NASA will keep safety first as it harnesses the ever-increasing power of artificial intelligence, agency officials stressed.
Artificial intelligence (AI) technology is advancing rapidly, as evidenced by the emergence of tools like ChatGTP. The growing field could help NASA make transformative discoveries, agency officials say — but there are also potential pitfalls.
“There’s a lot of risk with AI, because if it’s used in ways that are not for the betterment of humanity, then it can be catastrophic,” NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said today (May 22) during an AI town hall that the agency held with his employees.
“AI can make our work more efficient,” he added during the live event. “But that’s only if we approach these new tools the right way, with the same pillars that have defined us from the beginning: safety, transparency and reliability.”
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NASA is no stranger to AI; the agency has been using the technology in various capacities for decades, Nelson emphasized. But AI capabilities are improving rapidly these days, so NASA is stepping up its efforts to understand the technology, as well as to develop and deploy it properly.
Last week, for example, NASA announced the appointment of its first AI chief, David Salvagnini, who had served as the agency’s chief data officer. And he and his colleagues aim to soon make the entire NASA workforce more AI-literate.
“Part of what we’re going to be doing — and you’ll see the announcement soon — is the Summer of AI, which is a learning initiative where everyone at NASA will have an opportunity to learn more about AI,” Salvanini said during today’s town hall .
“It’s literally a campaign,” he added. “It’s going to be kind of a leap, if you will, of a learning opportunity.”
Salvagnini also discussed the safety of AI. Responsible use of technology begins with a mindset that keeps humanity centered and responsible, he said. In fact, Salvagnini said he would prefer the term “assistive intelligence” to “artificial intelligence” because it puts us in the driver’s seat.
AI “is a resource that I now have access to that can help me in my decision-making process,” Salvagnini said. “The AI is not responsible for the outcome. Man is responsible; the man is responsible.’
He pointed to forecasters’ modeling of possible hurricane tracks as an analogy for the responsible use of AI. Modelers present multiple potential leads because they are aware of the limitations of the data sets they analyze. In other words, they use their judgment.
“Then how are we to be safe?” said Salvagini. “We understand our responsibility as the ultimate responsible party when it comes to…our work products. And then if we happen to use AI as part of generating work product, that’s fine, but just understand its capabilities and limitations. “
AI safety wasn’t the only topic during today’s town hall, however; Agency officials also spent a lot of time extolling the technology’s promise.
“AI will help us in so many areas,” said NASA Deputy Administrator Pam Melroy.
She cited the technology’s power to sift through vast amounts of information quickly and efficiently — an ability that could lead to major breakthroughs in heliophysics, Earth science and astronomy.
“We don’t even know yet what new insights we’ll gain by using these new techniques to look at old data in new ways,” Melroy said.
Some of those insights could be an indirect benefit of the technology, she and other town hall speakers said: AI can increasingly take over mundane, labor-intensive data analysis tasks, freeing up NASA employees to tackle more difficult and complex problems .
Melroy ended his prepared remarks today with a qualified endorsement of AI, striking a similar tone to that set by Nelson and Salvaghini.
“So in closing, I just want to emphasize that this is a powerful, ingenious and very exciting tool,” she said. “But if we don’t manage it responsibly, we open ourselves up to a world of risk that threatens our credibility and our mission.”
