If we ever encounter aliens, they will resemble AI and not little green martians | Seth Shostak

Artificial intelligence aliens may not be as appealing as those who are warm-blooded and squishy, but it's probably more accurate to imagine them that way

I'm an astronomer at the Seti Institute, a non-profit research organization in California's Silicon Valley. My colleagues and I look for extraterrestrial life, including intelligent beings - or in the vernacular, aliens. It's exciting times for people like me, because extra-terrestrial life is being widely discussed now in the lead-up to the Pentagon's highly anticipated report on so-called unexplained aerial phenomena.

Yet I should say straight away that I am not expecting any big revelations out of the report. I think it's overwhelmingly likely that aliens are present in our galaxy. But I don't believe they're hanging out in our airspace. Not now, and not in historic times.