• Question: Do you think artificial intelligence can conribute in the search for extra terrestrial life?

    Asked by Elise to Fran on 6 Nov 2017.
    • Photo: Fran Zuch

      Fran Zuch answered on 6 Nov 2017:


      Hi Elise

      I actually think it could, that is a great point to be fair.

      Maybe you know that SETI already uses a lot of volunteers computers all over the world. The main reason is that the computing power of all of those together is much greater and that means you can calculate a lot more. Every little helps as they like to say.

      Here is what we know: Based on our own experience (us being alive on this planet) we have a bit of an idea where other planets would need to be (how far away from the sun? temperature and composition). In Science, you always have big sets of data from all over the universe and for us humans it is very difficult to analyse it all and we are not that quick. So, AI could help to select which stars to look at more closely, to select the best possible targets.

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