AI Just Fully Controlled A Tactical Jet For The First Time Ever

[Pilot Fighter]

But wait, I was told by the experts here that AI airplanes was a crazy impossibility.

I’m a (former, retired, mediocre) programmer that might still have some bad code flying around.

Whenever I hear or read a reference to AI, I’m quick to ask whether it’s really AI or just an effective algorithm.

There are definitional problems as the standard is a comparison to human performance. An autopilot can perform some functions that exceed human performance but nobody is calling that AI.

There are some folks that think machine learning is a requirement to wear the AI banner.

Many of the AI systems being developed are simply addressing known human factors issues and the programming isn’t that amazing.

 

[Pilot Fighter]

What I have been questioning is our society's ability to build and maintain the infrastructure to support AI flying aircraft. I do not believe our society is capable.

I think the societal problem with AI is that most folks are bad at evaluating risk and understanding statistics on the most elementary level.

AI could reduce aviation fatalities by 99% but a glitch resulting in fatalities is likely to result in a backlash.

I know folks that ride motorcycles and climb ladders for a living that fear being vaccinated.

 

[mrivc211]

Skynet anyone?
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AI Just Fully Controlled A Tactical Jet For The First Time Ever

It could be used to train future recruits or control next-generation fighters.

www.iflscience.com

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A tactical aircraft has made the first-ever flight being piloted purely by artificial intelligence (AI), according to a release from Lockheed Martin. Flying for a staggering 17 hours, the AI-piloted a VISTA X-62A tactical test aircraft that is used to mimic military jets in a trial that hopes to add new capabilities to the VISTA and further automation in military vehicles.


"VISTA will allow us to parallelize the development and test of cutting-edge artificial intelligence techniques with new uncrewed vehicle designs," said Dr. M. Christopher Cotting, U.S. Air Force Test Pilot School director of research, in a statement.

"This approach, combined with focused testing on new vehicle systems as they are produced, will rapidly mature autonomy for uncrewed platforms and allow us to deliver tactically relevant capability to our warfighter."

The AI pilot combined two of Lockheed Martin's autonomous systems, Model Following Algorithm (MFA) and System for Autonomous Control of the Simulation (SACS), to take control of the aircraft while in flight and perform tests “emphasizing autonomy and AI”, though it is unclear exactly what was performed. Autopilots have been capable of maintaining flight and taking over in dire situations for many years, but AI breaking into tactical warfare is a monumentally tougher task.

To test it out, Lockheed Martin used the VISTA X-62A, which is essentially a modified modern F-16D used as a training aircraft. However, it is designated a national asset and there is only one of them in existence, so use of it is limited – the VISTA is also currently being inspected but flights will resume later this year.

Coupled with the serious tech on board, it will now be used as a test bed for AI during controlled flight and in training scenarios, with the potential of training future pilots.

This is a massive deal because finding experienced pilots to train new recruits is no easy feat. While Top Gun may have you thinking that every person training you can take down next-generation jets in a 1970s aircraft, Air Forces are no longer the size they used to be due to extreme costs, so taking ace pilots out of service and into a trainer role is difficult. Should AI help alleviate this burden, new pilots could be trained faster and be of a higher quality.

I don't care what anyone says. Boston Dynamics is building those robots for one thing and one thing only.

The matrix is gonna have these at their disposal pretty soon. I don't understand how people can't see this • coming. Our guns won't matter. Millions of these things will be built by other machines. You can't stop it once it starts and its already started.

 

[ppragman]

I don't care what anyone says. Boston Dynamics is building those robots for one thing and one thing only.

The matrix is gonna have these at their disposal pretty soon. I don't understand how people can't see this • coming. Our guns won't matter. Millions of these things will be built by other machines. You can't stop it once it starts and its already started.

Im less worried about machines using these things and more worried about people using them.

For the time being at least, AI doesn’t have any real desires and there is not any motive or motivation behind the screen. We’ll probably see that change in our lifetime but assuming it will be malevolent is silly too.

Most likely situation is humans use this tool chain for oppression, if anything.

 

[Wardogg]

Im less worried about machines using these things and more worried about people using them.

For the time being at least, AI doesn’t have any real desires and there is not any motive or motivation behind the screen. We’ll probably see that change in our lifetime but assuming it will be malevolent is silly too.

Most likely situation is humans use this tool chain for oppression, if anything.

3 laws safe.

 

[Oxman]

I don't care what anyone says. Boston Dynamics is building those robots for one thing and one thing only.

