Skip to content
ERP LEADERS
Subscribe to the brief Follow on LinkedIn

The news behind the software that runs companies, explained for everyone.

ERP programmes

SAP says its AI model is 50,000 times more energy-efficient than chatbot AI. It plans to run it on the space station.

SAP-RPT, its AI model for data in rows and columns, is planned to run aboard the International Space Station by early 2027, on a computer from Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE), SAP announced.

ERP LEADERS news desk · · First reported by SAP News Center · Edition no. 54
Photo: NASA/Wikimedia, Public domain · original

There it is meant to read the station's sensor data and warn of failures before they escalate.

"Space is the ultimate stress test for AI," said Mayank Shrivastava, SAP's vice president of generative AI and foundation models. "This is the same model that will predict supplier risk, cash flow anomalies, and equipment failures," he added.

SAP's comparison is with state-of-the-art large language models, the kind behind chatbots. It gave no method for the 50,000 figure.

SAP says the model makes predictions straight from table data, even with gaps, without the usual model training or fine-tuning.

On Earth, the same model would read ERP tables, the records of a company's orders and invoices. A warning there only helps if a controller can see why the model raised it.

Sources

Spotted an error? Tell us. Every correction is logged on Standards.

Your reading room

Companies in this story
SAP

Our file on SAP

  1. 2 NovFiled later

    SAP says more than 18,000 people work for it in India, its second-largest location. Teams there help build Joule, SAP's AI assistant.

  2. 2 NovFiled later

    Erasmus University's move from SAP to Oracle is 70% over budget, at €20.2m. A one-year delay cost €4.5m of that.

  3. 1 NovFiled later

    SAP introduced a tool flagging AI agents that may be high-risk in the EU. EU fines for breaches reach 3% of turnover.

  4. 1 NovFiled later

    SAP paid about €518 million for AI start-up Prior Labs. Last quarter it added less than €1 million to SAP's sales.

  5. 1 NovFiled later

    Microsoft said Foundry will get the tool GitHub uses to run AI agents. SAP may cut off agents skipping its approved routes.

All 90 SAP stories

For your next steering committee

Questions for your own programme. They are not findings about any company in this story.

  1. 1Ask which AI tools already touch your ERP or finance data, including the ones nobody approved.
  2. 2Ask what each tool is allowed to change, and who reviews what it changed.
  3. 3Ask how the result is measured, and who decides to switch a tool off.

Issue 01 of the ERP LEADERS brief puts a timeline, the three-number review and six questions on one page. Read issue 01

Founding reader view is on in this browser. It is a reading view, not secure access. Print the working sheet

Founding reader

Welcome back. · Issue 01

2 comments under this story on LinkedIn. Read the discussion

Keep reading

The ERP LEADERS brief Subscribe