Artificial intelligence is spreading throughout the world, giving humans answers to everything they ask. And now it’s time for AI to reach space. Some researchers believe that AI, while providing answers on Earth, could also be sent into space as a means of communicating with potential alien civilizations. This idea, which sounds like something out of a science fiction film, was recently detailed in an essay published by Scientific American.

Frank Marchis, director of citizen science at the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) Institute, and Ignacio G. Lopez-Francos, NASA’s lead research engineer for more than 40 years of space exploration efforts, have spent decades trying to find extraterrestrial intelligence (ETI). However, they have yet to find any signals. Now they believe the search requires a new strategy: the use of AI.

The researchers argue that all their previous attempts to share information about humanity, such as the Voyager Golden Record, were too simple and yielded no promising results. They believe that with the development of AI, a different strategy is now needed to search for aliens. In the essay, the researchers propose to develop a language model like ChatGPT that is capable of interacting with aliens, answering their questions and providing insights into human culture.

“After 40 years of serious searching we have not found such ET intelligence, and our messages remain unanswered,” Marchis and Lopez-Francos write. “We cannot conclude that we are alone in the galaxy, given its vastness and our nascent search efforts. Perhaps it is time to fundamentally rethink our approach. As alien-curious scientists, we propose to pursue METI not by transmitting simply music, mathematics, or short descriptions of ourselves, but by transmitting something much more meaningful: a well-curated large language model that encapsulates the diverse essence of humanity and the world we live in.”

The two explain that by transmitting this language model via laser, which is faster and more directional than radio waves, they hope to traverse the vast distances of space. While it would take decades to reach even the nearest star system, they suggest that focusing on a smaller, essential language model could reduce travel time.

“This would allow extraterrestrial civilizations to communicate with us indirectly and learn about us, without being hindered by the vast distances of space and the human lifetime delays that result in communication. Aliens could learn one of our languages, ask LLM questions about us, and receive answers that represent humanity.”

However this approach is not without challenges, with one of the most significant challenges being the time it would take for such a message to reach the nearest star systems. Sending a full-sized LLM like Meta’s LAMA-3-70B could take hundreds of years due to the limitations of current technology. However, the pair suggest that by miniaturizing the model to the necessary information and using advanced laser systems, the transmission time could be reduced to less than 20 years, making it a viable project for humanity. “It would generate not only text but also images and sounds. Its content, personality, and tone should be determined by researchers, philosophers, historians, and other experts to represent humanity at large,” the pair wrote in the paper.

However, as futuristic and fantastic the idea of ​​sending AI into space sounds, it also carries risks. Some experts warn that advanced alien civilizations could potentially misuse information about humanity for their own benefit. Despite this, the authors believe that the potential benefits of discovering extraterrestrial life far outweigh the risks.