2023 in science: AI, the hottest year on record, and galactic controversy

2023 was filled with scientific innovation, exploration and new discoveries. A few of the biggest threads we saw unraveling this year came from the James Webb Space Telescope, the changing climate and artificial intelligence.

The Rise of AI

While many artists have long been worried about AI, the Hollywood writer's strike brought the topic to the forefront of many minds. Whether it was image generators like Lensa, Midjourney and DALL-E, or text-based programs like ChatGPT, these tools got people thinking about how AI will both help and hurt creative jobs in the years to come.

AI has also been increasingly integrated into STEM fields. In medicine, AI has helped doctors streamline patient notes and improve doctor-patient correspondence — though not without bias. It's even being used to diagnose some diseases.

In chemistry and biology, AI has helped researchers speed up testing processes. Instead of individually testing molecules or compounds, AI can try to find ones that match researchers' criteria. Then people can synthesize the candidate chemicals or compounds in real life to see whether they work.

Some labs have even built robots to do this synthesis and testing themselves.

And so, across many fields of work, AI is here to stay.

The hottest year on record

2023 was so hot that scientists expect it that once all of the data has been analyzed, it have been the hottest year on record.

Temperatures on Earth over the last decade were around 1°C higher than pre-industrial ones. That means we're getting close to the 1.5° goal set by the Paris Agreement — which would help limit the most catastrophic effects of climate change.

In order to meet this goal, humans would have to slash greenhouse gas emissions more than 40% by 2023. But even if we don't get there, humans still have a lot of power to limit the negative effects of climate change. NPR reported on many of these ways in this year's Climate Solutions week.

Out of this world: A year of discoveries in space

This year, the James Webb Space Telescope continued sending back groundbreaking images. It's given astronomers a view into the early universe, showing the earliest galaxies, giant black holes and stars.

Some of these images have caused debate in among astronomers.

Galaxies were thought to form a billion years after the Big Bang, but images showing early galaxies from JWST are making some scientists question whether the universe is much older than we thought.

Though we don't have a crystal ball, we expect all three of this topics — artificial intelligence, the climate and boundaries-pushing research drawn from the James Webb Space Telescope — will continue to make headlines next year.

Want to hear more science news? Email the show at shortwave@npr.org.

Listen to Short Wave on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and Google Podcasts.

This episode was produced by Rachel Carlson and Kai McNamee. It was edited by Amina Kahn, Rebecca Ramirez and Kathryn Fox. Brit Hanson checked the facts. The audio engineer was Kwesi Lee.