We are proud to have legendary space artist David A. Hardy among our ranks. He created two wonderful paintings of AI interstellar probes, inspired by the paper by Andreas Hein & Stephen Baxter published in the Journal of the British Interplanetary Society.
The probe's characteristic features are large solar panels at the front for generating power for the AI (small white box between the two heat shields) and a large radiator in the back for radiating away the heat generated by the AI. The probe would roam the exosolar system, collect, and analyze data. It uses sophisticated strategies for only sending back scientifically interesting data.
A fascinating scenario is the encounter with an extraterrestrial intelligence. Will the AI be smart enough to ensure a "safe" encounter with an alien lurker? The paper briefly looks into the question how far there is a guarantee that such an encounter can actually be safe. (Spoiler: There is a mathematical proof that this is impossible to guarantee.)
