Researchers have introduced an innovative AI named Urania, which is capable of designing advanced gravitational wave detectors that surpass current human-made models.

Urania's proposed detectors operate within a frequency range of 10 to 5000 Hz, enabling the detection of signals from various cosmic events, including black hole mergers and emissions from the universe's earliest stars.

The AI has identified 50 novel detector designs that could significantly expand the volume of the observable universe, enhancing our ability to capture cosmic signals.

After two years of development, the research team led by Mario Krenn has discovered numerous effective designs that challenge the traditional human oversight in detector design.

One of Urania's designs improves sensitivity to gravitational waves from supernovas by 1.6 times compared to LIGO's Voyager upgrade, greatly increasing the number of detectable events.

Some of the AI's designs could enhance detector sensitivity by over tenfold, vastly increasing the range of detectable gravitational wave signals.

The design process for these detectors involves optimizing layouts and parameters, which Urania approaches as a continuous optimization problem using advanced machine learning techniques.

This work highlights the potential of AI to inspire new experimental and theoretical explorations across various scientific fields, particularly in cosmology.

Krenn emphasizes the emerging role of AI in uncovering solutions that exceed human capabilities, suggesting this trend will significantly shape the future of scientific inquiry.

Gravitational waves, which were first detected in 2016 by the LIGO team, are ripples in spacetime caused by massive astronomical events, detected using large instruments called interferometers.

The findings of this groundbreaking study were published on April 11, 2025, in the journal Physical Review X, marking a significant advancement in the field of gravitational wave detection.

The researchers have made a collection of the 50 detector designs publicly available to inspire future innovations in gravitational wave detection and other scientific fields.