The U.S. Air Force is bringing AI to the cockpit. In an update Thursday, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) revealed that an AI-controlled jet successfully faced off against a human pilot in an air combat test conducted last year.
DARPA began experimenting with AI applications in December 2022 as part of its Air Combat Evolution (ACE) program. They worked to develop an AI system that can fly fighter jets autonomously while adhering to Air Force safety protocols.
After running air combat simulations using AI pilots, DARPA tested its work by installing the AI ​​system inside an experimental X-62A aircraft. This allowed the AI-controlled aircraft to fly at Edwards Air Force Base in California, where it successfully conducted its first aerial combat test with humans in September 2023.
A human pilot was on board the X-62A, which was equipped with controls to disable the AI ​​system, but DARPA said the pilot was not required to use the safety switch “at any point.” The X-62A took on an F-16 flown only by a human pilot, and both aircraft demonstrated a “high-aspect nose-to-nose engagement,” approaching as close as 2,000 feet at 1,200 miles per hour. However, DARPA did not reveal which aircraft won the dogfight.
“Air combat was a problem we needed to solve so we could begin testing autonomous artificial intelligence systems in the air,” Bill Gray, chief test pilot at the Air Force Test Pilot School, said in a statement. “All the lessons we're learning apply to any task we can give an autonomous system.”
The agency has conducted a total of 21 test flights so far, and plans to continue testing until 2024. Rapid advances in AI have raised concerns about how the military will utilize the systems. wall street journal reported last year that the Pentagon was considering developing AI systems for defense and strengthening its drone fleet.