"The 'AI' Cosmos" --Intelligent Algorithms Begin Processing the Universe

This June, 2020, NASA announced that intelligent computer systems will be installed on space probes to direct the search for life on distant planets and moons, starting with the 2022/23 ESA ExoMars mission, before moving beyond to moons such as Jupiter's Europa, and of Saturn's Enceladus and Titan. "This is a visionary step in space exploration." said NASA researcher Victoria Da Poian. "It means that over time we'll have moved from the idea that humans are involved with nearly everything in space, to the idea that computers are equipped with intelligent systems, and they are trained to make some decisions and are able to transmit in priority the most interesting or time-critical information". "When first gathered, the data produced by the Mars Organic Molecule Analyzer (MOMA) toaster-sized life-searching instrument will not shout out'I've found life here', but will give us probabilities which will need to be analyzed," says Eric Lyness, software lead in the Planetary Environments Lab at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. "We'll still need humans to interpret the findings, but the first filter will be the AI system".