Can Artificial Intelligence Save Us From Asteroidal Armageddon?

NASA'S Planetary Defense Coordination Office uses the Catalina Sky Survey facility in Tucson,... [ ] Arizona, to catalog space objects Even in this age of high-speed data analysis, a keen human eye normally can't be beaten when poring over images of potential asteroidal impactors. But Artificial Intelligence (A.I.) could soon change all that. The El Segundo, Calif.-based Aerospace Corporation is now testing A.I. software designed to help astronomers speed up the process of identifying and tracking threatening Near-Earth Objects (NEOs). NASA's Planetary Defense Coordination Office already uses numerous telescopes to find and monitor NEOs that might have the potential to impact Earth. But the non-profit Aerospace Corporation's A.I. team is working with NASA on implementing software dubbed NEO AID (Near-Earth Object Artificial Intelligence Detection) to differentiate false positives from asteroids and comets that might be real threats.