AI genome scanner says Denisovans could live until 38 years old

Artificial intelligence may be able to work out the maximum lifespans of extinct species and early humans. The technique relies on analysing specific regions of DNA that are linked to ageing. Benjamin Mayne at CSIRO, a research organisation in Australia, and his colleagues built an AI to predict the lifespan of different animals. To this the team first trained an AI on the known genomes of 252 species from five classes of animals, including mammals, reptiles and fish, and their maximum lifespans. The AI then narrowed down almost 30,000 DNA regions to just 42 that related to lifespan. This was then used to create a formula that can convert these 42 regions into a prediction of maximum lifespan.