AI agents help operate SETI’s Allen Telescope Array

AI agents are now being used at the Allen Telescope Array in Northern California to steer the instrument and examine incoming radio signals in real time. Researchers still enter the commands themselves, while Nvidia’s Holoscan platform handles data processing for the SETI Institute and Breakthrough Listen.

Nvidia says the system’s hardware can process as much as 2.4 terabits per second. The research team says analyses that previously required weeks can now be completed within hours. In an early test, the team reported detecting a pulsar in the Crab Nebula in real time with AI, describing it as a first. Pulsars are rapidly rotating stellar remnants that produce regular signals, making them useful for testing detection systems.

The researchers plan to examine open-source models that can operate locally at the edge, including for possible future sensors on the far side of the Moon. The use of AI has not produced evidence of extraterrestrial intelligence so far. Searches for such signals have been conducted since the first SETI experiment in 1960, without a confirmed discovery.