AI Hunt For Extraterrestrial Intelligence Finds 8 Promising Signals

Machine intelligence is helping astronomers analyse vast datasets from radio telescopes — and finding previously unseen signals of interest.

The Physics arXiv Blog iconThe Physics arXiv Blog
By The Physics arXiv Blog
Mar 8, 2023 5:15 PMMar 8, 2023 5:16 PM
Green Bank, West Virginia - October 15, 2017 - The Robert C. Byrd Green Bank Telescope (GBT) located at the Green Bank Observatory points skyward listening for signals from deep space.
(Credit:John M. Chase/Shutterstock)

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One of the great scientific projects of our time is the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence or SETI — the hunt for evidence of technologically advanced civilizations elsewhere in the galaxy. The current manifestation of this endeavor is the Breakthrough Listen Initiative, which uses radio telescopes to look for signals that cannot have a terrestrial origin.

The big challenge in this effort is combing through massive data sets — hundreds of hours of data at multiple frequencies. Researchers have found tens of millions of false positives in these datasets and so would dearly love a quicker way to filter out the weeds.

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