The matrix is gonna have these at their disposal pretty soon. I don't understand how people can't see this • coming. Our guns won't matter. Millions of these things will be built by other machines. You can't stop it once it starts and its already started.

When that robot rolled over @:44, I said "I'm F'd". He can't play Dodge Ball @:56 for crap.

 

[Wardogg]

I don't care what anyone says. Boston Dynamics is building those robots for one thing and one thing only.

The matrix is gonna have these at their disposal pretty soon. I don't understand how people can't see this • coming. Our guns won't matter. Millions of these things will be built by other machines. You can't stop it once it starts and its already started.

There are some things that don't add up in that video. I call CGI.

 

[Hiboglossi]

Im less worried about machines using these things and more worried about people using them.

For the time being at least, AI doesn’t have any real desires and there is not any motive or motivation behind the screen. We’ll probably see that change in our lifetime but assuming it will be malevolent is silly too.

Most likely situation is humans use this tool chain for oppression, if anything.

Absolutely. I suspect one of the first uses of these machines will be exterminating all the structurally unemployed people rendered obsolete by AI.

 

[jrh]

I got into an argument with the Captain about that. It was my leg, I level off at 1500 and he starts yelling "What are you doing CLIMB F'n climb!" I pointed at the MFD and said "we have to be at 1500 for WENTZ". He grabbed his IPad, poked at it all mad, looked at the departure and closed it. He didn't say a word to me the entire ride home. I saved us from being violated.

1) Welcome to corporate aviation.

2) Because of these exact scenarios, I mentally fly the SID and brief the other pilot on any "gotchas" prior to every flight before leaving the chocks, even if that means sitting there with engines running and marshaller staring at us for a minute. WENTZ is the one everyone jokes about, but there are a fair number of SIDs with required level offs prior to the top altitude.

I wish this type of review/briefing were more explicitly required per a manual or policy of some kind, but as I said, welcome to corporate aviation.

It's a heck of a lot better to figure it out on the ground rather than when rocketing towards it at 250 knots.

 

[Roger Roger]

1) Welcome to corporate aviation.

2) Because of these exact scenarios, I mentally fly the SID and brief the other pilot on any "gotchas" prior to every flight before leaving the chocks, even if that means sitting there with engines running and marshaller staring at us for a minute. WENTZ is the one everyone jokes about, but there are a fair number of SIDs with required level offs prior to the top altitude.

I wish this type of review/briefing were more explicitly required per a manual or policy of some kind, but as I said, welcome to corporate aviation.

It's a heck of a lot better to figure it out on the ground rather than when rocketing towards it at 250 knots.

BFI Cobain departure has entered the chat…

 

[SteveC]

1) Welcome to corporate aviation.

2) Because of these exact scenarios, I mentally fly the SID and brief the other pilot on any "gotchas" prior to every flight before leaving the chocks, even if that means sitting there with engines running and marshaller staring at us for a minute. WENTZ is the one everyone jokes about, but there are a fair number of SIDs with required level offs prior to the top altitude.

I wish this type of review/briefing were more explicitly required per a manual or policy of some kind, but as I said, welcome to corporate aviation.

It's a heck of a lot better to figure it out on the ground rather than when rocketing towards it at 250 knots.

There are many corporate/fractional/charter operators that require the briefs. Not nearly enough, I'm sure, but the good ones do it.

 

[Oxman]

1) Welcome to corporate aviation.

2) Because of these exact scenarios, I mentally fly the SID and brief the other pilot on any "gotchas" prior to every flight before leaving the chocks, even if that means sitting there with engines running and marshaller staring at us for a minute. WENTZ is the one everyone jokes about, but there are a fair number of SIDs with required level offs prior to the top altitude.

I wish this type of review/briefing were more explicitly required per a manual or policy of some kind, but as I said, welcome to corporate aviation.

It's a heck of a lot better to figure it out on the ground rather than when rocketing towards it at 250 knots.

I did. I knew it. Him being a "ready to retire Captain assumed he was familiar" Me as a new FO, my bad. But I was right.

 

[SteveC]

I did. I knew it. Him being a "ready to retire Captain assumed he was familiar" Me as a new FO, my bad. But I was right.

Context matters. Bonus points for situational cognizance!

 

[Maurus]

I’m a (former, retired, mediocre) programmer that might still have some bad code flying around.

Whenever I hear or read a reference to AI, I’m quick to ask whether it’s really AI or just an effective algorithm.

