Pick a known AI cluster from Epoch AI’s GPU cluster data, find it in free satellite imagery and document how it has grown over time.
Verifying international AI agreements may depend on finding large data centres. The Federation of American Scientists has shown satellite imagery can track them.
Output: A short visual report with before/after images and estimates.
Read FAS’s report on tracking hyperscale AI data centres with satellite imagery. Note what visible clues they use.
Pick a cluster from Epoch AI’s GPU clusters dataset with a publicly known location.
Use a free tool with historical imagery. Capture images from several dates and estimate building footprint and power infrastructure.
Using public figures, make a rough, clearly-labelled estimate of capacity. Show your uncertainty.
Explain what satellites can and cannot tell us, and what that means for verifying agreements.
All steps done
Share what you made, then try another project. The PDF version has room for notes.
Pick one verification mechanism, such as network taps, trusted execution environments, chip telemetry or satellite monitoring, and write a short, clear analysis of how it works and how it could fail.
Download Epoch AI’s free dataset of notable AI models, chart training compute over time in Python, estimate how fast it grows, and count how many models cross the EU AI Act’s compute threshold.
New methods let models train across many loosely connected computers. Use Epoch AI’s simulator and recent papers to analyse whether this undermines governance based on big data centres.
Export controls target data-centre chips. But consumer hardware keeps getting better, and frontier-level performance reaches it within about a year. Update the analysis with the latest hardware.
