For decades, experts announced that the combustion engine was doomed. First came the electric cars. Then solid-state batteries, hydrogen and an endless succession of technologies that promised to turn the old piston into a museum piece.

The problem?

The combustion engine didn't get the memo.

After one of the greatest technological revolutions in the history of mechanical engineering, researchers from various parts of the world presented this week a new generation of engines capable of achieving levels of efficiency that until recently would be considered absurd.

The Calls Adaptive Combustion Engines (MCA) use artificial intelligence to modify, in real time, the compression rate, ignition time, fuel injection and even internal cylinder geometry.

The result is an engine that, according to its developers, can operate with dozens of different types of fuel without the need for physical modifications.

Synthetic gasoline. Ethanol. Hydrogen. Methanol. Fuels produced from algae. Recycled industrial fuels.

Put practically anything flammable in the tank and he'll figure out how to make it work.

And that's just the beginning.