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200221 https://hdl.handle.net/2286/R.2.N.200221 http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/ http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0 2025-05 43 pages Heldman, Madison Foy, Joseph Marsteller, Sara Barrett, The Honors College School of Earth and Space Exploration For just over a million years, humanity and technology have continued to evolve alongside one another as a product of the other’s ongoing success and advancement. One of the most dynamic technological advancements of the twenty-first century is that of artificial intelligence (AI). Although only a relatively recently emerging technology, AI has come to gain significant mainstream popularity, as its flexibility and adaptability has made its use appealing to both the general public and various industries. However, the popularity of AI has not led to a sudden mass understanding of how this tool and its many sub-branches work, as well as how to differentiate content produced by AI and content produced by humans or nonautonomous systems. In particular, there is a growing misconception that the images of space published by NASA are merely artificially generated images. Although harmful, this false claim is to be expected from members of the pseudoscience community, or science denialists, as these individuals always look to find ways to undermine true science. The public’s general unawareness of how AI works, the true applications of AI within space science, and how space images are captured leaves this subject as an easy target for science denialists when it comes to spreading misinformation. The spread of this misconception very well may lead to the space industry’s demise, and this area of research is critically underdeveloped considering the general interest in the future of AI and the threat that the misunderstanding in its use may pose to space science. This paper aims to understand how these misconceptions of AI usage within the space industry are formed, as well as the detrimental effects to the industry they perpetuate if left unaddressed as a proposal – and plea – for future research interest. Artificial Intelligence Astronomy AI Space Industry NASA space imaging Misconceptions Pseudoscience science denial Machine learning Understanding the Misconceptions of AI Usage Within and Its Detriment to the Space Industry