Go ahead, put data centres in space—but AI had better improve lives back here on Earth
Every week, artificial intelligence (AI) claims become more stratospheric. Earlier this month, Elon Musk told a podcast of his plans to put satellites housing giant data centres in space that would be run on solar power. “In 36 months, probably closer to 30 months, the most compelling place to put AI will be in space,” he said.
Jeff Bezos and Google are reportedly planning something similar.This week, Silicon Valley venture capitalist Vinod Khosla made an even more bold prediction. Speaking to Prannoy Roy on DeKoder, he laid out a vision so utopian that it resembled India as a paradise. Khosla prophesized that by 2030, a poor child in rural India would, via AI, have tutors as good as those of wealthy children in big cities.
A farmer, Khosla said, will have access to doctors via AI who will somehow know his entire medical history. This space odyssey of starry-eyed scenarios confusingly played out against reports of chaos on the opening day at the India AI Impact Summit in New Delhi. The long queues caused by contradictory and complicated instructions from security personnel were recognizable to anyone who uses our otherwise glamorous airports.
Even so, the shortage of drinking-water refill stations on site reported by many attendees and the instructions not to bring car keys to the venue must rank as an Olympian embarrassment. A ‘tip sheet’ for attending the AI Summit doing the rounds wittily suggested, “Hydrate like you’re crossing a desert. Drink 2 litres of water before leaving so you don’t have to hunt for water there.
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