Artificial Intelligence in Space | StarTalk

Actually, this is the time of the show where we go to Cosmic Queries.

Let's start talking Cosmic Queries. Chuck, oh, he's got him in his pocket! I have them! Look at that! That was so awkward. That was very clumsy, Chu. That was so clumsy! Okay, but I hold him in my hand.

So, Cosmic Queries are when we solicit questions from our fan base. Before the show, we tell them what the topic is, and they knew it was going to be about artificial intelligence. They're just going to ask me questions about it. I've not seen these questions, not seen the questions. And if I don't know the answer, I'll just say, "I have no idea," and then you ask me for another one. Okay, and that's not going to happen.

Let's find out! So, here it is. Our first query is from Mason Simkins from Leighton, Utah. Alright, and Mason would like to know, how could artificial intelligence affect the future of space exploration? Oooh!

You know what would be cool for me? It's like we were talking about with Bill. You just download your brain and all your memories and all your capacity to experience, put that in some robot, and then send the robot off into space while you’re on the Bahamas, sipping a drink. You get to experience what that is, bring it back, put it in, and you get to speak firsthand about that space trip.

And you don't have to then protect the human biological form from deadly radiation or from the absence of oxygen because it's just a machine. For me, that’d be the cool way to invoke artificial intelligence in the future.

That makes perfect sense! I like that answer. And then find me on the beach when you get back! See, that's the part I really liked! That part, that's the part that I'm all about! That makes sense.

Okay, oh wait, wait. One other thing. Go ahead. So, there's already a little bit of AI in the robots we've got up there now. For example, the Rovers on Mars: it takes like many minutes to get, like, to go the distance. Depending on where Mars is in its orbit relative, it could be up to like 20 minutes, a half hour to get the signal there.

So, if the Rover is ready to drive off a cliff, it'd be too late if you're driving the vehicle, right? Because you're going to say, "Don't go off the cliff!" 20 minutes later, it gets there, it's off the cliff, right? So it has to be able to have some sense of its environment, like, "That's a cliff! I'm not driving off no matter what the human is telling me."