We could spot a new type of black hole thanks to a mirror-wobbling AI

Efforts to understand the universe could get a boost from an AI developed by Google DeepMind. The algorithm, which can reduce unwanted noise by up to 100 times, could allow the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) to spot a particular type of black hole that has so far eluded us. LIGO is designed to detect the gravitational waves produced when objects such as black holes spiral into each other and collide. These waves cross the universe at the speed of light, but the fluctuations they cause in space-time are extremely small – 10,000 times smaller than the nucleus of an atom. Since its first observations 10 years ago, LIGO has recorded such signals produced by nearly 100 black hole collisions.