In a landmark move by the United States Air Force, an artificial intelligence (AI) unit co-piloted a U-2 “Dragon Lady” spy plane last Tuesday, December 15, 2020. According to the Washington Post, the artificial intelligence took over the navigation and sensor system of the spy jet during training.
The flight by the U.S. military marks the first time artificial intelligence has been employed to control a United States military aircraft. The training took place at the Beale Air Force Base in California for two and a half hours, reports The Washington Post.
In a statement, the military said that “The Air Force flew artificial intelligence as a working aircrew member on board a military aircraft for the first time.” This signaled a “major leap forward for national defense in the digital age.”
CNN states the AI’s algorithm was developed by researchers from the Air Combat Command U-2 Federal Laboratory. Called the ARTUµ, the system has reportedly been designed and trained to “execute specific in-flight tasks that otherwise would be done by the pilot.”
Said to be a Star Wars reference from R2-D2, the Washington Post revealed that ARTUµ was primarily developed with the help of DeepMind, an artificial intelligence research company. The algorithm is enabled by Kubernetes, allowing it to shuttle between the computer systems of the plane and between the cloud.
For Tuesday’s flight, the ARTUµ algorithm was accompanied by a U-2 Dragon Lady pilot named Major “Vudu.” In its article, the U.S. Air Force said that Major “Vudu” is assigned to the ninth Reconnaissance wing.
The human enforcer was reportedly tasked with piloting the spy jet, while the AI system was tasked to make tactical navigations as well as sensor employment responsibilities, notes CNN.
In its blog post, the Air Force said that the pilot and the AI system worked hand-in-hand to achieve its goal. On the one hand, apart from the aforementioned responsibilities, the pilot was also tasked to look for threatening planes. Meanwhile, the algorithm was programmed to scan for enemy launchers and missiles.
ARTUµ is the product of the military’s three-year development phase towards digitalization said the assistant secretary of the Air Force for acquisition, technology, and logistics Dr. William Roper.
In a statement, Roper said, “Putting AI safely in command of a U.S. military system for the first time ushers in a new age of human-machine learning and algorithmic competition. Failing to realize AI’s full potential will mean ceding decision advantage to our adversaries.”
