AI Beats Human Pilot 5-0 In A Virtual Dogfight

In a virtual reality dogfight, a human pilot was beaten by an AI pilot and experts praised this as a significant breakthrough for artificial intelligence technology.

The AI is the creation of Heron Systems and it flew under the name Falcon. In the said dogfight, the artificial intelligence system beat an F-16 pilot 5 to zero in the AlphaDogfight Trials of DARPA on August 20.

Before Falcon had the chance to face a human pilot, call sign Banger, it had to pit against several other AI systems.

The human pilot has recently completed the F-16 Weapons Instructor Course of the Air Force Weapons School, after over 2,000 hours in the F-16.

According to Col. Dan Javorsek, if the AI system can gain the respect of a human pilot, the future when machines and human collaborate in combat isn’t very far anymore.

This isn’t the first time a human pilot lost against an artificial intelligence but the sweep win of Falcon shows that in just a few years, artificial intelligence has taken a huge step forward.

DARPA said the trial is a precursor to its Air Combat Evolution program, which aims at using AI to control real aircraft.

Javorsek said a fully autonomous system to fly an entire airplane is still a long time in the future.

AI has the edge over humans with their fast decision-making ability. In the past, artificial intelligence lost to humans when it comes to tactical thinking, but with deep reinforcement learning, this limitation has been overcome.

Banger did improve and stay alive longer after each round but he didn’t have a single hit in any round.

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