AI thinks like us—flaws and all: Study finds ChatGPT mirrors human decision biases in half the tests

AI bias
Credit: AI-generated image

Can we really trust AI to make better decisions than humans? A new study says … not always. Researchers have discovered that OpenAI’s ChatGPT, one of the most advanced and popular AI models, makes the same kinds of decision-making mistakes as humans in some situations—showing biases like overconfidence of hot-hand (gambler’s) fallacy—yet acting inhuman in others (e.g., not suffering from base-rate neglect or sunk cost fallacies).

Published in the Manufacturing & Service Operations Management journal, the study reveals that ChatGPT doesn’t just crunch numbers—it “thinks” in ways eerily similar to humans, including mental shortcuts and blind spots...

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A step towards life on Mars? Lichens survive Martian simulation in new study

A step towards life on Mars? Lichens survive Martian simulation in new study
Cetraria aculeata superimposed on Mars. Credit: Lichen: Skubała et al. Design: Pensoft Publishers. CC-BY4.0

For the first time, researchers have demonstrated that certain lichen species can survive Mars-like conditions, including exposure to ionizing radiation, while maintaining a metabolically active state.

Published in the journal IMA Fungus, a new study highlights the potential for lichens to survive and function on the Martian surface, challenging previous assumptions about the uninhabitable nature of Mars, and offering insights for astrobiology and space exploration.

Lichens are not a single organism, but a symbiotic association between a fungus and algae and/or cyanobacteria known for their extreme tolerance to harsh environments such as the Earth’s deserts and polar regio...

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Highly accurate blood test diagnoses Alzheimer’s disease, measures extent of dementia

Kanta Horie
WashU Medicine researcher Kanta Horie, PhD, places a sample in a mass spectrometer that measures protein levels in blood plasma and other fluids. Horie co-led the development of a blood test for Alzheimer’s disease that diagnoses and stages the disease by using mass spectrometry to measure the level of a protein called MTBR-tau243.

Could help determine which patients are likely to benefit from new Alzheimer’s drugs. A newly developed blood test for Alzheimer’s disease not only aids in the diagnosis of the neurodegenerative condition but also indicates how far it has progressed, according to a study by researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and Lund University in Sweden.

Several blood tests for Alzheimer’s disease are already clinically available, incl...

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Dark matter could make planets spin faster

artist_s_impression_of_how_the_very_early_universe_might_have_looked_pillars.jpg

Dark matter is a confounding concept that teeters on the leading edges of cosmology and physics. We don’t know what it is or how exactly it fits into our understanding of the universe. We only know that its unseen mass is a critical part of the cosmos.

Astronomers know dark matter exists. They can tell by the way galaxies rotate, by exploiting gravitational lensing, and by analyzing fluctuations in the Cosmic Microwave Background. But new research suggests that there might be another way to detect its presence.

The research is “Dark Matter (S)pins the Planet,” and it’s available on the arXiv preprint server. Haihao Shi, from the Xinjiang Astronomical Observatory at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, is the lead author. The co-authors are all from Chinese research institutions.

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