Chinese Satellite Goes on Inexplicable Sightseeing Tour After Researchers Put AI in Control

There ’s been plenty of conversation around using AI in writing and art , but researchers in China have evidently bring political machine intelligence service to spaceflight . An AI was countenance to curb a orbiter ’s photographic camera for a full day , during which meter it took picture of different locations on Earth — and it chose targets for intellect that elude the researcher .

According to areportfrom the South China Morning Post , researcher see to it the Qimingxing 1 orbiter with a ground - based AI organisation , as detail in a paper published in the journal Geomatics and Information Science of Wuhan University . The enquiry squad is a part of the State Key Laboratory of Information Engineering in Surveying , Mapping and Remote Sensing , and the destination of the experiment was to limit how artificial intelligence agency might help streamline Qimingxing 1 ’s Earth observation work flow through enhanced selectivity of different locations on the major planet .

In other words , they ’re trying to make ground - observation orbiter smarter and more effective , so as to forbid them from aimlessly catch treasure trove of images that require copious total of process back on Earth .

Earth imaging, like that which is done on by NASA on International Space Station, is nothing new, but AI’s role in making that process more efficient could be a worthy application of the technology.

During the examination , the AI autonomously chose areas on the surface to review and capture images , but as the Post point out , the research squad is indecipherable as to why the AI selected the locations it did . One of the areas that Qimingxing 1 reportedly targeted wasPatna , a city in India situate along the Ganges River . It just so happens that this area is home to an Amerind army regiment , one that clashed with China ’s military in 2020 , according to the Post . Another fix visualise by the AI wasOsaka , a major metropolitan area in southerly Japan , but also an domain that “ once in a while hosts US Navy vessel operating in the Pacific , ” according to the Post .

It ’s altogether potential that the AI was trained to tell apart military - related targets , and that this technology could finally be leveraged for surveillance purposes . As the Post point out : “ The team suggested that an AI - controlled satellite could alarm select users – including the military , national security administration and other relevant agencies – if it observe strange aim or activity . ” That say , it ’s now rough-cut for AI to produce results or display behaviors that lie in outside the designers ’ inclusion . I ’m not say that ’s a adept thing , just that it ’s a thing AI developer are progressively having to deal with — an issue sleep with as the black loge trouble .

And while this news report of an AI - controlled satellite may be as interesting as it is anxiety - inducing , the Qimingxing 1 test is a far cry from having satellite soar upwards around low Earth orbit with computers as airplane pilot .

Timedesert

“ I think it ’s important to distinguish between ‘ call on the direction the satellite was looking so it can take a pic ’ versus ‘ modify the orbit of the satellite , which could get it to doss into somebody else . ’ , ” say Jonathan McDowell , a spaceflight expert and astronomer at the Harvard - Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics , in an e-mail with Gizmodo .

McDowell also expressed his concern over the use of the terminal figure “ artificial intelligence operation ” in this context .

“ As for call this software ‘ AI ’ , I think the terminus is now being used so broadly that it lose any veridical meaning , and certainly does n’t in these cases tally to the democratic concept of artificial intelligence , ” he explain . “ What is the AI - cape of the Chinese orbiter control software system , exactly ? Is there really any , or is it just a even information processing system program ? ”

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outfit a satellite with artificial intelligence for Earth imaging tasks is in reality nothing new . Last decline , Italian company D - Orbit and Swedish inauguration Unibap collaborated on the ION satellite carrier , which usedAmazon Web Services ’ auto learning package to swear out and transport images from space . Similar to this experimentation , it was done to streamline the Earth double - catch unconscious process by leveraging information engineering .

For now , it would appear that we ’re safe from a rogue AI fly a satellite on its own willing . And for sure , this technical school might finally be integrated into a spy satellite . For now , however , it ’s enough to say that it ’s an procession that could help scientists on mission to study our planet .

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