Frank Kendall was very impressed after the flight and said he had confidence in his ability to decide whether to fire the weapon.
Saturday 4th May 2024 10:30, UK
An AI-controlled fighter jet carried Air Force officials on a groundbreaking test flight over California.
Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall sat in the cockpit as an experimental F-16 jet called Vista soared over Edwards Air Force Base at more than 850 mph.
It was a close encounter with a second human-piloted F-16, with both aircraft racing to within 1,000 feet of each other, twisting and looping in an attempt to force the other into a vulnerable position.
Kendall's escape was a further expression of confidence in post-war artificial intelligence. The first known battle between a human pilot and a fighter jet controlled by AI last month.
Thursday's flight lasted an hour, and the U.S. Air Force hopes to deploy more than 1,000 AI-controlled jets over the next few years.
“It's a safety risk not to have it. At this point, we have to have it,” said Kendall, who climbed out of the cockpit with a laugh.
Pilots working on Vista hope to have the first squadron completed by 2028, and say the program is learning so quickly that some pilots have already defeated human pilots in combat. There is.
The idea is that unmanned aircraft can provide advance attacks on enemy defenses and penetrate airspace without posing high risks to human pilots.
But this change is also being driven by cost, as AI planes are smaller and cheaper to produce.
The US Air Force remains hampered by delays and cost overruns on its F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program, which is estimated to cost $1.7 trillion (£1.35 trillion).
Meanwhile, China's air force continues to outpace the United States in military strength and is also developing unmanned weapons, but there are no signs of a breakthrough yet. A.I. Test outside the simulator.
“Anxiety about life-or-death decisions”
Vista operators, who have flown it about 24 times since September, say no other country has a similar AI jet. The software learns on millions of data points in the simulator and tests its conclusions in real flight.
Real-world performance data is fed back into the simulator, where the AI processes it and learns more.
Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall was so impressed that he said he would trust the Air Force to decide whether to fire weapons in war.
That's a controversial view. Arms control experts and humanitarian organizations are calling for limits on their use, fearing that AI may one day be able to drop bombs autonomously without further human consultation.
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The International Committee of the Red Cross warned that there are “serious concerns about relying on sensors and software to make life-or-death decisions.”
Kendall said there is always human oversight when weapons are used.
The pilots programming Vista know they may be training their successors, but they also fear fighting an enemy AI fleet.
“We've got to keep running, and we've got to keep going fast,” Kendall said.
