Pretty much every new discovery relevant to the debate increases the likelihood of intelligent life existing elsewhere. In the last few years we've discovered silicone-based life here on earth. We've discovered key organic compounds (amino acids to RNA compounds to DNA compounds) in space. The number of goldilocks planets that we know of has increased exponentially, and the more we know about life and in particular extremophiles, the more likely it is that some forms of life could live (and possibly evolve) outside the goldilocks zone in special circumstances. Even amongst the other forms of life that we're share the planet with, we're finding that many hallmarks of intelligence (from tool-usage to self-awareness to sophisticated language) are far more common than we thought even a decade ago. It's amazing how much our knowledge has grown in the last decade, and while we're probably a long way off from the discovering extra-terrestrial life, let alone advanced life, every related discovery makes it more likely that there's life out there.
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