Generative AI tool is deployed aboard the International Space Station
International Space Station in orbit as seen from the Space Shuttle Endeavour prior to a docking mission in 2000. Photo courtesy NASA
Booz Allen’s large language model application was uploaded to the space station’s national lab as part of “a forward-leaning payload experiment,” according to the firm.
A functioning generative artificial intelligence tool has been successfully deployed in space for the first documented time, according to a Thursday announcement from Booz Allen Hamilton.
The company said the large language model, or LLM, technology was uploaded to the International Space Station National Laboratory as part of “a forward-leaning payload experiment.”
The LLM application was transmitted to Hewlett Packard Enterprise’s “Spaceborne Computer-2” that is located aboard the orbiting station. According to NASA, the onboard device “explores how commercial off-the-shelf computer systems can advance exploration by processing data significantly faster in space with edge computing and artificial intelligence capabilities.”
Booz Allen said its high-tech model was developed over eight weeks and “can play a new and critical role in providing remote data ingestion and retrieval-augmented generation, which will help enable edge deployed personnel to efficiently retrieve relevant information, accurately interpret, and solve complex issues using natural language processing at the edge of space.”
The generative AI application was uploaded to the ISS National Laboratory and deemed fully operational on July 11, according to a company spokesperson.
“Generative AI in space is truly the new frontier and this capability unlocks the potential for on-orbit generative AI to integrate and develop mission-critical solutions and is aligned with Booz Allen’s mission to build human-led AI solutions from which our nation will thrive,” Chris Bogdan, executive vice president at Booz Allen and head of the company’s space business, said in a statement.
The company said it hopes the LLM model “one day aims to help enable astronauts to use generative AI without depending on Earth-bound internet in the power and communications constrained environment of space.”