An Artificially Intelligent (AI) pilot developed by a doctoral student defeated a top Air Force pilot in a series of simulated long range, tactical air battles.
University of Cincinnati doctoral graduate Nick Ernest developed the AI pilot, named ALPHA, through his company, Psibernetix, Inc. Earnest and his team brought in retired U.S. Air Force Col. Gene “Geno” Lee, to simulate a series of long-range, tactical air battles against ALPHA. Numerous media outlets have described the battles as dogfights, but these were not dogfights, which is a term used for close-range combat. The simulations were aerial combat situations where the opposing aircraft could not see one another with the naked eye.
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According to the University of Cincinnati, not only was Lee not able to score a kill against ALPHA after repeated attempts, he was shot out of the air every time during protracted engagements in the simulator.
Lee is a former Air Force battle manager and adversary tactics instructor. He has flown in thousands of air-to-air intercepts and has been fighting AI opponents in flight simulators since the 1980s. He said that, “until now, an AI opponent simply could not keep up with anything like the real pressure and pace of combat-like scenarios.”
ALPHA runs through a machine learning process known as a “Genetic Fuzzy Tree” approach. The idea behind this approach is that the AI pilot will run through all of the calculations and numbers on the variables that influence the best course of action, but it is designed to concentrate on the select variables that are relevant to the specific situation that it has to deal with at any one moment.
In a paper published in the Journal of Defense Management, the developers, including Ernest, explained how ALPHA is equipped with mechanisms that deal with uncertainty and imprecision. The AI pilot’s advantages include speed and endurance. The researchers claim that ALPHA has the capability of assessing situations, setting up the best plan, and responding to the environment around them about 250 times faster than a human.
Lee said, “I was surprised at how aware and reactive it was. It seemed to be aware of my intentions and reacting instantly to my changes in flight and my missile deployment. It knew how to defeat the shot I was taking. It moved instantly between defensive and offensive actions as needed.”
An enormous advantage that AI pilots will have over even the most skilled human fighter pilots is that AI’s will never get tired or need a break. This advantage was abundantly clear by Lee’s comments following the simulations. “I’m tired, drained and mentally exhausted. This may be artificial intelligence, but it represents a real challenge,” said Lee.
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