Technology, features and articles | Educational Science

Feb 7, 2023

AI is deciphering a 2,000-year-old 'lost book' describing life after Alexander the Great

A 2,000-year-old lost book discussing the dynasties that succeeded Alexander the Great may finally be deciphered nearly two millennia after the text was partially destroyed in the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in A.D. 79 and, centuries later, handed off to Napoleon Bonaparte. The reason for the breakthrough? Researchers are using...

Apr 21, 2023

AI's 'unsettling' rollout is exposing its flaws. How concerned should we be?

The CEO of Google and Alphabet is warning that society needs to move quickly to adapt to the rapid expansion of artificial intelligence (AI). This is going to impact every product across every company, Sundar Pichai said April 16 in an interview with 60 Minutes. Last month, Google released its...

Jun 9, 2023

AI chatbot ChatGPT can't create convincing scientific papers… yet

The artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot ChatGPT may be a decent mimic of human workers in several fields, but scientific research is not one of them, according to a new study that used a computer program to spot fake studies generated by the chatbot. But the AI is still capable of...

Jul 24, 2023

AI is transforming every aspect of science. Here's how.

Scientific laboratories of the future probably won't have flying robots, sentient artificial intelligence (AI) assistants or superhuman scientists like Tony Stark and Bruce Banner (aka the Hulk). But while they may not reach the realms of science fiction, what they'll be able to accomplish in the real world is likely...

Sep 19, 2023

DARPA is funding AI to help make battlefield decisions

The U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is spending millions on research to use artificial intelligence (AI) in strategic battlefield decisions. The military research agency is funding a project — called Strategic Chaos Engine for Planning, Tactics, Experimentation and Resiliency (SCEPTER) — to develop AI technology that will cut...

Oct 25, 2023

In a 1st, AI neural network captures 'critical aspect of human intelligence'

Neural networks can now think more like humans than ever before, scientists show in a new study. The research, published Wednesday (Oct. 25) in the journal Nature, signals a shift in a decades-long debate in cognitive science — a field that explores what kind of computer would best represent the...

Nov 16, 2023

'Student of Games' is the 1st AI that can master different types of games, like chess and poker

Researchers have built the first general-purpose artificial intelligence (AI) algorithm that can master a wide variety of games — dubbed Student of Games. Game algorithms are normally designed to master either information-perfect games like Go or chess — in which each player has all the information — or information-imperfect games...

Nov 17, 2023

These noise-canceling headphones can filter specific sounds on command, thanks to deep learning

Scientists have built noise-canceling headphones that filter out specific types of sound in real-time — such as birds chirping or car horns blaring — thanks to a deep learning artificial intelligence (AI) algorithm. The system, which researchers at the University of Washington dub semantic hearing, streams all sounds captured by...

Nov 21, 2023

Google's DeepMind AI can make better weather forecasts than supercomputers

Google DeepMind has developed a machine learning algorithm that it claims can predict the weather more accurately than current forecasting methods that use supercomputers. Google's model, dubbed GraphCast, generated a more accurate 10-day forecast than the High Resolution Forecast (HRES) system run by the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts...

Nov 27, 2023

AI can predict when massive rogue waves will strike next

Scientists have used artificial intelligence (AI) to build an equation that can forecast when notoriously unpredictable rogue waves will strike. Rogue waves, also known as monster waves, are at least twice as high as the other waves around them, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). These freak...

Nov 30, 2023

Chinese scientists build robo-chemist that can extract oxygen from water on Mars

Scientists in China have created a robot chemist powered by artificial intelligence (AI) that can extract oxygen from Martian water without human supervision. Synthesizing useful resources from local materials on Mars will be essential for humans' survival on the Red Planet. Extracting oxygen from materials — in a process called...

Dec 1, 2023

This AI model can tell if you're at high risk of lung cancer by analyzing a single X-ray scan

An artificial intelligence (AI) program can determine whether a non-smoker is at high risk of developing lung cancer by examining just one X-ray image, new research shows. This AI tool opens the door for opportunistic screening for never-smokers at high risk of lung cancer, using existing chest X-rays, said study...

Dec 13, 2023

Gemini AI: What do we know about Google's answer to ChatGPT?

Google DeepMind has released a rival to ChatGPT, named Gemini, and it can understand and generate multiple types of media including images, videos, audio, and text. Most artificial intelligence (AI) tools only understand and generate one type of content. For example, OpenAI's ChatGPT, reads and creates only text. But Gemini...

Dec 16, 2023

AI faces are 'more real' than human faces — but only if they're white

Artificial intelligence (AI) can make faces that look more real to people than photos of real human faces, a Nov. 13 study in the journal Sage found. This is a phenomenon that the study's senior author Amy Dawel, a clinical psychologist and lecturer at the Australian National University, called hyperrealism...

Dec 25, 2023

How to watch the Royal Institution Christmas Lectures online and on TV

For many science-loving kids in the U.K., at this time of year the only thing that can compare to the excitement of Santa's arrival is the annual Royal Institution Christmas Lectures. If you've not heard of this spectacular showcase of science, it is an iconic event that has taken place...