In a virtual F-16, dogfights, an AI pilot has defeated the US Air Force pilot. The US military’s AlphaDogfight Trials was conducted by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (Darpa) - the branch of the US Department of Defense responsible for the development of futuristic technologies to see whether autonomous systems could defeat adversary aircraft in a simulated fight. 

The AI developed by Heron Systems at first conquered other AI systems and then an experienced F-16 pilot wearing a VR helmet in each of the five rounds - although the success in a simulation is just one step towards fully autonomous systems being used on F-16 fighter jets. The extreme G forces that occur when manoeuvring at high speeds won’t affect AI pilots, unlike human pilots. 

The simulation also offered a Second World War-style situation for the planes, where the aerial battle was created on the idea that the fighter aircraft had only forward-facing guns. Modern dogfights are complex, especially when they include missiles, which were not used during the simulations. Trying to get an algorithm to perform well in air combat is very different than teaching software simply to fly or play chess or maintain a particular direction, altitude, and speed. 

According to experts, the software will begin with a complete lack of understanding of even very basic flight tasks. Thus at first, the algorithm has a disadvantage. To combat that ignorance, the algorithm has to be trained that there’s a cost to every error, but those costs aren’t equal. The reinforcement comes into play when the algorithm, based on simulation after simulation, assigns weights to each manoeuvre and then re-assigns those weights as experiences are updated. 

 According to US Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Dan Javorsek, programme manager, DARPA the team was cautious about the limitations of the simulation in proving the AI’s superiority to a human pilot. “Just because the outcome went the way it did today it does not mean that the AI wasn’t latching on to some weird digital artefact that we weren’t thinking about or considering, and that’s what was giving them an advantage,” he said. He added that it is still a human victory as humans developed Heron’s successful AI system.