AI in rbit Fintan Buckley , Trinity graduate, co-founder and CEO of Irish space-tech company Ubotica, explains how they are revolutionising satellite technology using AI F inding algal blooms before they can create ‘dead zones’ and harm aquaculture. Locating the ‘dead vessels’ involved in human trafficking, drug smuggling, illegal fishing. On land, assessing irrigation problems, tracking erosion and measuring the impact of a quake or a flood: all of these are problems that Irish space-tech startup Ubotica is helping solve by allowing machines to ‘see’ the earth from orbit more efficiently. They do that using Artificial Intelligence (AI) which is – ground-breakingly – built into hardware that is incorporated directly into the satellite and launched into orbit. The AI image processing happens right away as sensors capture the images of our planet. This is a tricky maneuver. Commercially valuable AI analysis involves increasingly massive processing and storage capacity, neither of them practical to put on a payload to launch into space. So why is this also a wise move? The AI acceleration on earth is associated with rising costs in energy and computing power, as well as questions of data sourcing, both to train the AI models and to feed to them once they’re mature, for profitable output: AI thrives on fresh data, and access to data in real time, together with the ability to extract meaning from it, can make one’s model an indispensable asset, beating competitors. Satellite imaging data of earth is some of the Old: Centralised Intelligence – simple satellites New: Edge-AI Intelligence – smart satellites
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