Breakdown of Учёные прогнозируют, что искусственный интеллект может спасти человечество.
что
that (conjunction)
мочь
to be able to
учёный
scientist, scholar
спасти
to save (perfective)
Questions & Answers about Учёные прогнозируют, что искусственный интеллект может спасти человечество.
How could we rephrase this using a parenthetical word to say artificial intelligence might save humanity?
You could use a parenthetical like возможно (possibly) or наверное (probably). To do this, you would drop the modal verb может (can) and change the infinitive спасти to the future tense спасёт. The clause becomes: что искусственный интеллект, возможно, спасёт человечество.
Can I just add быть after может to turn it into the parenthetical maybe?
If you change может спасти (can save) to the parenthetical может быть (maybe), you lose the helper verb from the sentence. You must then conjugate the main verb into the future tense: может быть, спасёт (maybe will save). Keep in mind that parenthetical phrases are always set off by commas in Russian.
Why does the noun Учёные have an adjective ending?
The word учёный is a substantivized adjective. This means it started as an adjective meaning learned but became a noun meaning scientist. Because of its origin, it declines exactly like a standard adjective in all cases, which is why the plural nominative is учёные.
Why use the perfective verb спасти here instead of the imperfective спасать?