DARPA, U.S. Air Force fly AI-controlled F-16

	DARPA, U.S. Air Force fly AI-controlled F-16(darpa.mil)
	260 points by r2sk5t 1 day ago \| 322 comments
	tl;dr: The US Air Force and DARPA have begun flight-testing modified F-16s under the VENOM program, where an AI agent can autonomously control the jet via a pilot-toggled switch, without altering the aircraft's core software. Building on prior X-62A VISTA dogfight experiments, these converted F-16s will serve as the testbed for DARPA's Artificial Intelligence Reinforcements (AIR) program, which aims to develop AI agents for beyond-visual-range, multi-ship combat and eventually enable human pilots to command teams of autonomous aircraft.
	HN Discussion: ↓Skeptical that human-on-the-loop toggle actually ensures safety given human takeover limitations ↓The exercise is pointless since optimizing a pilotless aircraft just yields a missile ↓Suspicious that 'AI' is marketing hype for conventional control algorithms ↑Alarmed at the militarization of AI and potential for autonomous weapons dominance ~Humorous dystopian references to Skynet/Dark Star highlighting fears of autonomous military AI