Google gets first response from TPU in orbit: Pichai says "a haiku"
First seen on X 8 hours ago@sundarpichai ♥ 15,8331 views
"A 'hello world' milestone for Project Suncatcher," Google CEO Sundar Pichai wrote on X on Oct. 30. After launching a prototype satellite a few weeks ago, Google sent a command to orbit, booted the TPU, ran a prompt and received its first complete response on Earth, a haiku. The post passed 16,000 likes and 1.43 million views.
Google's news account said it sent four TPUs into orbit on Oct. 1 to test whether its AI hardware can operate in space. Taiwan's TechNews reported the satellite launched on SpaceX's Transporter-18 mission that day and the team confirmed contact. Google first revealed Project Suncatcher last November.
It is the first confirmation that compute in orbit can take a command from the ground and answer. The satellite carries four TPUs, far from data-center scale. TestingCatalog wrote "Curious which model is running there" (30 likes), and ns123abc wrote that Google "proved AI data centers in space actually work," which drew 1,300 likes.
“A ‘hello world’ milestone for Project Suncatcher 🚀 After launching our prototype satellite a few weeks ago, we’ve now successfully sent a command up to orbit, booted up…”
