Tech
If the Webb telescope detects these molecules, they may point to life
Considering humans don't have a spacecraft capable of traveling to planets beyond the solar system, scientists have to get creative if they want to find clues of life existing light-years away.
Now a group of scientists is proposing a new way for astronomers to look for signs of aliens using the James Webb Space Telescope, a collaboration of NASA and the European and Canadian space agencies: look for methyl halides.
These gases — composed of carbon, hydrogen, and a halogen, like chlorine — are mostly made by bacteria, algae, fungi, and plants. The chemicals are particularly intriguing as a potential sign of life because they can be detected in infrared light, which is Webb's viewing specialty.
Furthermore, scientists think the gases may show up in higher concentrations around worlds with hydrogen-thick atmospheres, a type of planet Webb scientists are hunting for. These worlds, thought to have seas, are called "Hycean," combining the words "hydrogen" and "ocean." They would be among a class of planets called sub-Neptunes: smaller than Neptune but larger than Earth.
Their larger size is what makes them easier targets to observe than small rocky worlds like Earth.
"One of the great benefits of looking for methyl halides is you could potentially find them in as few as 13 hours with James Webb. That is similar or lower, by a lot, to how much telescope time you’d need to find gases like oxygen or methane," said Michaela Leung, a planetary scientist at the University of California in Riverside, in a statement. "Less time with the telescope means it’s less expensive."
Credit: Pablo Carlos Budassi illustration
The paper, published in Astrophysical Journal Letters, follows a controversial study in 2023, wherein another team used Webb to study the planet K2-18 b's atmosphere and found a tenuous, unconfirmed chemical signal for dimethyl sulfide gas. That molecule is produced by phytoplankton, or microalgae, in Earth's waters, and because it's believed the substance is only produced by living things, the previous team suggested it could be an indication of life.
The report created a lot of hubbub among habitable world experts. Skeptics criticized the weakness of the signal and other claims in the research, such as the belief that the planet is a water world with a hydrogen-rich atmosphere. The team was convinced it was a Hycean world because Webb detected other molecules, such as methane and carbon dioxide, and no signs of ammonia, consistent with predictions for these planets.
Credit: NASA / ESA / CSA / Joseph Olmsted illustration
But one thing the debate emphasized was the need for more research on what kinds of gases Webb could be well-suited to detect, as well as which ones are good bets for biological activity. Oxygen, for example, might be impossible to detect, due to current technological constraints.
The new paper from the UC Riverside team posits Webb could detect one particular methyl halide, methyl chloride, on Hycean planets. The amount needed for detection is about 10 parts per million, which is similar to what is found in some areas on Earth. Computer simulations showed the telescope could detect it in as few as 14 observations.
Credit: NASA GSFC / CIL / Adriana Manrique Gutierrez illustration
Webb conducts atmosphere studies using a technique called transmission spectroscopy. When planets cross in front of their host stars, starlight is filtered through their air. Molecules within the atmosphere absorb certain light wavelengths, or colors, so by splitting the star’s light into its basic parts — a rainbow — astronomers can detect which light segments are missing to discern the molecular makeup of an atmosphere.
One thing to note about the theorized Hycean worlds: Although scientists are curious if microbes could exist on such planets, humans would not be able to breathe in that environment. Still, if astronomers began to find methyl halides in several exoplanets' atmospheres, it could mean microbial life isn't rare in the galaxy.
"That would reshape our understanding of life’s distribution and the processes that lead to the origins of life," Leung said.
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It seems OpenAI has been caught with its hands in the proverbial cookie jar. Anthropic has reportedly cut off OpenAI’s access to Anthropic’s APIs over what Anthropic is calling a terms of service breach.
As reported by Wired, multiple sources claim that OpenAI has been cut off from Anthropic’s APIs. Allegedly, OpenAI was using Anthropic’s Claude Code to assist in creating and testing OpenAI’s upcoming GPT-5, which is due to release in August.
According to these sources, OpenAI was plugging into Claude’s internal tools instead of using the chat interface. From there, they used the API to run tests against GPT-5 to check things like coding and creative writing against Claude to compare performance. OpenAI allegedly also tested safety prompts related to things like CSAM, self-harm, and defamation. This would give OpenAI data that it could then use to fine-tune GPT-5 to make it more competitive against Claude.
Unfortunately for OpenAI, this violates Anthropic’s commercial terms of service, which ban companies from using Anthropic’s tools to build competitor AI products.
“Customer may not and must not attempt to access the Services to build a competing product or service, including to train competing AI models or resell the Services except as expressly approved by Anthropic,” the terms read.
OpenAI responded by saying that what the company was doing was an industry standard, as all the AI companies test their models against the competing models. The company then went on to say that it respected Anthropic’s decision but expressed disappointment in having its API access shut off, especially considering that Anthropic’s access to OpenAI’s API remains open.
A spokesperson told Wired that OpenAI’s access would be reinstated for “benchmarking and safety evaluations.”
It’s not the first time this year that Anthropic has cut off API access. In June, the company cut off Windsurf’s API access after rumors that it was being sold to OpenAI. That deal ultimately fell through, but Anthropic’s cofounder, Jared Kaplan, told TechCrunch at the time that “it would be odd for us to be selling Claude to OpenAI.”
Anthropic has also tweaked its rate limits for Claude, which will take effect in late August, with one of the reasons being that a small number of users are violating the company’s policy by sharing and reselling accounts.
Disclosure: Ziff Davis, Mashable’s parent company, in April filed a lawsuit against OpenAI, alleging it infringed Ziff Davis copyrights in training and operating its AI systems.
It’s the end of another quarter, which means it’s time for yet another earnings call with concerning ideas for generating more revenue. This time around, it's Amazon CEO Andy Jassy, who told shareholders on Thursday that there’s “significant financial opportunity” in delivering ads through Alexa+, the company’s new AI-powered voice assistant.
“I think over time, there will be opportunities, you know, as people are engaging in more multi-turn conversations to have advertising play a role — to help people find discovery and also as a lever to drive revenue,” Jassy said, per the investor call transcript.
Since launching earlier this year, Alexa+ has reportedly reached millions of users. Unlike the original Alexa, which mostly turns off lights and sets timers, Alexa+ is designed to be more conversational, context-aware, and AI-driven. It can help you plan your date night, entertain your kids, and even dabble in basic image and video generation — all under the banner of your $14.99/month Prime subscription.
But so far, Amazon Alexa has been an ad-free experience. It's also more than 10 years old, and it doesn't make money; thus, it's been deemed a "colossal failure" by those within the company.
Of course, Amazon isn’t alone in trying to figure out how to make AI pay for itself. Both Google and OpenAI have explored ad integration in their AI products as a way to generate revenue. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, in particular, has made a notable pivot: once firmly against advertising in his chatbot, he’s since reversed course, possibly opening the door for ads in future versions of ChatGPT.
Whatever the motivation, injecting ads into Alexa+ would mark a major shift in both user experience and Amazon’s strategy, especially given the assistant’s long history of being expensive to maintain and hard to monetize. Ad-supported Alexa+ could be Amazon’s attempt to finally turn its once-money-burning smart assistant into a revenue machine, without hiking the subscription fee (at least for now).
Alexa+ is still new, and what an ad-supported experience would actually look like remains unclear. According to Jassy, the idea is to frame ads as helpful, something to assist customers in discovering products they might be interested in buying.
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