AI Could Potentially Help Us Understand Alien Language in the Future

We have been searching for signs of extraterrestrials, and several experts are convinced that artificial intelligence (AI) may be used to make the task easier. They anticipate aliens to have a different language, and AI may help us understand them.

AI Will Help Us Understand Aliens

We might need artificial intelligence (AI) to assist us in grasping the extraterrestrials' language and, possibly, talk back to them if the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI) is successful. Aliens speaking English or being instantly understood by a magical universal translator are commonplace in popular culture. It might not be so simple in reality.

Think about the potential issues. The first is that any prospective aliens we meet won't speak a language similar to ours. The second would be our ignorance of the aliens' sociology or culture; even if we could translate, we might not comprehend the significance of their cultural touchstones.

The information content of any given communication can be distilled using information theory. Claude Shannon, a mathematician and cryptographer who worked at Bell Labs in New Jersey in the late 1940s, concluded that any form of information transmission could be divided into discrete units, or bits, including human language, chemical exhalations from plants that draw predators to eat caterpillars on their leaves, and data transmission down fiber optic cables. These are comparable to the 'quanta' of communication, such as the letters of the alphabet or the variety of whistles used by dolphins.

These components of language cannot simply go in any order. The grammatical rules that specify how the bits can be organized are described by syntax. For instance, in English, "q" is always followed by "u." Only a few letter combinations' for quack, 'ar' for quark, 'ic' for swift, and 'ir' for quirk- are known to be able to fill the gap in the word "qu--k.". However, if the word appears in a sentence, such as "The duck went qu--k," we can infer from the context that the missing letters are "ac."

We can fill in the blanks by knowing the rules or syntax.

Shannon entropy is the measure of the quantity that is absent but still enables us to complete a word or sentence, and due to their complexity, human languages have the highest Shannon entropy of any known form of natural communication on the planet.

If alien communication has a Shannon entropy significantly higher than human language, it may be too difficult for humans to understand. Perhaps not, though, for AI.

AI is already being tested to comprehend non-human animals' communication. If AI succeeds in that test, it may be equipped to handle any future messages from extraterrestrials.

AI To Make Search For Aliens Easier?

Last month, a team of scientists led by Carnegie's Robert Hazen and visiting scholar Jim Cleaves of the Tokyo Institute of Technology and the Blue Marble Space Institute for Science recently discovered an accurate test for signs of life on other planets with 90% accuracy.

Their technique, based on artificial intelligence, distinguished between samples of biological origin from the present and the past. The new test accurately determines if anything that was ever living has ever been a part of a sample's past.

Hazen claims that this widely used analytical method can revolutionize the search for extraterrestrial life and increase our understanding of the chemistry and origin of the first life on Earth. It enables intelligent sensors on robotic spacecraft, rovers, and landers to look for signs of life before the samples are transmitted to Earth.

Additionally, AI was recently used to produce the potential images of aliens if they arrive on Earth in 2050 and 2100. Based on the results, the extraterrestrials would have a striking resemblance to humans. They have proportional mouths, noses, and eyes but with a head projecting backward and human-like collar bones.

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