Comment by SwellJoe

"it's to ensure AI's profound benefits in key areas, from healthcare to scientific discovery, can reach everyone, far into the future."

No it isn't. That isn't true.

They know it is never going to be cost-effective, compared to building on the ground. People who know better are lying to the public about the feasibility of data centers in space.

It would easily raise the cost by an order of magnitude (or more) to launch a data center into space, compared to current AI data centers on the ground; it's the equivalent of building 100+ ISS space stations to house a Colossus in space. It costs even more to launch your materials if you want sun-synchronous orbit.

It's not just expensive to do at scale, it's impossibly expensive to do at scale. This is a science project, launching a few tomato plants into space to see what happens. Data centers in space are decades away (if ever).

I would believe that military deployments will happen; a couple of TPUs that can be deployed over conflict zones. Outrageously expensive, but no more so than the billions we blew up in Iran this year.

Let's assume everything gets smaller and cheaper. Vastly smaller and cheaper. So much so that it becomes feasible to launch a data center comparable to Colossus into space for the same price. You know what that means about the cost and size and efficiency on the ground? It means I can have a fucking TPU in my pocket and a round trip to space would be an insane waste of time.

There is no way to make the math for AI-in-space to make more sense than just making it work on the ground; any challenges one has with local politics are easier and cheaper to overcome than physics. The public may be stupid in large groups, but public opinion can be swayed, gravity cannot.

In short: This is either a marketing stunt, a bid for military funding, or both. It is absolutely not a project to put AI for "everyone" into space.