Researchers use AI to analyse cosmic explosions | BBC News - video Dailymotion

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#AI #Astronomy #BBCNews New research is being carried out using artificial intelligence (AI) to analyse cosmic explosions.  A type of AI known as machine learning will be used to make simulations of star explosions called supernovae, that release elements such as calcium and iron back into the universe.  The research by the University of Warwick aims to help astronomers understand more about why and how supernovae take place.  Subscribe here: http://bit.ly/1rbfUog  For more news, analysis and features visit: www.bbc.com/news   #AI #Astronomy #BBCNews

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00:00AI Decoder, the show where we take a deep dive into the world of artificial intelligence and

00:10today we're going to be gazing into the skies and taking a look at how artificial intelligence is

00:15helping to revolutionize astronomy. The latest AI machine learning software can now identify

00:21objects from telescope images such as stars and galaxies as well as aiding the discovery of new

00:27celestial objects. As the technology advances AI algorithms are becoming essential in helping

00:34astronomers tame massive data sets and make new discoveries about the universe such as this

00:41long-lost cosmic blast buried within two decades of NASA's Chandra x-ray telescope data. Astronomers

00:48used AI to make a rare needle in the haystack discovery of an extremely powerful explosion

00:54from an unknown object outside our galaxy. So could AI help astronomers identify the mysterious

01:01three-eye atlas object currently hurtling through our solar system? Well tonight we will show you

01:07an AI generated film of how one filmmaker is imagining the interstellar journey of this intergalactic

01:16visitor. However, some people are warning not to rely too heavily on AI in astronomy. An international

01:23team of researchers had used AI to clean up an image of the supermassive black hole Sagittarius

01:30A star at the centre of our galaxy. Artificial intelligence was believed to help create a much clearer image

01:39of the black hole. However, scientists say what we could be seeing is just a distortion created by

01:46artificial intelligence. So lots of questions there to answer and with me now to answer them

01:53hopefully is Dr Jennifer Millard who's an astronomer at Fifth Star Labs and host of the awesome

01:59astronomy podcast. Welcome to you and we're also welcoming back our regular AI contributor Samir

02:06Millard, CEO of the AI Creative Company One Day. Welcome to you too. Thank you. Good to have you

02:13both with us. Well just before we talk to our guests and begin our discussion let's just delve a bit

02:19deeper and take a look at one of the stories that we just mentioned there. The mystery interstellar

02:24object currently hurtling through our solar system and here is an AI generated film imagining the object's

02:31journey through space.

02:48I was born far from here in silence and cold in a home I would never see again

02:57a quiet ache the sense that you no longer belong where you began. I did ask to leave I was torn from home

03:19into the dark between stars. I wandered no maps no orders only time cold and quiet I watched stars get

03:29burned to fire I saw them die in silence and I left it all mark only little glimmers

03:36I was here

03:40You gave me a day

03:47To migrate is not to lose yourself it's to carry you home with you in fragments of fire

03:59And to hope that someone somewhere sees you

04:29toot the other forms this time in the sun that comes for it. It says it was. It says if you leave your mind

04:33to down an island, make sure you leave the road wherever you wish because your son lives. Take care

04:38And if you'reרת sin you. You've got any visto happen to your body?

04:42Your skin, whereas if it looks like the waters, it looks like the waters of the stars the Tyree

04:50nature of the sky...

04:52You've got a spike

04:54well that is pretty impressive let's uh discuss it then with dr jennifer millard as i said an

05:06astronomer at fifth fifth star labs um and also samir malal of the ai creative company one day

05:13and you put that together i think it took you a couple of weeks yes i mean some people might

05:18say that would take months and months to make how do you do it it it would it would so you know

05:24it's a combination of the the tools that are now available uh but also our talent as creatives

05:31our experience our uh our knowledge uh you know and our ability to to use these tools to make stuff

05:39that would have been impossible before i mean it looks like a hollywood movie it does you know

05:43exactly and look if you if you made this with a traditional vfx company or a studio i mean it

05:49would cost at minimum you know two million dollars and probably take six months or a year

05:54jennifer as an astronomer what are your feelings about that kind of visualization i mean i know

06:00you've just had a quick look at it there but i mean how accurate is it do you think it sort of

06:05corresponds to reality i think there are certain elements in there which were definitely accurate

06:09i think some was taking a little bit of artistic license but i think that's what we have to do

06:14when you're generating this kind of footage is realize it's a crossover between science and art

06:19so you want to get it correct but you also then want to let the imagination and the beauty shine

