Human and Artificial Intelligence 'Cyborg' Discovers 40,000 New Galaxies

Researchers are set to disclose new findings that demonstrate the collaboration of human and artificial intelligence.

This week, Dr. Mike Walmsley from the University of Manchester and the Galaxy Zoo Collaboration will present the new results at the National Astronomy Meeting. Notably, the researchers refer to this combined AI and human method as a "cyborg." 

According to reports, Walmsley utilized a decade of Galaxy Zoo observations to construct a new artificial intelligence program called Zoobot, which is capable of recognizing crucial indicators that signify a chaotic event over the lifespan of a galaxy.

Currently, human volunteers search the Galaxy Zoo website and identify these markers, but owing to the vastness of the cosmos and its many variations, people have more work than they can handle. To be able to draw a definitive line between a chaotic occurrence and the galaxy that produced it, a large number of people must filter through tens of thousands of photos. Here, Zoobot comes into play.

35 newly discovered ring-shaped galaxies.

The new AI program is not only capable of recognizing these indicators, but it can also precisely anticipate what human participants would say if the AI made an error. More than 40,000 uncommon ring-shaped galaxies have been identified by humans and AI so far, which is six times more than was previously known. 

Moreover, ring galaxies are old; in fact, it takes billions of years for the rings to develop. With this new finding, scientists will be able to understand more about the evolution of these ancient celestial entities.

Zoobot is also capable of improvement, since the AI may learn to respond to new queries put to it. Walmsley argues that the AI is able to accomplish this because it has been trained to respond to more than fifty distinct inquiries.

Reference(s): Phys.org