Artificial intelligence (AI) has made a major breakthrough in the world of aviation. In a recent experiment, AI was used to fly an F-16 fighter jet for 17 hours straight without any human intervention. This is the first time that AI has been able to successfully control such a complex aircraft with no assistance from humans.
The experiment was conducted by researchers at the University of Cincinnati and funded by DARPA, the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. The team used an AI system called “AlphaDogfight” which they had developed over several years. AlphaDogfight is designed to be able to autonomously pilot fighter jets in air combat scenarios against other pilots or even other autonomous systems.
To test their system, the team set up two F-16s on opposite sides of an airfield and programmed them both with AlphaDogfight software. They then instructed one plane to take off and fly around for 17 hours while avoiding obstacles like mountains and buildings along its path. The second plane remained stationary on the ground as a reference point for tracking purposes only; it did not participate in any way during this flight exercise.
The results were impressive: AlphaDogfight performed flawlessly throughout its entire journey, navigating through various terrains and weather conditions without issue or incident – all while maintaining perfect control over its speed, altitude, direction and orientation at all times! It also managed to avoid potential collisions with other aircrafts flying nearby during its mission too!
This successful demonstration shows just how far artificial intelligence technology has come in recent years – it’s now capable of controlling complex machines like fighter jets without any human input whatsoever! While there are still many challenges ahead before we can see fully autonomous planes taking passengers across continents safely (or even military drones being deployed into battle), this achievement marks another important milestone towards achieving those goals someday soon!
It’s clear that Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology is making great strides forward when it comes to aviation applications – something that could have huge implications for our future lives both inside and outside of airplanes alike! With advancements such as these coming thick and fast every day, who knows what amazing feats will be possible next? We may soon find ourselves living in a world where robots are doing most of our flying for us – whether it’s delivering packages across countries or transporting people between cities faster than ever before imagined!
In order to make sure these advances are safe however, rigorous testing must continue until we can trust AI completely when it comes to operating large scale machinery like airplanes – especially if they’re carrying passengers onboard too! To ensure safety standards remain high going forward though, organizations such as DARPA should continue investing heavily into research projects like this one so that further progress can be made quickly but responsibly too – after all nobody wants anything bad happening due unforeseen circumstances caused by faulty programming or hardware malfunctions either right?
Overall then although there’s still some way yet before we reach full autonomy within aviation circles thanks largely due safety concerns surrounding passenger transport etc., experiments such as these show us just how close we really are getting already – something which bodes well indeed for our collective futures moving forwards regardless I think you’ll agree?!
CNET
