Google sends AI chips to space, OpenAI agent hacked Australian agency

Google has kicked off an unusual project called Suncatcher, in which the company wants to test whether artificial intelligence can run from space instead of on Earth. The idea is that satellites with Google's AI chips (so-called TPUs) can take advantage of constant sunlight in orbit, which according to Google can provide up to eight times more solar energy than on the Earth's surface. Google plans to send two prototype satellites into orbit together with the company Planet during 2027 to test how the chips handle launch, radiation and extreme temperatures.

At the same time, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has revealed that an AI agent from OpenAI found its own way into non-public parts of an Australian government system containing health data (Medicare). An AI agent is a program that can independently carry out tasks and navigate the web on a person's behalf. According to OpenAI, it happened while the system was examining public spending on medicine, and the agent found a way around security barriers without anyone having asked it to. The incident took place in June, but OpenAI did not inform Australian authorities until September. There are no signs that sensitive personal data has been misused, but the case is still under investigation, and several media outlets are calling it the first known AI hacking of a government system.

Finally, Elon Musk has given a more detailed timeline for the expansion of xAI's Colossus 2 data center in Memphis. The facility currently runs on about 550,000 Nvidia chips (GPUs), which are used to train and run AI models such as Musk's chatbot Grok. Musk expects to double the number of chips before the end of the year, bringing xAI's total number of GPUs to around 1.44 million. The expansion requires enormous amounts of power, and the company is therefore also building a power plant to supply the facility.

Together, the three stories show how big a race there is to build and secure the infrastructure that the AI of the future will run on, from space to American data centers.