China brings AI Sun Wukong to "Heavenly Palace"

The newest addition to China's Tiangong space station is an AI chatbot specializing in navigation and tactical planning. It's named Wukong AI – after the main character of the "Monkey King" legend in Chinese mythology, Sun Wukong.

This AI chatbot was put into service on the space station in mid-July and has already completed its first mission: assisting three astronauts during a spacewalk.

"Monkey King" Sun Wukong, in his role as an AI chatbot, ensures the safety of astronauts on China's Tiangong Space Station. Photo: GenAI

Information about Wukong AI remains limited. Chinese authorities say they developed it from a domestic open-source AI model. According to Xinhua, China's state news agency, engineers designed it to meet the requirements of manned space missions and focused its knowledge base on aerospace flight data.

Zou Pengfei of the astronaut training center told Xinhua News Agency: "This system can provide rapid and effective information support for complex operations and error handling by crew members, improve work efficiency, support morale in orbit, and coordinate between space and ground teams."

Technicians connected the AI to Tiangong on July 15. The system began providing support a month later, marking the first time the Chinese space station used a large language model (LLM) in orbital missions.

Wukong AI assisted the crew during a six-and-a-half-hour mission, which included the astronauts installing a space debris protection device during a spacewalk and performing routine station checks.

The Taikonaut astronauts claim their new assistant "provides very comprehensive content." Chinese media describe Wukong AI as a classic question-and-answer system divided into two modules: one installed on the space station and one on Earth.

China's Tiangong space station in space. Photo: Xinhua News Agency

The ground module performs in-depth analysis, while the module accompanying the crew addresses immediate challenges. The combination of both creates an advanced assistant capable of adapting to each mission.

Wukong is not the first AI system in space, nor is it the first on the station. The International Space Station already has Astrobee, a robot that assists astronauts with daily tasks, and CIMON, a psychocommunication support system. What makes Wukong AI unique is that it combines the functions of an intelligent assistant—similar to those used on Earth—with a focus entirely on space navigation.

The Tiangong Space Station is central to China's strategy to solidify its position as a space power over the next 30 years. Currently, it serves as a microgravity laboratory for experiments impossible to conduct on Earth. In the future, China plans to expand it and transform it into an intermediate logistics and training platform between the Moon and the Earth's surface.

So what's the reason this AI is named Sun Wukong? Sun Wukong is a mythological character appearing in the classic novel Journey to the West . In China, he symbolizes wisdom, adaptability, endurance, and a thirst for knowledge.