Google satellite writes AI poetry in orbit with onboard processor

Google has demonstrated that a satellite can generate AI-written poetry in orbit, using an onboard computer chip to process a prompt sent from Earth. The experiment is part of Project Suncatcher, which explores the future of orbital data centres. The satellite, launched October 1, 2026, on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, ran Google's Gemma 4 AI model on a Tensor Processing Unit (TPU). It produced a haiku about its surroundings, proving AI inference can work directly in space after about three weeks of commissioning. Operating AI in orbit faces challenges like radiation-induced bit flips, temperature extremes, and limited power, as the satellite can run only one TPU at a time. Google plans two more satellites in 2027 to test optical links, though commercial orbital data centres remain distant.