Researchers have spotted an apparent downside of smarter chatbots. Although AI models predictably become more accurate as they advance, they’re also more likely to (wrongly) answer questions beyond their capabilities rather than saying, “I don’t know.” And the humans prompting them are more likely to take their confident hallucinations at face value, creating a trickle-down effect of confident misinformation.
Mira Murati has departed OpenAI, where she had been the chief technology officer since 2018. In a note shared with the company and then posted publicly on X, Murati said that she is exiting "because I want to create the time and space to do my own exploration."
Boeing's Starliner capsule has undocked from the ISS at 6:04PM Eastern time on September 6 and has safely and gently landed at White Sands Space Harbor in New Mexico at 12:01AM on September 7. Calypso, as the capsule is called, didn't have a crew onboard despite flying to the ISS with astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore.
The Starliner is scheduled to undock from the International Space Station and to make its way back to Earth at 6:04PM Eastern time today, September 6. If the weather cooperates and the spacecraft leaves the ISS as planned, it will be landing at White Sands Space Harbor in New Mexico with the help of parachutes to slow its descent and inflated airbags at around 12:03AM ET on September 7.
Starliner is scheduled to undock from the International Space Station and make its return trip to Earth uncrewed in just a matter of days, but it apparently still has a few new mysteries left in it to throw at the team before it departs.
Researchers at Cornell University tapped into fungal mycelia to power a pair of proof-of-concept robots. Mycelia, the underground fungal network that can sprout mushrooms as its above-ground fruit, can sense light and chemical reactions and communicate through electrical signals. This makes it a novel component in hybrid robotics that could someday detect crop conditions otherwise invisible to humans.
Blue Origin’s New Glenn heavy-lift rocket and its Mars-bound NASA payload now have a tentative launch date.
Polaris Dawn, a private space mission that aims to complete the first-ever civilian spacewalk, is expected to launch this week.
After more than two months of tests and discussions, NASA has decided that astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams will come home in February 2025 on a SpaceX Crew Dragon, and the Boeing Starliner they flew to the International Space Station on in June will return uncrewed. In a press conference on Saturday, Steve Stich, manager for NASA's Commercial Crew Program, said “there was too much uncertainty” around the predictions for Starliner’s thrusters to move forward with a crewed return flight.
On August 24, NASA will finally announce how Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, the astronauts that flew to the ISS aboard Boeing's Starliner, will be coming home.