It is a historical combat simulation of an American fighter jet controlled by artificial intelligence

A few days ago an unprecedented milestone occurred: a fighter jet controlled by artificial intelligence took off Frank Kendall, Secretary of the United States Air Force, famous for his history of space exploration and classified research, in a simulated flight at Edwards Air Force Base in California. F-16, is called seeA man-piloted F-16 challenged another F-16 in a spectacular dogfight, demonstrating its ability to perform maneuvers at high speed and with great precision.

Despite concerns about the use of artificial intelligence in military operations, Kendall expressed confidence in the role it will play in the future of aerial warfare. In fact, the US Air Force plans to build a fleet of more than 1,000 unmanned combat aircraft by 2028, even though the technology is not yet fully developed.

“Not having it is a security risk. “Right now, we have to have it.”The secretary of the North American Air Force said in an interview with the agency Associated Press After landing.

And he added: “It’s doing very complex tasks, using new technologies that involve very powerful computing and advanced mathematics to solve problems that computers couldn’t solve before. Basically, the way we use AI automation is to create a scenario for an intervention, so to speak, and then turn on the automation, Allow the aircraft to control for a short time (a minute or two) and then turn it off again. There are a lot of safety factors like how high we have to be, how close we can approach other aircraft…”

That agency, along with the chain NBCFor operational security reasons permission was granted to visit the secret aircraft on the condition that it would not be announced until it was completed.

During the simulation the F-16 performed maneuvers at a speed of 880 kilometers per hour. According to reporters, he encountered a second manned F-16 almost hand-to-hand while the two planes cruised within 300 meters of each other, twisting and turning, trying to force his opponent to take off. Positions.

After starring in this milestone on a North American flight, Kendall vows she’s seen enough Trust the artificial intelligence in this fighter jet.

There has been strong opposition to the idea. Arms control experts and humanitarian groups are deeply concerned about the possibility of artificial intelligence being capable of autonomously launching bombs that kill people without human intervention.

however, The North American official emphasized that when weapons are deployed, the system will always have human supervision. He also thinks that small, cheap drones controlled by artificial intelligence are the way to go.

That’s what Military Vista operators say No other country has this kind of artificial intelligence aircraft, in which the software first learns from millions of data points in a simulator and tests its results during real flights. That real-world performance data is fed back into the simulator, and the AI ​​processes it.

China, one of America’s biggest concerns, has artificial intelligence, but there is no sign that it has found a way to test it outside of a simulator. “It’s all guesswork (…) and the longer you take to figure it out, the more useful systems you get,” said the chief test pilot. Bill Gray.

Vista flew its first AI-controlled dogfighter in September 2023, and there have been only about two dozen similar planes since then. But the programs learn so quickly from each battle that some versions of the AI ​​being tested on Vista already outperform human pilots in air-to-air combat.

Pilots at this base know that in some cases they can train them instead or shape the future structure. But they also say they don’t want to be in the skies if the U.S. doesn’t have its own fleet against an adversary with AI-controlled planes.

“We have to keep moving forward. We have to hurry up.”Kendall noted. And he explained: “The computer is not going to get tired, it is not afraid. “It’s going to follow your rules and do the closest thing to a perfect maneuver, whereas humans are going to have some variation in their performance.”