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NASA has released details from its unidentified anomalous phenomena (a term to describe UFOs that can't be identified) study. When the study started a year ago, NASA set out to identify "how data gathered by civilian government entities, commercial data, and data from other sources can potentially be analysed to shed light on UAPs." They went on to highlight that Thursday's report (14 September) "is not a review or assessment of previous unidentifiable observations." Here are five major things we learned from the 36-page report: NASA should be more proactive when it comes to UFOs The report suggests that the space agency should use better techniques and vices when searching for UAPs. They said the current UAP detection is "often serendipitous," and captured by sensors "that were not designed or calibrated for this purpose, and which lack comprehensive metadata." This means the origin of several UAPs "remain uncertain". "The importance of detecting UAP with multiple, well-calibrated sensors is thus paramount, and accordingly we recommend that Nasa leverage its considerable expertise in this domain to potentially utilize multispectral or hyperspectral data as part of a rigorous data acquisition campaign," they wrote. Many 'credible witnesses' have reported UFOs The report revealed that many "credible" reports of "objects they did not recognise over US airspace" have come through from witnesses, "often military aviators". "Most of these events have since been explained, but a small handful cannot be immediately identified as known human-made or natural phenomena," it read. It noted that one of the problems when it comes to such sightings is that "the data needed to explain these anomalous sightings often do not exist." They added: "This includes eyewitness reports, which on their own can be interesting and compelling, but are not reproducible and usually lack the information needed to make any definitive conclusions." 'No reason to conclude' UFOs are alien While the report disclaimed the galaxy "does not stop at the outskirts of the solar system," it stressed there is "no reason to conclude" that UFO sightings are alien. "Many of NASA's science missions are, at least in part, focused on answering the question of whether life exists beyond Earth," it read. "Those investigations include missions looking for biosignatures, perhaps on Mars or the icy moons orbiting Jupiter and Saturn - as well as farther afield, in the ratios of molecules present in exoplanet atmospheres. "Searching for signs of alien technology is a natural extension of those investigations." It adds: "If we recognise the plausibility of any of these, then we should recognise that all are at least plausible." Satellites could potentially be used in the search for aliens "NASA is in an excellent position to contribute to UAP studies within the broader whole-of-government framework," they wrote, going on to explore the potential role of the "US commercial remote-sensing industry" which they say "offers a potent mix of Earth-observing satellites that offer imagery at sub- to several-meter spatial resolution, which is well-matched to the typical spatial scales of known UAP [UFOs]". They continued: "Such commercial constellations could offer a powerful complement to the detection and study of UAP when coincident collection occurs." Artificial intelligence could also help the hunt for aliens "The panel finds that artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) are essential tools for identifying rare occurrences, potentially including UAP, within vast datasets," they wrote. "However, these powerful techniques will only work on well-characterized data gathered with respect to strong standards." They went on to note that the public "is also a critical aspect of understanding UAP". There's a lot more to learn "The top takeaway from the study is that there is a lot more to learn," NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said while releasing the report. "The NASA independent study team did not find any evidence that UAP have an extraterrestrial origin, but we don't know what these UAP are." Sign up for our free Indy100 weekly newsletter Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

A range of sporting venues and tourism hotspots across the UK are to be the settings for trials of new types of 5G mobile technology as part of an £88 million Government scheme. Nineteen projects and locations from around the country will host trials of Open RAN mobile tech, which enables different network providers’ equipment to work together to boost mobile coverage, rather than each only working with their own. The locations for the trials include urban centres in Glasgow, Cambridge, Liverpool, Bath, and the City of London, sporting and entertainment venues such as the Principality Stadium in Cardiff and Sunderland’s Stadium of Light, as well as the seaside resorts of Blackpool and Worthing. Whether you’re in a busy city centre or a rural village, a fast and reliable mobile connection is vital to staying in touch, accessing services and doing business Sir John Whittingdale The projects have been chosen via the Government’s Open Networks Ecosystem (ONE) Competition, which has looked for schemes to demonstrate new ways of building fast, dependable mobile networks in busy places. Data and digital infrastructure minister Sir John Whittingdale said: “Whether you’re in a busy city centre or a rural village, a fast and reliable mobile connection is vital to staying in touch, accessing services and doing business. “In order to secure that, we need to embrace a diverse and secure range of technology that will underpin the network. “The projects we’re backing today with £88 million in Government research and development investment will use innovative Open RAN solutions to make our mobile networks more adaptable and resilient, with future-proofed technology to support bringing lightning-fast connections across the country for many years to come.” The UK’s major mobile network operators – BT/EE, Three, Virgin Media O2, and Vodafone – have endorsed the Government’s plans around more open mobile networks as a way of boosting infrastructure resilience as well as competition. Hamish MacLeod, chief executive of industry body Mobile UK, said: “The development of open and interoperable RAN solutions is important to the UK’s mobile industry. “This announcement highlights Mobile UK’s member operators’ ongoing R&D trial and deployment programmes, helping progress solutions to realise ambitions to grow traffic over open RAN architecture.” Read More Charity boss speaks out over ‘traumatic’ encounter with royal aide Ukraine war’s heaviest fight rages in east - follow live

