ChatGPT on Mars: Scientists Explore the Red Planet with AI

Mars, for example, offers an Earth-like climate, an abundance of organic matter, and the presence of oxygen and carbon dioxide in its atmosphere. Moreover, the planet is relatively close to us on a cosmic scale, almost next door. ChatGPT, an AI-driven language model, has been fine-tuned to cater to each user's needs and can conduct complex dialogues with humans. However, it remains utterly unclear how GPT might converse if it encounters an actual Martian. But language barriers may not be our most pressing concern.

Humanity has been evolving for hundreds of thousands of years, consistently amassing experience and knowledge. This process continues unabated. While it's uncertain if all human knowledge has been transferred into AI databases, or if it's even necessary, the depth of knowledge AI displays is astounding.

During our evolution, humans have developed intuitive thinking, something that no machine intelligence can yet replicate. Humans make decisions and act based on intuition. Sometimes, these actions prove to be the only correct ones.

A Mars rover, loaded with AI and various high-tech gadgets, could methodically examine the surface of the planet. In doing so, it will continually learn and evolve. This presents a paradox: humanity has embedded another evolutionary process - artificial intelligence - within its own evolution.

The long-term implications of this are currently unknown. Some worry that the results might be less than ideal. However, for the exploration of the red planet, this dual evolution could yield the best results.

Steve Ruff, Associate Research Professor at State University's School of Earth and Space Exploration in Tempe, Arizona, elucidates, "My immediate reaction is that it's highly unlikely that 'on-the-spot' manuscripts would be a realistic scenario given how the process involves debates among the team over the observations and their interpretation," Ruff said. "I'm skeptical that any AI, trained on existing observations, could be used to confidently interpret new observations without humans in the loop, especially with new instrument datasets that have not been available previously. Every such dataset requires painstaking efforts to sort out."

Ruff believes that AI can be trusted with tasks like selecting movement targets, navigation, communication, and logging activities. However, when it comes to making sense of the results, human intuition is often indispensable.

AI collects data and handles the initial analysis, and then humans step in to process the information and make conclusions. 
Furthermore, “ChatGPT is not 100% accurate and it is prone to 'hallucination,” confirms Sercan Ozcan, Reader in Innovation and Technology Management at the University of Portsmouth in the United Kingdom.

For instance, it could concoct an essay about a non-existent work, or describe an individual who never lived.

The problem is that even here on Earth, in the familiar information sphere where it was created, ChatGPT sometimes experiences difficulties. How this artificial intelligence will perform on another planet, where even the horizon is utterly unlike ours, is anybody's guess.

As of now, the scholarly consensus is emphatic: AI should either be employed solely for navigation and taking 'snapshots,' or exclusively in collaboration with a team of scientists.