In Eglin Air Force Base in Florida, a test bench for a new type of air army, Major Trent McMullen is a fighter pilot who learns to fly alongside the XQ-58, a drone piloted by artificial intelligence. Think of that like “Top Gun Ai”.
“I am continuing security on it for several missions, messages in both directions with autonomy on board,” said McMullen.
The maneuvers alongside a drone piloted AI, he said, takes a little time to get used to it: “Like humans, we fly very smooth, but it can roll and fly a little more snapping than a human pilot”, recognized McMullen. “It could be a little more rough, but there is no human on board.”
Artificial intelligence East On board, and now he learns to fight.
McMullen said that the tasks assigned to AI could be to intercept an opponent plane: “So we were able to give it part of the basic blocking and the fight against air combat on which we, as human pilots, also train when we learn for the first time to fly,” he said.
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The XQ-58 explodes like a rocket, but a large-scale model took off from a track for the first time in August.
General Adrian Spain, head of the air combat order, establishes plans to operate swivel drones AI alongside inhabited planes. “You told them to go out in front and execute an attack on a complex set of targets, and they will,” said Spain.
He says that IA drones are able to do so today – and these drones could be armed with weapons.
An F-16 Piloted has already held up in a limited dog fight against an experienced fighter pilot. At Top Gun IA, others F-16 are recable for a more realistic fight. These planes still have a cockpit and a pilot, which can hire the Plug-And-Play system, then stay on board as a security driver.
Pentagon 
“So, once the AI continued, your hands stand out?” I asked.
“Yes, they will monitor the system and ready to take over at any time,” said McMullen. “But we will also have real planes live so that he was fighting. These jets will be piloted by real hunting pilots doing their best to thwart AI.”
So, are we witnessing a revolution?
“If we continue on this path, it has the potential to be a revolution,” said Spain.
“You can actually take more risks”
The Lieutenant-General of the Air Force with retirement Clint Hinote says that it is a revolution born of necessity: “The Air Force was so good for so long that it did not need to change. Now, she must change, and he tries to understand how.”
Changing because the Chinese Air Force, which recently presented its new jet fighters and its own AI drone, could be more than a match for the US Air Force. According to Hinote, “if we have to fight China, we will probably do it in their courtyard before, and that means that they can bring a lot, much more to wear than we can, because it is so far. You have to reach death ratios from 10 to 1, 15 to 1 and 20 to 1 to stay in the game.”
I asked: “How do these war games come out when the American pilots come up against 20 to 1 side?”
“The war games are not going very well,” said Hinote. “We lose.”
The Air Force is counting on AI drones with the dimensions, bringing to an aircraft what a human pilot does not do. McMullen said: “The great thing with artificial intelligence is the ability to manage large amounts of data. A human in a complex air combat environment, there is simply no way to absorb them.
The AI drones will be about half the length of a accustomed jet hunter, and a quarter of the cost – from 20 to 30 million dollars each. Hinote said: “You could buy more planes, put them on the ground and not break the bank. The key would be that you don’t have to bring the human operator back home; you can actually take more risks.”
Spain says that the Air Force plans to have 150 planes piloted in the end of the decade, and finally up to 1,000.
I asked: “These drones are not going to sit in a hangar while waiting for war with China. What are they going to do in peacetime?”
“It’s quite wide open,” replied Spain.
“Could you send AI drones to intercept the Russian bombers who descend off the coast of Alaska?”
“Yes, you could do that,” he said.
These interceptions can become mean in an instant. Last year, a Russian fighter rocked an American F-16, so drones AI should be ready to shoot.
So, will AI make life or death decisions? “Absolutely not,” said Spain. “Absolutely not. The human who controls AI will make the decisions of life and death.”
At least for the moment.
Make life or death decisions
Hinote said: “More and more soldiers around the world, including the American army, will be in a hurry to give the machines more latitude to make these life or death decisions.”
Including the ability to shoot alone? “The American army is investing in the experiment that you would need to be able to produce the types of platforms that could draw alone if you give them this option,” said Hinote.
If opponents allow AI to make these decisions, what happens? “I think they do it at their perils,” said Spain. “Because AI can be fooled, AI can be overwhelmed. It can give you false results. We have seen that AI can hallucinate. So it is not a guarantee of success. What it guarantees is that it will do something quickly.”
“You don’t have at least to give your drivers this option?” I asked.
“To go to all autonomy and let go? I don’t think America is still comfortable with that,” replied Spain. “I am not saying that it could not be a future world in which we live where we trust him. But I do not think that we are there at the moment, certainly and certainly not to start. We must build this confidence over time.”
At Top Gun ia, the pilots continue to put the representatives, the test flight after the test flight, the simulation after simulation, to build this confidence.
Asked if he prefers to go into battle with a human wing or an AI winger, McMullen replied: “When we talk about threats of tomorrow, if I can send an unrelated asset in a high -risk environment, I prefer to do it rather than send a human pilot.”
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History produced by Mary Walsh. Publisher: Carol Ross.
