Artificial Intelligence Will Let Humanity Talk to Alien Civilizations
Large language models may enable real-time communication with extraterrestrial civilizations despite the vast distances between stars. We need to start thinking about what to tell them about us
Artificial intelligence mania has overtaken our economy and will soon expand beyond Earth to become omnipresent in spacecraft as well. It’s worth asking, what does this mean for the search for extraterrestrial intelligence? Just like on Earth, AI promises a rethinking of long-cherished hopes for space exploration, such as finding that we are not alone in the universe.
AI’s advances explain this ambition. Introduced in 2017, the “transformer” neural network architecture has become the cornerstone of today’s large language models (LLMs). Trained on Internet-scale datasets, these models contain vast human knowledge and are changing our world. They will affect nearly 40 percent of global employment, according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
Could this technology help us communicate with hypothetical advanced civilizations elsewhere? SETI, the search for extraterrestrial intelligence, has been around as long as METI, messaging extraterrestrial intelligence, the aim of which is to attempt to find and communicate with extraterrestrial civilizations. But after 40 years of serious search we have not found such ET intelligence, and our messages remain unanswered. We cannot conclude that we are alone in the galaxy, given its vastness and our nascent search efforts. It may be time to radically rethink our approach, however.
