AI chatbots like ChatGPT continue to attract attention for their ability to churn out essays, reports and emails. For space companies, generative artificial intelligence tools offer the potential to merge datasets and streamline operations.
At HawkEye 360, for example, analysts who query the company’s virtual warehouse of radio-frequency signals through programming code could instead find what they want by asking natural-language questions.
“Show me the illegal fishing that’s happening in this area of the world,” Kaitlin Zimmerman, HawkEye 360 chief data scientist, said in October at Satellite Innovation 2023 in Mountain View, California. “That could generate the query that could reach into our database and pull that information out.”
Similarly, hyperspectral startup Orbital Sidekick allows employees to search the company’s imagery archive and tasking schedule using generative AI.
“It’s a really powerful tool for us to watch how our teams interact with these systems,” said Andrew Guenther, Orbital Sidekick principal software engineer.
In addition to seeing what information people want, Guenther and his colleagues see when queries come up empty. “They’re writing down exactly what they want to do, and we can capture that,” Guenther said at Satellite Innovation.
Transforming work
For years, space companies have been expanding their reliance on machine learning algorithms to automate operations, reduce latency in data transfer and detect anomalies onboard satellites. Those applications of traditional AI can be designed in advance and tested thoroughly.
In contrast, generative AI relies on deep learning models to detect patterns in enormous language or imagery datasets and generates results based on historical data and future predictions.
“Obviously,…
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