Supermassive black holes are known to be enormous objects that gobble up stars and spit out the cosmic remnants across the universe. But astronomers have now detected one that has such tremendous power it has produced one of the brightest displays ever seen. The remote object, dubbed'Scary Barbie' in a nod to its'absurd' and'terrifying' characteristics, has already burned incandescently for more than two years and shows no sign of sputtering out. If you take a typical supernova and multiply it a thousand times, we're still not at how bright this is -- and supernovas are among the most luminous objects in the sky,' said Danny Milisavljevic, an assistant professor of physics and astronomy in Purdue University's College of Science. 'This is the most energetic phenomenon I have ever encountered.'

"What if A.I. does this? My dad never misses a chance to identify a pot calling a kettle black, except for when he himself is the pot; anyway, it is PEAK irony, isn't it? Breathlessly: "Oh no -- what if A.I. gets some harmful notion and it proliferates quickly throughout our reality, resulting in the irreversible onslaught of some horrifying, jackbooted digital tyranny, fanatically convinced of its own correctness and unreceptive to the finer nuances of compassion, reason, and chance?" Wouldn't THAT be a fucking bummer lmaooooooooooooooo! I've been messing about with ChatGPT, and here's what I can report so far. Most recently, I agreed to dial my friend's resume and cover letter for a sudden dream job opportunity, on short notice, in exchange for one of my favorite brand of dresses.

But whether or not they exist in reality, studying these hypothetical objects could be the key to making concrete the tantalizing link between information and matter that has bedeviled physicists for decades. Surprisingly, a quantum computer is an ideal platform to investigate this connection. The trick is to use a correspondence called AdS/CFT, which establishes an equivalence between a theory that describes gravity and spacetime (and wormholes) in a fictional world with a special geometry (AdS) to a quantum theory that does not contain gravity at all (CFT). In "Traversable wormhole dynamics on a quantum processor", published in Nature today, we report on a collaboration with researchers at Caltech, Harvard, MIT, and Fermilab to simulate the CFT on the Google Sycamore processor. By studying this quantum theory on the processor, we are able to leverage the AdS/CFT correspondence to probe the dynamics of a quantum system equivalent to a wormhole in a model of gravity.

A renowned theoretical computer science expert recently released an astonishing physics pre-print paper that tosses fuel on the fiery debate over… whether humans could use wormholes to traverse the universe or not. Don't worry, I'll explain what this has to do with self-aware robots in due course. First, however, let's lay the foundation for our speculation with a quick glance at this all-new wormhole theory. Tickets to TNW 2022 are available now! The pre-print paper comes courtesy of French researcher Pascal Koiran.

A renowned theoretical computer science expert recently released an astonishing physics pre-print paper that tosses fuel on the fiery debate over… whether humans could use wormholes to traverse the universe or not. Don't worry, I'll explain what this has to do with self-aware robots in due course. First, however, let's lay the foundation for our speculation with a quick glance at this all-new wormhole theory. The pre-print paper comes courtesy of French researcher Pascal Koiran. According to them, if you apply a different theoretical math metric to our understanding of gravity at the edge of a black hole, you get a different theoretical output.

Reprinted with permission from Quanta Magazine's Abstractions blog. Despite its ability to bend both minds and space, an Einsteinian black hole looks so simple a child could draw it. The point is the singularity, an infinitely dense, unimaginably small dot contorting space so radically that anything nearby falls straight in, leaving behind a vacuum. The spherical boundary marks the event horizon, the point of no return between the vacuum and the rest of the universe. But according to Einstein's theory of gravity, the event horizon isn't anything that an unlucky astronaut would immediately notice if she were to cross it.

Some even believe it could be infinite. Since space is so huge, studying it produces a massive amount of data. Big data and AI is coming together to help answer some of the greatest unanswered questions in cosmology and space exploration. The role of AI in space exploration is becoming increasingly vital. Recently a group of physicists, mathematicians, data scientists, and engineers was formed to take the first ever picture of the supermassive black hole, and machine learning plays an important role in the project.

The late Stephen Hawking's A Brief History of Time is one of history's least likely best-sellers. Yet the book was a pop-cultural phenomenon, selling more than 10 million copies and popularizing everything from advanced cosmological theories to the phrase "turtles all the way down." It was also adapted into a documentary of the same name by Errol Morris. A Brief History of Time (which is currently streamable on FilmStruck) was Morris' first major documentary after The Thin Blue Line and the first of his portrait films. Combining interviews with Hawking, his family, his friends, and his colleagues with clips from Disney's bizarre live-action sci-fi film The Black Hole, archival images, and, of course, a Philip Glass score, A Brief History of Time is the kind of film that only Morris could make. After Hawking's death on Wednesday, I called up Morris to talk about making the film, why Hawking was his generation's celebrity scientist, and their friendship, which continued for decades. Isaac Butler: What drew you to the book--or to Hawking--as a subject?

Stephen Hawking, the world-famous theoretical physicist, has died at the age of 76. Hawking's children, Lucy, Robert and Tim said in a statement: "We are deeply saddened that our beloved father passed away today. "He was a great scientist and an extraordinary man whose work and legacy will live on for many years. His courage and persistence with his brilliance and humour inspired people across the world. "He once said: 'It would not be much of a universe if it wasn't home to the people you love.' We will miss him for ever." The most recognisable scientist of our age, Hawking holds an iconic status.

Marketers in retail and ecommerce have big expectations for the impact of artificial intelligence on their sector, with 88% forecasting that it will reinvent the industry and 81% looking to AI to reinvent what their company does. But while big changes are ahead, only 11% of practitioners are classed as already AI marketing experts according to a new survey. This leading group has already shown excellence in its digital capabilities across strategy, organisation and technology. By contrast, 27% are classed as laggards and 28% as novices, with the rest opportunists. The event horizon when AI becomes mainstream seems likely to be late 2018 and, even then, most plans are focused on the automation of existing marketing activities, rather than innovative new ways of delivering the customer experience.