  The large distances involved in interstellar travel require a high degree of
spacecraft autonomy, realized by artificial intelligence. The breadth of tasks
artificial intelligence could perform on such spacecraft involves maintenance,
data collection, designing and constructing an infrastructure using in-situ
resources. Despite its importance, existing publications on artificial
intelligence and interstellar travel are limited to cursory descriptions where
little detail is given about the nature of the artificial intelligence. This
article explores the role of artificial intelligence for interstellar travel by
compiling use cases, exploring capabilities, and proposing typologies, system
and mission architectures. Estimations for the required intelligence level for
specific types of interstellar probes are given, along with potential system
and mission architectures, covering those proposed in the literature but also
presenting novel ones. Finally, a generic design for interstellar probes with
an AI payload is proposed. Given current levels of increase in computational
power, a spacecraft with a similar computational power as the human brain would
have a mass from dozens to hundreds of tons in a 2050-2060 timeframe. Given
that the advent of the first interstellar missions and artificial general
intelligence are estimated to be by the mid-21st century, a more in-depth
exploration of the relationship between the two should be attempted, focusing
on neglected areas such as protecting the artificial intelligence payload from
radiation in interstellar space and the role of artificial intelligence in
self-replication.
