Artificial intelligence helps track down mysterious cosmic radio bursts

[ichingcarpenter]

Artificial intelligence helps track down mysterious cosmic radio bursts
September 10, 2018, University of California - Berkeley


Artificial intelligence is invading many fields, most recently astronomy and the search for intelligent life in the universe, or SETI.

Researchers at Breakthrough Listen, a SETI project led by the University of California, Berkeley, have now used machine learning to discover 72 new fast radio bursts from a mysterious source some 3 billion light years from Earth.

Fast radio bursts are bright pulses of radio emission mere milliseconds in duration, thought to originate from distant galaxies. The source of these emissions is still unclear, however. Theories range from highly magnetized neutron stars blasted by gas streams from a nearby supermassive black hole, to suggestions that the burst properties are consistent with signatures of technology developed by an advanced civilization.

"This work is exciting not just because it helps us understand the dynamic behavior of fast radio bursts in more detail, but also because of the promise it shows for using machine learning to detect signals missed by classical algorithms," said Andrew Siemion, director of the Berkeley SETI Research Center and principal investigator for Breakthrough Listen, the initiative to find signs of intelligent life in the universe.

Breakthrough Listen is also applying the successful machine-learning algorithm to find new kinds of signals that could be coming from extraterrestrial civilizations.

While most fast radio bursts are one-offs, the source here, FRB 121102, is unique in emitting repeated bursts. This behavior has drawn the attention of many astronomers hoping to pin down the cause and the extreme physics involved in fast radio bursts.

The AI algorithms dredged up the radio signals from data were recorded over a five-hour period on Aug. 26, 2017, by the Green Bank Telescope in West Virginia. An earlier analysis of the 400 terabytes of data employed standard computer algorithms to identify 21 bursts during that period. All were seen within one hour, suggesting that the source alternates between periods of quiescence and frenzied activity, said Berkeley SETI postdoctoral researcher Vishal Gajjar.

UC Berkeley Ph.D. student Gerry Zhang and collaborators subsequently developed a new, powerful machine-learning algorithm and reanalyzed the 2017 data, finding an additional 72 bursts not detected originally. This brings the total number of detected bursts from FRB 121102 to around 300 since it was discovered in 2012.



Read more at: https://phys.org/news/2018-09-artifi...osmic.html#jCp

[Deux Corbeaux]

Extremely interesting use of AI.

[5th]

I'm not sure this is AI in the true meaning of the phrase because, strictly speaking, AI does not exist in the public domain. It seems to be common for publicity purposes to call any sophisticated computer program AI when it certainly would not past tests for the definition of 'intelligence' and would fool nobody it was anything other than programming.

Real AI would have made the decision to investigate in its own way and not simply follow the instructions it was given. One of the definitions of intelligence is the ability to adapt to changed circumstances without the specific possible changes already having been programmed in. If you create a huge program code covering all possibilities so that it can adapt, this is still not AI, it is simply thorough programming. As I said, nothing in the public domain is really AI despite the term being used for publicity/financial gain.

And of course, AI is used for fear propaganda...

[Star Tsar]

Nemesis Maturity audio visual reportage...

Posted by Star Tsar (here)
Nemesis Maturity

Astronomers Have Detected A Futher Seventy Two Fast Radio Bursts

Published 12th September 2018

The Breakthrough Listen Initiative, An astronomical program searching for the signs of intelligent life in the universe has employed AI to find a further seventy two new fast radio bursts.

Read all about it here: https://breakthroughinitiatives.org/news/22

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=3cJCHdHxLSk

[Bo Atkinson]

Posted by 5th (here)
… it certainly would not past tests for the definition of 'intelligence' and would fool nobody ….

Quick dictionary checking, hmm… Generally: “to acquire and apply knowledge and skills” Can machines acquire and apply memory?

Posted by 5th (here)
Real AI would have made the decision to investigate in its own way

‘“it’s own way” … A ‘way’ could be programing, no?

Posted by 5th (here)
…the definitions of intelligence is the ability to adapt to changed circumstances without the specific possible changes already having been programmed in….

Can not software programs adapt to change? Furthermore, humans can otherwise fail to adapt to change, or misread, or disagree with changes?

Posted by 5th (here)
being used for publicity/financial gain.

And of course, AI is used for fear propaganda...

These i agree with! May i suggest that truth in your earlier comments apply if the word ‘will’ is used, instead. Where a human may have the faculty of will, a machine has no circuitry or transducers to affect will. Science sponsors have not funded research of “the faculty of will”, as far as i googled just now. I doubt there is a money lure here. Only individual intellect and otherwise, ancient wisdom, provides insights on the faculty of will, certainly no technocratic sponsors have promoted artificial will power. They want to dominate inferior will with their private will.

[Star Tsar]

More discovered

Posted by Star Tsar (here)
Square Kilometre Array

SKA Precursor Telescope ASKAP Discovers Twenty New Fast Radio Bursts

Published 11th October 2018



Researchers using the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (ASKAP) telescope have nearly doubled the known number of ‘fast radio bursts’ powerful flashes of radio waves from deep space.

The team’s discoveries include the closest and brightest fast radio bursts ever detected. Their findings were reported yesterday in the journal Nature.

Read all about it here: https://www.icrar.org/wp-content/upl...ithfigures.pdf

Project Scientist Evan Keane talks about the significance of the discovery of 20 new Fast Radio Bursts - doubling the known number of these mysterious objects.

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=nZOvWCX0nhs

[ExomatrixTV]

A.I. is Progressing Faster Than You Think!
https://projectavalon.net/forum4/show...han-You-Think-