It’s been a tough couple of years, but things may soon get a lot worse: the Doomsday Clock just struck 100 seconds to midnight — the hour of humanity’s self-annihilation.

The new time was set on Thursday by the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, a nonprofit focused on global security issues.

While the time hasn’t changed, the prognosis remains bleak.

“Steady is not good news: in fact, it reflects the judgment of the board that we are stuck at a perilous moment,” said Sharon Squassoni, a research professor at the Bulletin.

The non-profit warned that arms races, the climate crisis , and COVID-19 have left us no more time to waste.

The clock has ticked towards catastrophe since 1947, when the greatest threat to civilization was nuclear weapons.

The Bulletin launched the project to warn the public about how close we are to destroying the world with dangerous tech.

The furthest it’s been from midnight came at the end of the Cold War in 1991. When the US and the Soviet Union agreed to deplete their two strategic nuclear weapons arsenals, the clock was set to 23:43.

The closest it’s got to midnight was 100 seconds, a time set two years ago that we’re still stuck at today.

The current time could serve as an urgent call-to-action: we need to make radical changes before it’s too late.

Unfortunately, we’re more likely to hit the snooze button.

There may be one other ray of hope: we still have minutes left to make time travel possible .

NASA just made history by flying an autonomous helicopter on Mars

NASA has made history after successfully conducting the first-ever controlled flight on another planet.

The space agency’s Ingenuity helicopter briefly flew over Mars this morning, in what NASA previously described as a “Wright Brothers” moment.

The 1.8 kg chopper ascended three meters above the red planet, hovered for around 30 seconds, and then returned to the Martian surface.

“We can now say that human beings have flown a rotorcraft on another planet,” said MiMi Aung, Ingenuity Mars Helicopter project manager at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL).

The autonomous drone arrived on Mars inside NASA’s Perseverance rover on February 18. It was slated to make its first experimental flight on April 11, but the launch was twice postponed due to technical issues.

At around 07:00AM EST, NASA confirmed that the maiden voyage had been successful. Ingenuity will now attempt a series of more challenging flights.

While pilots planned the chopper’s route, Ingenuity had to fly autonomously because of communication delays. A combination of sensors and computer vision navigated the flight path.

Cameras on the helicopter will capture a new perspective of conditions on Mars. But Ingenuity’s primary mission is testing the potential of flying on other worlds.

NASA will use insights from the flights to develop future helicopters, which could one day help astronauts explore the red planet.

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Mozilla is investigating YouTube’s recommendation controls — and you can help

Mozilla is investigating YouTube’s algorithmic controls — and wants you to help.

The non-profit has revamped its RegretsReporter tool to examine unwanted YouTube recommendations. The updated browser extension will explore whether the platform truly allows users to reject recommendations.

YouTube’s algorithmic controls include buttons such as  “Not interested,” “Dislike,” and “Don’t recommend channel.” Your choices train YouTube‘s algorithm to not surface similar content.

RegretsReporter was designed to determine whether the controls work as advertised.

The extension lets you click a “Stop Recommending” button that’s placed on the thumbnail of each video that’s recommended or watched. Mozilla says it will use the data to assess whether YouTube is listening to feedback.

Mozilla says that YouTube doesn’t give independent researchers access to any data like this.

“Countless investigations have revealed how YouTube’s algorithm sends people down harmful rabbit holes,” said Brandi Geurkink, Mozilla ’s senior manager of advocacy, in a statement.

“Meanwhile, YouTube has failed to address this problem, remaining opaque about how its recommendation AI — and its algorithmic controls — works. Our research will determine if this feature performs as intended, or if it’s the equivalent of an elevator ‘door close’ button —  purely cosmetic.”

We’ve asked YouTube for a response and will update this piece if we hear back from the company.

RegretsReporter was initially used to flag content harmful recommendations. In July, Mozilla said the extension showed that YouTube recommends videos that violate the platform’s own content policies.

The study found that 71% of “regrettable” videos were actively recommended by YouTube’s algorithm.

The update extends the extension’s focus to user controls.

“This extension also makes a statement about the role AI plays in consumer technology,” said Gerlick. “Just like privacy controls should be clear and accessible, so should algorithmic controls.”