NEW DELHI: Top scientists are now planning to employ Artificial Intelligence to search for extraterrestrial life in space. They express high confidence in achieving a 90% accuracy rate. Scientists at the Carnegie Science Center in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, US, have developed a novel AI-driven method, which they are calling the “holy grail of astrobiology”. They aim to investigate the question of whether humanity is the sole existence in the cosmos. Led by the expert Robert Hazen, the team has published a paper in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences outlining their strategy for utilising AI in the quest for aliens in space.
The newly developed AI tool by these experts can analyse provided data to differentiate between human and non-human samples, including specimens from Mars and other planets. The ultimate goal is to deploy this technology on upcoming space missions, such as NASA’s upcoming mission to Mars next year, with the overarching objective of definitively detecting extraterrestrial life.
The researchers have outlined their approach, stating, “We have developed a robust method that combines pyrolysis GC-MS measurements of a wide variety of terrestrial and extra-terrestrial carbonaceous materials with machine-learning-based classification to achieve ~90% accuracy in the differentiation between samples of abiotic origins vs. biotic specimens, including highly-degraded, ancient, biologically-derived samples. Such discrimination points to underlying ‘rules of biochemistry’ that reflect the Darwinian imperative of biomolecular selection for function”.
The search for definitive biosignatures – unambiguous markers of past or present life – is a central goal of palaeobiology and astrobiology,” they added.
The newly developed AI tool by these experts can analyse provided data to differentiate between human and non-human samples, including specimens from Mars and other planets. The ultimate goal is to deploy this technology on upcoming space missions, such as NASA’s upcoming mission to Mars next year, with the overarching objective of definitively detecting extraterrestrial life.
The researchers have outlined their approach, stating, “We have developed a robust method that combines pyrolysis GC-MS measurements of a wide variety of terrestrial and extra-terrestrial carbonaceous materials with machine-learning-based classification to achieve ~90% accuracy in the differentiation between samples of abiotic origins vs. biotic specimens, including highly-degraded, ancient, biologically-derived samples. Such discrimination points to underlying ‘rules of biochemistry’ that reflect the Darwinian imperative of biomolecular selection for function”.
The search for definitive biosignatures – unambiguous markers of past or present life – is a central goal of palaeobiology and astrobiology,” they added.
