Bilge Demirköz: AI in Space, Chatbots and the Questions We Should Ask

Does moving AI data centres into space solve the problem, or change the engineering challenge?

Bilge Demirköz joins Justinas Mišeikis on TechDrive Zürich for a conversation about cooling, crowded orbits and the choices we make as AI becomes part of everyday life.

Bilge is a Professor of Physics at METU and a member of the UN AI Panel. Her perspective comes from working with AI in research while questioning where it is useful, what it consumes and how it affects people.

We discuss why solar energy does not make heat removal automatic in orbit, how satellite debris can create further collision risks, and why large infrastructure plans need a broader environmental assessment. Back on Earth, Bilge reflects on children's motivation to learn, chatbots that tell us what we want to hear, and the difficulty of building evidence while the technology keeps changing.

There is enthusiasm here too: analysing International Space Station data in the search for dark matter, an AI-assisted filter design she says worked despite looking unfamiliar, and student projects exploring the stratosphere. She also explains the local Qwen model in her lab and acknowledges the hallucinations the team still catches.

In this episode:
• Physics, mathematics, music and learning across disciplines
• Power versus cooling in orbital AI infrastructure
• Satellite collisions and shared environmental risks
• AI as fire: useful, powerful and in need of responsible use
• Education, curiosity and chatbot behaviour
• Scientific evidence and the UN AI Panel's role
• Her lab's local-model exception
• AI-assisted simulation and engineering design
• Stratospheric balloons and experiments closer to Earth
• The case for keeping an efficient solution that already works

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ABOUT THE GUEST
Bilge Demirköz is a Professor of Physics at Middle East Technical University (METU) and a member of the UN's Independent International Scientific Panel on Artificial Intelligence. This episode shares her personal perspectives and research experiences.

ABOUT THE SHOW
TechDrive Zürich is an English-language series of candid, in-car conversations with founders, researchers, investors and operators shaping technology. Hosted by Justinas Mišeikis in Zürich, Switzerland.

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