ROBOT PILOT IS A REAL-LIFE SKYNET
AI jet’s dogfight with human
AN AI-controlled fighter jet tried to “terminate” a human pilot during a world-first real-life dogfight – luckily, the killer robot wasn’t quite up to speed.
The action happened during “nose-tonose engagements” in which dogfighting aircraft got as close as 610 metres at 1,900 kilometres per hour, the US Air Force said on Wednesday.
A manned F-16 aircraft took on the computercontrolled X-62A VISTA jet at the Air Force Test Pilot School at Edwards Air Force Base, California.
Just in case the machine became self-aware and annihilated all before it, the X62A was flown with safety pilots onboard with the independent ability to disengage the AI. However, test pilots did not have to activate the safety switch at any point during the dogfights.
While traditional autonomy has been executed for decades, machine learning has been historically prohibited due to high risk and lack of independent control.
The program is being executed by the US Department of Defense DARPA agency’s Air Combat Evolution (ACE) in conjunction with the US Air Force.
The USAF say it took less than a year for the teams to progress from initial installation of live AI agents into the X-62A’s systems to demonstrate the first AI versus human within-visual-range engagements, or dogfights.
Trust
“We have to be able to trust these algorithms to use them in a real-world setting,” said Lt Col Ryan Hefron, ACE program manager for DARPA.
“The potential for autonomous air-to-air combat has been imaginable for decades, but the reality has remained a distant dream up until now.
“This is a transformational moment, all made possible by breakthrough accomplishments of the X-62A ACE team,” said Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall.