The SETI Institute and Breakthrough Listen have handed day-to-day operations of the 42-antenna Allen Telescope Array in Northern California over to AI agents. Researchers issue instructions in natural language, while the agents calibrate instruments, correct errors, analyze live radio data and steer the antennas. The system handles up to 2.4 terabits of sensor data per second using Nvidia RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell GPUs and performs inference on site without transferring data elsewhere. In February 2025, the processing pipeline achieved real-time detection of giant pulses from the Crab Pulsar, running approximately 600 times faster than previous benchmarks. The integration is not a detection of extraterrestrial intelligence, but a way to translate researchers’ intentions into automated telescope operations.
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