Scientists Found 8 Potential Alien Radio Signals Using AI

Although scientists believe the signals are probably due to Earthly interference, they hope artificial intelligence will be a powerful tool moving forward in the search for extraterrestrial intelligence.

A photograph of radio telescopes directed at the night sky at sunset. Source: sdecoret, via Shutterstock.

The search for extraterrestrial intelligence, or SETI, is a scientific endeavor to find evidence of intelligent life beyond Earth. This has been a topic of great interest and speculation for centuries. Still, it was only in the last few decades that technology and scientific understanding have advanced enough to make the search a realistic possibility.

Artificial intelligence is a radical new technology that has been a transformative force in many fields, and perhaps SETI will be next. On January 30, 2023, an international team of researchers announced that they developed an artificial intelligence algorithm to help answer the question: Are we alone in the Universe? Using their new technique, the researchers analyzed a previous dataset of radio signals collected from 820 nearby stars and found 8 potential signals of interest that were previously missed using older techniques. Although the signals have not yet been confirmed and further follow-up investigation is underway, the team’s early…