Google Launched Its AI Chips Into Orbit to See How They Hold Up

Google says a prototype satellite carrying its own AI processors reached orbit on Oct. 1, that its team has confirmed contact with the spacecraft, and that it is operating as expected. The satellite was built in partnership with the satellite company Planet and went up aboard SpaceX's Transporter-18 rideshare mission.

The launch, Google says, is the first step in a long-term research project into whether space could one day host large-scale computing for artificial intelligence. Over the coming weeks the company plans to gather data in orbit on how its tensor processing units, the chips it designs to run AI work, cope with the physical stress of spaceflight and with the radiation and temperature extremes of space.

Google says the experiments are starting now and that it will use what it learns to refine its designs.