• But are we? It is a question that we all need to ask and definitely one that was asked by Matthew Tarascio, Vice President of Artificial Intelligence at Lockheed Martin after history of sorts was made in the field of machine learning and artificial intelligence as the latter beat a human fighter jet pilot in a dogfight.

Bengaluru: Artificial Intelligence just triumphed over humans yet again, but this time around it was in the crucial area of proving its absolute superiority in advanced warfare.

In the battle of artificial intelligence versus a human fighter pilot, the AI algorithm, developed by Heron Systems, swept a human F-16 pilot in a simulated dogfight 5-0. The pilot, a recent graduate of the US Air Force Weapons School’s F-16 Weapons Instructor Course is an operational fighter pilot with more than 2,000 hours in the F-16.

DARPA says the aim of the project is to demonstrate the feasibility of developing effective, intelligent autonomous agents capable of defeating adversary aircraft in a dogfight.

“DARPA’s AlphaDogfight Trials seeks to advance the state of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies applied to air combat operations,” it said.

The computer-based competition are designed to demonstrate advanced AI algorithms that can perform simulated within-visual-range air combat maneuvering.

Live broadcast

The AI developed by Heron Systemsalso was able to make adjustments on a “nanosecond level” where the human “OODA loop”—observe, orient, decide, and act—takes longer, giving the algorithm another advantage.

Eight teams were selected for the AlphaDogfight, by DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency). The top four teams competed their AIs in simulated F-16 dogfights for the top spot following which AI faced off against a human F-16 pilot in the final event.

The event was broadcast live from the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab (JHU/APL) via a ZoomGov Webinar. You can watch the five hour long video on the DAPRAtv YouTube Channel.

Reports quoting Col. Daniel Javorsek, the program manager of DARPA’s Air Combat Evolution Program, which includes the AlphaDogfight, said the goal of the event was to increase the confidence of the feasibility of using artificial intelligence in combat aircraft. If the event was able to convince just a couple pilots, “then I’m considering it a success. That’s the first steps I need to create a trust in these sorts of agents.”

Matt Tarascio, vice president of artificial intelligence at Lockheed Martin commenting on social media after the competition said, “We just put the world on notice that AI is ready … the bigger question is are we?”

“AI is a part of virtually everything we do today, so we are all part of this revolution … some are at the leading edge while others are likely unaware that what powers their favourite voice assistant is AI….. there is a truly exciting opportunity to fuse humans and machines to leverage the generalisation and contextual understanding of humans with the narrow expertise of AI. This is a perfect example of why DARPA exists … to incubate the impossible … can’t wait to see what’s next,” he said responding to a user’s comment.

According to DAPRA these trials are a precursor to the DARPA Air Combat Evolution (ACE) program, which involves AI development and demonstration in three program phases – modeling and simulation, sub-scale aircraft, and full-scale aircraft testing.

“Ultimately, ACE will be flying AI algorithms on live aircraft to demonstrate trusted, scalable, human-level autonomy for air combat,” the note adds.