AI agents take over at SETI's Allen Telescope Array, scanning for extraterrestrial intelligence
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The SETI Institute has integrated AI agents into its Allen Telescope Array in Northern California to enhance the search for extraterrestrial intelligence. Powered by Nvidia's Holoscan platform, this system allows AI to steer the telescope and analyze incoming radio signals in real time. The technology processes data at speeds up to 2.4 terabits per second, reducing tasks that previously took weeks to mere hours. As a proof of concept, researchers successfully detected a pulsar in the Crab Nebula using this new AI-driven approach. While human researchers still input initial commands, the goal is to enable fully autonomous operation in the future. The team plans to test open-source software capable of running locally on edge devices, potentially for future sensors on the far side of the Moon. Despite these technological advancements, no definitive signals from extraterrestrial civilizations have been found since the first SETI experiment in 1960.
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