When Elon Musk took SpaceX public in June, a big part of its value proposition came from promises of data centers in space. Skeptics were quick to list all the hurdles. This afternoon, Google’s Project Suncatcher is scheduled to launch hardware in pursuit of the same idea, sending AI processors into orbit aboard—of all things—a SpaceX rocket. That doesn’t mean Musk’s pitch will become reality any time soon. If anything, the gulf between Suncatcher and a working data center in orbit suggests how far off that future still is. But as artificial intelligence’s appetite for electricity tests the patience of communities being asked to feed it, some of the richest tech companies are racing to source their energy needs from space instead. The test satellite will carry just four processors, which will be used to run Google’s Gemini AI models for 15 minutes at a stretch before needing to shut down and cool off. The ultimate goal is a full-fledged data center in orbit, built from constellations of thousands of satellites that share the work of running AI models and beam their responses back to Earth. submitted by /u/scientificamerican
Originally posted by u/scientificamerican on r/ArtificialInteligence