Artificial intelligence (AI) systems could devour all of the internet’s free knowledge as soon as 2026, a new study has warned. AI models such as GPT-4, which powers ChatGPT, or Claude 3 Opus rely on the many trillions of words shared online to get smarter, but new projections suggest they will exhaust the supply of … Read more
The sun is on the verge of a significant event: a magnetic field reversal. This phenomenon happens roughly every 11 years and marks an important stage in the solar cycle. The shift in polarity indicates the halfway point of solar maximum, the height of solar activity, and the beginning of the shift toward solar minimum. … Read more
What it is: Also known as the 11th tablet of the Epic of Gilgamesh, this fragment of a baked clay tablet contains cuneiform inscriptions describing an epic flood that swept through Babylon. It is considered one of the oldest pieces of literature in the world. Where it was found: Nineveh (also known as Kouyunjik), an … Read more
We are interacting with artificial intelligence (AI) online not only more than ever — but more than we realize — so researchers asked people to converse with four agents, including one human and three different kinds of AI models, to see whether they could tell the difference. The “Turing test,” first proposed as “the imitation … Read more
One of the most extraordinary stories of human migration unfolded around 70,000 years ago, as humans crossed from Southeast Asia into modern-day Australia, traversing a now-submerged, Atlantis-like landscape, and becoming the first people to call that land home. A rich archaeological record provides ample evidence that this happened. But researchers have long been stumped by … Read more
For the first time, scientists have tested a messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccine in a patient with a deadly form of brain cancer — and it triggered a strong immune response. The vaccine, which was described in a study published on May 1 in the journal Cell, was created by extracting genetic material called RNA from … Read more
A collection of rocks scattered on an ancient shoreline on Mars might indicate that the Red Planet was once far more Earth-like than scientists previously thought. The rocks, discovered by NASA’s Curiosity rover, are unusually rich in manganese oxide — a chemical that adds to growing evidence that the once-habitable Mars may have sported Earth-like … Read more
The future of cellular data transfer could lie in “curving” light beams midair to deliver 6G wireless networks with blazing-fast speeds — bypassing the need for line of sight between transmitter and receivers. In a new study published March 30 in the journal Nature’s Communications Engineering, researchers explained how they developed a transmitter that can … Read more
We love outlandish ideas and companies that take risks — that, after all, is how science and technology progress. But with every success comes a dozen failures and that’s what this list celebrates. These are some ideas that could have been the next big thing: concepts that got backing but ultimately failed to take flight. … Read more
NASA test drove the mini autonomous rovers that will soon fly to the moon and collectively map the lunar surface. The rovers are part of a technology demonstration called Cooperative Autonomous Distributed Robotic Exploration (CADRE), which is designed to show that a group of robotic spacecraft can work together without direct human control. NASA took … Read more