Bots such as ChatGPT may be able to outperform humans at certain creative thinking tasks, scientists believe. Researchers have found that artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots are capable of a skill known as divergent thinking – a spontaneous thought process or method used to generate creative ideas by exploring many possible solutions. When assessed with a type of divergent thinking exercise known as alternate uses tasks, which asks a person to think of as many uses as possible for a simple object, chatbots, on average, performed better than humans. However, the researchers also found that the best human ideas still matched or exceeded those that came from AI. Simone Grassini, associate professor in the department of psychosocial science at the University of Bergen, and Cognitive and Behavioural Neuroscience Lab at the University of Stavanger, in Norway, told the PA news agency: “Indeed, this is a remarkable type of ability that AI chatbots display. “The findings show that AI is better than most humans in creative thinking. The findings show that AI is better than most humans in creative thinking Prof Simone Grassini “But we should also remember that we used the divergent thinking task to measure creative thinking, that is, measuring a particular type of creative thinking and not creativity in general. “Our results show that, at least for now, the best humans still outperform the AI.” For the study, published in the journal Scientific Reports, Prof Grassini and her colleague Mika Koivisto, of the department of psychology at the University of Turku, in Turku, Finland, assigned alternate uses tasks for four objects – a rope, a box, a pencil and a candle – to 256 human volunteers and three AI chatbots – ChatGPT3, ChatGPT4, and Copy.Ai. The responses were rated on semantic distance – looking at how closely related the response was to the object’s original use – and creativity. The team said that on average, chatbot-generated responses scored significantly higher than the human responses for both semantic distance and creativity. The best human response outperformed each chatbot’s best response in seven out of eight scoring categories – however responses from people had a higher proportion of poor-quality ideas, the researchers added. Prof Grassini said: “Playing around with ChatGPT, I noticed that some of the answers given by the chatbot displayed a good level of creativity. “I knew that the chatbot would have performed well, but I think it performed even better than what I expected.” The researchers said that while their work highlights the potential of AI as a tool to enhance creativity, it also underscores the unique and complex nature of human creativity that may be difficult to fully replicate or surpass with AI technology. Prof Grassini said: “It is still to be established whether these capabilities of AI will translate directly on AI systems, replacing human jobs that require creative thinking. “I prefer to think that AI will be helping humans to improve their capacity.” Read More Charity boss speaks out over ‘traumatic’ encounter with royal aide Ukraine war’s heaviest fight rages in east - follow live Information Commissioner urges people to share data to protect at-risk children Long-form video content is here to stay, says YouTube UK boss Robotic dog brought into survey historic Cold War weapons testing facilities

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By Diane Bartz WASHINGTON The Justice Department will press its argument Thursday that Google sought to strike agreements

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Nasa cannot yet explain all of the mysterious sightings that have been spotted in the sky, a major new report has said. A panel assembled by the space agency to examine Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena, or UAPs, said that more and better data is required to be able to explain them. :: Follow our live blog on the Nasa report here. Recently, a number of people – primarily military pilots – have said they have spotted unrecognisable objects over the US. While some have been explained as having known natural or human-made causes, some continue to defy explanation. To better understand where those still mysterious phenomena are coming from, the space agency’s panel urged it to come up with “a rigorous, evidence-based, data-driven scientific framework” to better examine and understand them. Some of that can be done by Nasa, it said, and the space agency should play a “prominent role”. But the research must be done across the US government. Nicola Fox, the associate administrator of Nasa’s Science Mission Directorate, says begins the report by saying that UAPs are “one of our planet’s greatest mysteries”. “Observations of objects in our skies that cannot be identified as balloons, aircraft, or natural known phenomena have been spotted worldwide, yet there are limited high-quality observations,” she writes. “The nature of science is to explore the unknown, and data is the language scientists use to discover our universe’s secrets. “Despite numerous accounts and visuals, the absence of consistent, detailed, and curated observations means we do not presently have the body of data needed to make definitive, scientific conclusions about UAP.” Read More Nasa’s UFO study team reveals first ever report: Live updates Information Commissioner urges people to share data to protect at-risk children iPhone 12 is not emitting dangerous radiation, Apple says, amid fears of Europe ban