November 2023

📩 Subscribe to get a summary of the latest science and tech news delivered straight to your inbox every month!

Big News
AI drama dominates headlines.
Another month has passed in 2023 and once again artificial intelligence (AI) takes centre stage. In the business world drama unfolded on November 17 when OpenAI (the company behind ChatGPT) announced the termination of CEO Sam Altman's. The subsequent days could be described as chaotic at best – Altman was removed, replaced, and then reinstated, all in the space of five days. While this situation developed, almost every OpenAI employee threatened to quit, the company underwent two interim CEO changes, and Microsoft tried to establish its own AI arm under Altman's leadership. The cause of the drama remains unclear and the situation that has dominated headlines is still ongoing. This turmoil has overshadowed some other developments in AI policy this month as the UK published the first global guidelines for securing AI systems against cyberattacks. These guidelines, aimed at ensuring the safe and secure development of AI technology, were collaboratively crafted by the UK's National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) and the US' Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA). So far the guideline has been endorsed by 17 other countries, including all G7 members. At the very least this suggests that governments are aware of the increasing risk that AI could play as the technology continues to develop.

COVID inquiry continues to highlight the government's failure.
This month also saw headlines about the UK's public inquiry into the government's COVID-19 response. Originally announced by former Prime Minister Boris Johnson, the inquiry aims to shed light on the decision-making that took place during the pandemic. The inquiry has been going since October, with key figures providing public statements and giving evidence. England's chief medical officer, Prof Chris Whitty, his former deputy Prof ir Jonathan Van-Tam, and former chief scientific adviser Patrick Vallance revealed significant tensions between their advice to the government and its political priorities. Baroness Hallett, leading the inquiry, expressed her intention to publish the inquiry report "as soon as possible," aiming for early summer 2024. The inquiry still has a long way to go and will continue well into 2024, but speople are already drawing conclusions about the questionable political judgments and decisions that, in defiance of expert warnings, may have cost thousands of lives.

Littles News
Powerful high energy particles strike Earth's atmosphere.
Astronomers have detected a rare, extraordinarily high-energy particle as it descended to Earth earlier this month - from what appears to be empty space. Named the Amaterasu particle, after the sun goddess in Japanese mythology, this ultra-high-energy cosmic ray was first identified in 2021. The particle had an energy level surpassing 240 exa-electronvolts (EeV); it is thought that only massive cosmic events of immense magnitude can generate particles with this much energy. This amount of energy has only ever been exceeded by the Oh-My-God particle, another ultra-high-energy cosmic ray, measuring 320 EeV, which was detected in 1991. Thus far researchers aren’t sure how the Amaterasu particle was generated, but it appears to have originated from a Local Void, a vacant region of space bordering the Milky Way galaxy. The researchers involved hope that trying to solve the mysterious source of the particle will open new avenues of investigation into ultra-high-energy cosmic particles.

What I’ve been enjoying
Avengers Reassemble. This month has been a little hectic and I haven’t had much time for my usual hobbies, but I did carve out a chunk of time to re-watch Avengers: Infinity War and Endgame. I’d forgotten just how enjoyable those films are. There is an argument that they rest too heavily on what came before them, which is understandable given that the Marvel Cinematic Universe spent over a decade building itself up. And, like many people, I have lost interest in some of the recent MCU projects because of franchise fatigue. Regardless of my current feelings, rewatching the Avengers films reminds me that there are some moments that will always bring a smile to my face - no matter how many times I watch them.

P.S: If you want to read more content from me then check out my recent fiction work available now for free on Medium or my fiction archive.