Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall, right, and Maj. Ryan Forystek, an X-62A VISTA Pilot for SecAF flight, climb into the cockpit of the X-62A VISTA aircraft at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., on Thursday, May 2, 2024. The AI-controlled aircraft that flew Kendall served as a public statement of confidence in the future role of AI in air combat. The military is planning to use the technology to operate an unmanned fleet of 1,000 aircraft.
“If a system uses ‘if/then’ it is probably not machine learning, which is a field of AI that involves creating systems that learn from data,” said Air Force Lt. Col. Christopher Berardi, who is assigned to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to assist with the Air Force's AI development. At MIT, service members worked to clear thousands of hours of recorded pilot conversations to create a data set from the flood of messages exchanged between crews and air operations centers during flights, so the AI could learn the difference between critical messages like a runway being closed and mundane cockpit chatter. The goal was to have the AI learn which messages are critical to elevate to ensure controllers see them faster.
It has been known that aircraft could navigate by following the Earth's magnetic fields, but so far that hasn't been practical because each aircraft generates so much of its own electromagnetic noise that there has been no way good to filter for just the Earth's emissions. The AI so far has been tested only on the C-17. Other aircraft will also be tested, and if it works it could give the military another way to operate if GPS goes down.Vista, the AI-controlled F-16, has considerable safety rails as the Air Force trains it. There are mechanical limits that keep the still-learning AI from executing maneuvers that would put the plane in danger. There is a safety pilot, too, who can take over control from the AI with the push of a button.