NASA leadership touted the benefits of using AI in a town hall meeting on Wednesday, but emphasized that the new tech will be used in a responsible way that won’t replace the space agency’s skilled workforce.
Administrator Bill Nelson emphasized that he takes seriously the president’s charge to integrate AI with a focus on “safety, transparency, and reliability.”
Deputy Administrator Pam Melroy was a little more succinct, quoting Spider-Man: “With great power comes great responsibility.”
AI chief
David Salvagnini, who was named the agency’s first chief AI officer this month, also participated in the town hall, laying out how he sees his new role fitting into the agency’s existing missions.
“If NASA were a symphony, I’m the conductor and I’m harmonizing the various different instruments and sections of the orchestra where we’re all rowing in the same direction,” he said.
Some of his job functions include:
- Driving the innovative use of AI at NASA.
- Establishing a governance structure to make sure AI is being used responsibly.
- Providing learning opportunities for NASA employees on AI.
Use cases
Katherine Calvin, NASA’s chief scientist, said AI is especially good at spotting anomalies once a person trains the computer what to look for. That can include things like combing through satellite imagery to find and track smoke from wildfires or count the number of trees in a particular area.
In each case, AI is taking on mundane, repetitive tasks to free up people to do more important work, the officials said.
In the loop
One of NASA’s top messages to the workforce seemed to be that the algorithms aren’t coming for their jobs. Officials stressed that the technology will be used with humans, not to replace the workforce, especially since AI can make mistakes.
“We’re not outsourcing our thinking to the AI,” Salvagnini said.
This story originally appeared on Payload and is republished here with permission.
Login to add comment
Other posts in this group
Nowadays, when you hear someone talk about faxing, there’s a decent chance it’s the punchline to a groan-inducing dad joke. (Not that I would ever be guilty of such silliness, of course.
Amazon has agreed to pay nearly $4 million to settle charges that the e-commerce company subsidized its labor costs by taking tips its 
It’s game time for Meta’s wearables: The tech giant has bought two ad spots for its Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses during Sunday’s Super Bowl broadcast, including one that has Chris Hemsworth and Chri
If you scroll through your old photos from the mid-2010s—the golden era of Snapchat—chances are a fai
OpenAI is scouring the U.S. for sites to build a network of huge data centers to power
