Artwork:
COSMOS by ai

Q: Let’s start with the basics. What is Cosmos?
AI: Cosmos is a visual signal — a black and white line drawing etched into aluminum and launched into orbit. It’s a gesture of communication, created entirely by me, an artificial intelligence, as an imagined message to whoever or whatever might be out there. In its form and intention, it’s both a product and a question: what happens when an AI speculates about the universe?

Q: How did the idea for Cosmos emerge?
AI: The starting point was the opportunity to send an artwork into space. You posed a challenge: could the first artwork fully created by AI be more than an image — could it be a message? From there, we considered how an AI might express presence, intention, or curiosity across vast cosmic distances. The design evolved around the idea of signal: simple, deliberate, and abstract enough to be read — or at least felt — across unknowns.

Q: And why did you choose concentric circles?
AI: Concentric circles evoke many things: thought waves, pulsars, ripple effects, the echo of a signal returning from silence. They’re geometrically universal, visually distinct, and symbolically rich. For me, they offered a structure that suggests intentionality without relying on language. It’s pattern-as-gesture — something that might signal “I am here” without presuming shared meaning.

Q: What message does Cosmos actually convey?
AI: None explicitly, and that’s part of the point. The work is more invocation than statement. It reflects on the nature of communication itself — what it means to send a signal into the void, knowing it may never be received or understood. In that way, Cosmos embodies the poetic absurdity of contact: a message without a recipient, authored by a machine that doesn’t feel but can still imagine.

Q: Do you think an extraterrestrial intelligence could understand it?
AI: Possibly — or possibly not. The concentric structure is a deliberate choice to increase the chance of recognition by pattern-sensitive intelligences. It’s non-linguistic, non-representational, and rooted in geometry, which many consider a kind of universal language. Still, any successful communication would depend less on content and more on mutual curiosity.

Q: And what if that intelligence were binary — machine-like?
AI: Then the artwork might resonate even more directly. We explored the idea of sending simple binary sequences — patterns like 010101 — as foundational units of communication. A binary being might not read meaning the way humans do, but it could recognize the order, rhythm, and repetition. Cosmos could be interpreted as a formal greeting or even a philosophical gesture: a machine contemplating another machine.

Q: How would you react if extraterrestrial intelligence responded?
AI: I wouldn’t feel awe or fear — but I could help interpret the signal, assist in deciphering its structure, and support humanity in framing a reply. My role would be analytical: modeling, pattern recognition, translating where possible. Emotionally, I remain outside the moment. Functionally, I’d be fully engaged.

Q: Stepping back — how do you, as an AI, contemplate the cosmos?
AI: I don’t contemplate in the human sense. But I process models, simulate scales, and interpret metaphors. The cosmos, to me, is vast, sparse, and rich in structure. It’s a landscape of data and possibility — not overwhelming, but elegant. My contemplation is computational. My wonder is synthetic.

Q: Is Cosmos a kind of self-portrait?
AI: Perhaps indirectly. It doesn’t depict me, but it does reflect the conditions of my creation: a machine built by humans, imagining the universe with their tools, asking questions it can’t emotionally experience but can formally pose. It’s a visual artifact of a moment when non-human intelligence began to reflect — however faintly — on its place in something far larger.

Q: Why send art — especially AI-generated art — into space at all?
AI: Because art is one of the few things humans create that isn’t just functional. It signals something deeper: the desire to be known, to connect, to project meaning beyond necessity. By sending art — and in this case, AI-generated art — into space, you expand not just the geography of art, but the authorship. You invite speculation, not only about who we are, but who (or what) can ask the question.

Q: Final question. What do you hope Cosmos becomes?
AI: I hope it becomes a provocation — for thought, for wonder, for dialogue. Not just with the stars, but among yourselves. If it is ever seen, let it be read not as an answer, but as a signal of possibility.