A US Air Force F-16 fighter jet has been flown by an AI pilot for the first time, demonstrating how standard military aircraft can be converted into autonomous weapons of war.
According to the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), the plane was modified to allow a pilot to toggle between traditional human control and AI control with the flip of a switch.
While DARPA has previously demonstrated that its X-62A VISTA experimental aircraft could be autonomously piloted in a dogfight scenario, the modifications to a pre-existing F16 show that the US aircraft fleet could receive an AI boost on a much shorter time frame.
Brigadier General James Valpiani, DARPA’s program manager, said that AI is particularly useful at helping human pilots during situations where aerial combat threats are out of sight. But he admitted that “many hard questions remain concerning the performance and trustworthiness of combat AI in the extreme fog and friction of modern warfare”.
AI-equipped military...