Actually your last paragraph is a major plot point of several of the bobiverse books. To get the “Ai” they basically take a human brain and put it in the first satallite but as copies are made of copies they are not “identical” and yeah… No spoilers.

They basically hand wave away the resource gathering, think like a replicator on star trek… It just needs matter and can make anything.

It’s a very interesting book series if you are into sci-fi. It’s very unique and I haven’t seen a similar book series before or after.