Research shows that the world is undoubtedly warming. And, as the global average temperature keeps rising, heatwaves are increasing in their frequency, duration and intensity for most of the world’s regions. But that doesn’t mean cold weather will disappear entirely. While annual extreme cold events are becoming less frequent and less intense, as you’d expect in a warming world, researchers suggest the climate systems that drive anomalously cold weather will continue to cause cold snaps globally into the 21st century. As we become more accustomed to a warmer world, we become less accustomed to these cold events, and therefore more vulnerable. Being exposed to…

Golden State Warriors point guard Steph Curry is one of the world’s leading basketball players and unquestionably the greatest shooter of all time. The video below may look like it’s on a loop, but it’s actually Curry sinking 105 three point shots in a row – that’s five minutes of the same precise and highly-skilled action, without a single miss: 5+ minutes without a miss. Stephen. Curry. pic.twitter.com/8DV0z5gtib — Golden State Warriors (@warriors) December 26, 2020 Curry is 6’2″. In the real world he is tall, fast and strong, but in the NBA, where players average height is about 6’6″ (198cm), he is…

More than a quarter of people in the UK gamble online at least once every four weeks. And 1%–2% of UK adults demonstrate moderate-to-high risk levels of gambling-related harms. The substantive and striking changes that the rise of online gambling have introduced are acknowledged by the UK government’s recently published plans to change the law in this area. Through smartphones or other internet-enabled devices, people can gamble online anywhere, at any time. Gambling online also often allows those experiencing gambling-related harm to more easily hide this from those around them. The reach of online gambling by operators, and gambling overall, is further enhanced…

Editor’s note: This article contains plot spoilers. Society’s understanding of technology and cybersecurity often is based on simple stereotypes and sensational portrayals in the entertainment media. I’ve written about how certain scenarios are entertaining but misleading. Think of black-clad teenage hackers prowling megacities challenging corporate villains. Or think of counterintelligence specialists repositioning a satellite from the back of a surveillance van via a phone call. But sometimes Hollywood gets it right by depicting reality in ways that both entertain and educate. And that’s important, because whether it’s a large company, government or your personal information, we all share many of the same cybersecurity…

When stars like our Sun die, they tend to go out with a whimper and not a bang – unless they happen to be part of a binary (two) star system that could give rise to a supernova explosion. Now, for the first time, astronomers have spotted the radio signature of just such an event in a galaxy more than 400 million light-years away. The finding, published today in Nature, holds tantalising clues as to what the companion star must have been like. An explosive star death As stars up to eight times heavier than our Sun start to run out…