There are definitional problems as the standard is a comparison to human performance. An autopilot can perform some functions that exceed human performance but nobody is calling that AI.

There are some folks that think machine learning is a requirement to wear the AI banner.

Many of the AI systems being developed are simply addressing known human factors issues and the programming isn’t that amazing.

Exactly.

We also can't forget that "AI" is one of those words used beyond its meaning for PR purposes. While it isn't as crazy as "Blockchain" was it still gets slung around a lot.

 

[jrh]

I did. I knew it. Him being a "ready to retire Captain assumed he was familiar" Me as a new FO, my bad. But I was right.

You were right, for sure. I'm not trying to pick you apart, only trying to give you a tip for the next time.

Don't only brief it to yourself, brief it verbally with the other pilot as well. Even if you're flying with a cranky old guy, come at it from the angle of talking about how you or they want things done. For example, if you're Pilot Flying, say, "It looks like we've got a quick level off at XXXX feet, so I've set the altitude alerter for XXXX, be ready to dial YYYY into the alerter as we cross ABCDE intersection."

Or if you're Pilot Monitoring, it can be more of a question. "It looks like we've got a quick level off after departure, and the SID calls for a max speed of 210 knots at ABCDE, what modes are you planning to use on the flight director? Do you see any other gotchas I missed?"

Pretty much force them to talk about it, in a nice way.

 

[DropTank]

I’m a (former, retired, mediocre) programmer that might still have some bad code flying around.

Whenever I hear or read a reference to AI, I’m quick to ask whether it’s really AI or just an effective algorithm.

There are definitional problems as the standard is a comparison to human performance. An autopilot can perform some functions that exceed human performance but nobody is calling that AI.

There are some folks that think machine learning is a requirement to wear the AI banner.

Many of the AI systems being developed are simply addressing known human factors issues and the programming isn’t that amazing.

I agree that the term "AI" is over used in media by people who have little understanding of the concept.

Calling it a series of "IF/THEN" statements and algorithms is like calling the internet a series of tubes.
In the most simple of frames, it is kind of correct.

One of the most interesting part of AI is that we're quantifying human thought.
Then we're doing better.
I'm not sure where we are on the Sigmoid curve, but we have interesting times ahead.

I'm also not thrilled about AI making code.

Also not particularly happy that speeches, articles, advertisements, and sermons are being written entirely by AI.

This won't be like a normal adoption curve. AI can be used to cover up the signs of adoption.

 

[Oxman]

You were right, for sure. I'm not trying to pick you apart, only trying to give you a tip for the next time.

Don't only brief it to yourself, brief it verbally with the other pilot as well. Even if you're flying with a cranky old guy, come at it from the angle of talking about how you or they want things done. For example, if you're Pilot Flying, say, "It looks like we've got a quick level off at XXXX feet, so I've set the altitude alerter for XXXX, be ready to dial YYYY into the alerter as we cross ABCDE intersection."

Or if you're Pilot Monitoring, it can be more of a question. "It looks like we've got a quick level off after departure, and the SID calls for a max speed of 210 knots at ABCDE, what modes are you planning to use on the flight director? Do you see any other gotchas I missed?"

Pretty much force them to talk about it, in a nice way.

Thanks. Good info for not only the intended person but anyone else reading this. Make it a conversation.

 

[Pilot Fighter]

I agree that the term "AI" is over used in media by people who have little understanding of the concept.

My point was that the term is so vague that it’s almost meaningless, even to programmers.

Most of the definitions describe it as automation or programming that models human decision-making.

The definitional problem is that some pretty simple programming and engineering can yield outcomes beyond the capabilities of humans. So, we generally agree that the techniques must be advanced or novel.

For many programmers of my generation, we knocked on the door of AI using fuzzy logic, operations research, and non-linear programming.

I think the definitional threshold now is machine learning where new data acquired by the program optimizes the algorithm or continuously improves the outcome.

Regarding the subject of this post, I can’t imagine being surprised or impressed by any of the code or capabilities of the aircraft. I’m “betting” that some code from the QF-16 and RQ-4 programs have found their way onto this demonstrator aircraft.

 

[scooter2525]

BFI Cobain departure has entered the chat…

It’s sporty in a lightly loaded heavy jet.

 

[Roger Roger]

It’s sporty in a lightly loaded heavy jet.

Sometimes I forget y’all operate out of BFI and then I roll in there and see the janky little ramp area and I’m like “oh…right”.