Jack of Harts

The AI Council actually went to the Moon, Mars, and beyond before the rest of humanity did. Not needing life support systems to survive tends to make designing long-range spacecraft much easier. They colonized Venus and then the outer system long before biological humans followed them using laser-powered solar sails that flung microchip spacecraft towards their destinations, where they quickly began building more of themselves. Powerful lasers could even accelerate them up to significant percentages of the speed of light, and they were first Earth explorers to arrive in Alpha Centauri. By the time the rest of humanity arrived on their hyperspace-capable colony ships, the AI Council welcomed them from every rock in the system.