AI can accurately detect signs of alien life with 90% accuracy.

Scientists have made a major breakthrough in the search for alien life. They have developed a new method that uses Artificial Intelligence (AI) to determine with 90% accuracy if a sample is biological or non-biological.

This simple and reliable test could revolutionise the search for life on other planets. According to Professor Robert Hazen from the Carnegie Institution’s Geophysical Laboratory and George Mason University in the US, “This is a significant advance in our abilities to recognise biochemical signs of life on other worlds. It opens the way to using smart sensors on unmanned spaceships to search for signs of life.”

Dr Hazen also added that this test has the potential to deepen our understanding of the origin and chemistry of the earliest life on Earth. It could also help reveal the history of mysterious, ancient rocks on Earth, and perhaps even samples already collected by the Mars Curiosity Rover’s Sample Analysis at Mars instrument.

The method does not rely on identifying a specific molecule or group of compounds in a sample. Instead, the researchers demonstrated that AI can differentiate between living and non-living samples by detecting subtle differences within a sample’s molecular patterns.

The scientists used Nasa flight-tested methods to analyse 134 varied carbon-rich samples from living cells, age-degraded samples, geologically processed fossil fuels, carbon-rich meteorites, and laboratory-made organic compounds and mixtures. The results showed that the new test was able to predict the abiotic or biotic nature of the sample with around 90% accuracy.

Surprisingly, the new method even detected signs of biology preserved in some instances over hundreds of millions of years. This means that it should be able to detect alien biochemistries, as well as Earth life.

The findings have been published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, and this could be the beginning of a major breakthrough in the search for extra-terrestrial life. As Professor Hazen stated, “We may be able to find a lifeform from another planet, another biosphere, even if it is very different from the life we know on Earth.”

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