With powerful new chatbots and AI-powered apps and search engines released practically every day, concern about the rapid advance of artificial intelligence has heated up recently to near obsession. And with good reason. The risk of humans losing control over AIs smarter — or at the very least faster — than us has been recognized for quite a while, notably in science fiction films like The Terminator.
As with all new technologies, AI has its pluses and minuses. But for space exploration—meaning exploration beyond our immediate cosmic neighborhood—it is probably essential. In fact, an advanced space program without AI is difficult to envision.
That goes not just for us, but for anyone “out there” who is likely to visit us. Even though most movies about aliens depict biological creatures arriving on Earth, this is unlikely to happen. Crossing interstellar space would take them a very long time — so much time that it makes little sense to send short-lived, perishable organic bodies.
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