Later this yr, Replicate Orbital plans to launch a take a look at satellite tv for pc that may prolong an 18-by-18-meter mirror in orbit. The objective is to ultimately launch as much as 50,000 bigger satellites that may replicate daylight to Earth on demand.
Replicate Orbital says the know-how may prolong daylight for photo voltaic panel charging, emergency response, and navy actions. However new analysis suggests the enormous beams may shine as shiny as 10,000 full moons and scatter gentle over tens of kilometers, elevating issues about darkish skies, aviation, and wildlife.
Learn the total story on the fierce debate over the house mirrors.
—Jonathan O’Callaghan
When AI designs a drug, who will get the credit score?
When Insilico Medication used its pc fashions to suggest a promising drug for pulmonary fibrosis, it enthusiastically claimed that the molecule had been “found by” generative AI. However when it filed a patent, the corporate made no point out of AI. As a substitute, it named 5 people because the drug’s “inventors.”
The discrepancy factors to an enchanting wrinkle in intellectual-property regulation. Irrespective of how basic an AI is to a discovery, in terms of successful rights to an invention, it’s people—and solely people—who can take the credit score.
As AI fashions turn into able to producing drug designs as simply as ChatGPT can write a thank-you observe, the query of who truly invented one thing may get a lot tougher to reply.
Right here’s how AI drug discovery may power patent regulation to confront what it means to invent.