06:24through and the truth is we don't know a lot about this object yet so certainly a little bit of

06:29artistic license i think is yeah and maybe actually artistic license isn't a terrible idea because i mean

06:35quite a lot of astronomy is quite theoretical it's quite mind-boggling it's quite hard to get your head

06:40around and if you can visualize it maybe it makes it easier for people to understand it's true and

06:45you know what we're really interested in is using um generative technology to create new kinds of

06:51storytelling forms right and um you know young people don't engage with the news the way their

06:58parents did i mean that's a fact but yet they are hungry for uh knowing about the world and seeing

07:04different perspectives and so what i find really exciting about ai and generative storytelling is

07:09you can tell a an amazing story like this that that has meaning that that has a soul that has

07:16that has a you know a creative uh fidelity um but we can get it out there within the same news cycle

07:24that's so exciting this is cinematic news this is something that never existed before jennifer what

07:30else do you think i mean maybe it's hard to say but can you imagine what else ai could do

07:35to sort of unlock the secrets of the universe not only portray the secrets of the universe but to

07:40sort of actually unlock them yeah i mean we're using ai and astronomy in almost every field it was used

07:46to help find this object in the first place the data was captured and it was sent off to computers

07:52they analyzed it within minutes looking for a little moving dot across the sky that was not

07:58registered before something a little bit different and then they flag it to the astronomers and say

08:02hey you should probably have a look at this and we're doing it finding exoplanets trying to

08:07understand black holes gravitational waves computers are necessary in the big era of uh data and so

08:15that's just going to increase isn't it exponentially that use of ai yeah discovering more and more about

08:21the universe yeah so the vera c rubin observatory is a beautiful example of this it's just coming

08:26online now they're commissioning it and we had the first pictures from it just a couple of weeks ago

08:30and that is generating enough data to fill my iphone so i've got a 256 gigabytes iphone it fills that 80

08:37times over every single night with data we can't handle that there's not enough hands so the data goes

08:43off from chile to california it's broken down it's analyzed them by the computers and they get it into

08:49something that we can actually handle and work with and samir just give us an idea do you think

08:54your ability to portray this kind of thing is going to get more and more sophisticated with ai are we

09:01just in the foothills at the moment yeah we're we're you know we're in the iphone 2 stage of ai

09:07so i can't even fathom what it's going to be like in even a year from now you know i started working in

09:13ai two years ago it's it's already progressed a lot more than i thought it would and so in addition

09:21to the technology there's also the process and i think one of the things that a lot of artists are

09:26afraid of is that ai threatens their livelihood but also their process and what i would sort of

09:31counter that with and say well look these tools are here and and in fact they're they're beyond

09:37tools they're like a platform they're like electricity that's what sam altman calls ai and

09:42i think that's a really good way to look at it because what you can do is then build all kinds of

09:46things on top of that and what we can do now is have new systems you know i want to usher in an

09:50era of punk rock creativity i want to be my own studio i want to go out there and make stuff which

09:55is what we've done and you know if if i had to get this made in the traditional way it would take

10:01years and and so it's it's amazing that we can do this now and and i said what you've made looks a

10:07bit like a hollywood movie but that is why some people in the movie making business and another

10:11creative industries are worried aren't they because they think oh it's so easy for people like you to make

10:16this kind of stuff well yeah but it's a big difference with people like us who are who have

10:20been artists and creators and and you know learning how to write for 20 years and direct and you know

10:26it's it's there's a huge difference between someone like us or me doing it versus you know a kid who's

10:32just starting out you know if you if you give uh a 25 year old film student a camera and you give

10:38scorsese the same camera i don't think you're going to get the same film yeah good point um jennifer just

10:44how do you think going forward ai is going to affect the world of astronomy um because i mean

10:50we're just saying we're in the foothills this is yeah this is like an iphone 2 not other other other

10:56smart devices are available i should say yeah um but i mean do you just see this increasing

11:01exponentially in your world of astronomy yeah absolutely it has to because the amount of data

11:07that we're getting is extraordinary we just can't handle it with people anymore and so we need to use

11:12the computing systems the ai the machine learning algorithms in order to make the data handleable so

11:18then we can make the discoveries and that's the key is you know the computers will spit out the data

11:23and they'll say this looks interesting but then it's the astronomers who are actually doing the

11:27scientific investigation still great to have you both with us really fascinating we could talk for

11:32hours but dr jennifer millard and samir malal thank you very much thanks thank you uh that's it we're

11:38out of time join us again next time on ai decoded

11:41you

Researchers use AI to analyse cosmic explosions | BBC News

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