Humanity uploaded an AI to Mars and lets it shoot rocks with lasers

Curiosity Rover's autonomous operation experiments have been a great success, say astro-boffins

In late 2015 NASA gave the Curiosity Mars rover a software upgrade to let it operate autonomously. The Autonomous Exploration for Gathering Increased Science (AEGIS) code was uploaded because the rover can't be told what to do during the long periods communication with Earth is not possible. A little autonomy, NASA reckoned, could mean Curiosity could do more and perhaps better science."