AI To Fly In Dogfight Tests By 2024: SecDef

By SYDNEY J. FREEDBERG JR. on September 09, 2020 at 2:03 PM

After an AI beat humans 5-0 in AlphaDogfight simulations this summer, Mark Esper announced, a future version will be installed in actual airplanes for “a real-world competition.” But military AI will adhere to strict ethical limits, he said.

WASHINGTON: Defense Secretary Mark Esper used the Pentagon first AI conference to issue a challenge to China and Russia. The US, he vowed, will lead the world on the military use of artificial intelligence – including testing an AI pilot in a fighter by 2024. But, he said, America’s AI will be governed by ethics that its great power rivals lack, and it will be coordinated with nearly a dozen democratic allies in a new “AI Partnership for Defense.”

An AI beat a veteran human pilot 5-0 in DARPA’s virtual AlphaDogfight trials this summer. That program, called Air Combat Evolution (ACE), will now advance to testing in actual fighter aircraft, Esper announced this morning. But, he emphasized, the US military does not seek to replace human judgment and control in combat operations, only to augment them.

DARPA plans to hand Air Combat Evolution over to the Air Force in 2024, but don’t be surprised if the Navy and Marine Corps now get involved as well.