AI copilot enhances human precision for safer aviation

AI service would be great: run the safety videos, run beverage service, taser non-compliant passengers....

A fully automated cockpit without a human being in the cockpit would certainly remove human error from the equation but I wouldn't get on board for any reason whatsoever.

Well. Airbus' automation didn't help AF447 much, did it? Just like self-driving automobiles -- not ready for prime time yet. And it also seems to me that program defaults (chosen by the programmers) are never what I would choose as a default. Perhaps a lack of understanding of how humans really behave.

For some reason when I think about AI Flying the Airplane I think of the movie Airplane... Let the Automatic Pilot Fly it... LOL

What could possibly go wrong? Go wrong? Go wrong? If humanity wants to save itself, we need to stand in unison against AI taking over different rolls in transportation. Whether it’s your Uber driver, bus driver or Pilot, just say “no” to AI.

"I'm sorry Dave, I can't do that right now" Hal 9000

AI can manipulate zeros and ones, and it can do it really fast. It can solve and remedy cautions and warnings way faster than we can. What it can't do is "understand" the big picture, all of the factors and nuances that come together to make an aviator. Let me know when you figure that one out.

Keep AI in the lab and off the flight deck. Unless it supplements a two human flight crew.

ETOPS may be fine but I still prefer three or four engines AND a full compliment of human beings before heading south Audtralia.

Skin in the game! If you go I go! Not something any automated system is going to be bothered about or it's ground based operator one day when they decide that the redundant element is the human.

This would be useful for single-pilot aircraft like the Swearingen Metroliner, or like GA if it were affordable.

What could possibly go wrong, go wrong, go wrong.... A sucker's bet.

More and more and more added automation - with none of it going away.

The more automation in their electronic flight bags the less they will know how to fly their platforms.

A lot of pithy and some correct comments, but put another seat in the electronic control room (cockpit) I'll be gone, but he/she or it is coming

If they put AI in the cockpit it needs to be an Aid that can be muted upon command... I do not like this idea, it is opening up a lot of issues.. what happens when that unit fails in use... This is not a good move.. An Autopilot is good, having an AI to make decisions.. Anything Manmade can and will fail... When will the AI Fail and how can it be made to ensure it always "Fails Safe"... To me, they have not proven the technology... Only advantage is... AI's won't need a Drug and Alcohol test because they cannot consume Alcohol or Drugs... Other than that... Of course, maybe they should boot Breathalyzers in all cockpits to double check to make sure that neither pilot is DUI or High!

This is research people, calm down. Think of it as an enhancement of the envelope protection already present in Airbus aircraft. AI is just a buzzword that media insists on using and that researchers use to lean in to media bias and get the work publicized (and then funded).

oh wow that really makes me feel good only one human on board of a passenger plane? Count me out for flying that airline too many things a robot cant handle or sense sounds so good until it isnt then you have an airplane full of soon to be dead people.

GIGO .... all depends on who and how it gets programmed ... and one day it hits it's learning plateau

I was surprised by how quickly many commentators conflated the actual subject material of the article with the subject of 'automated cockpit'. In reality, so-called-AI techniques of estimating differences between predicted versus actual best-behavior and back propagation of observed sequential data can be helpful in highlighting, for the skilled and trained pilot's possible intervention or self-correction, 'onboard' disagreements over control. In the absence of a co-pilot, work loads on a single pilot can occur and a virtual co-pilot could be useful in keeping pilot and passengers safe. For examples of using these techniques to evaluate 'auto pilot' systems in automobiles see the following video and paper by Lex Fridman: https://youtu.be/bzn7YEvoUaU?si=OERcF6b5J3BiWVIS

Excellent! This field, most folks refer to as "artificial intelligence", is neither artificial nor particularly intelligent. (Come on. Does the calculator function of your phone do "artificial arithmetic"?) But I am not here to quibble about semantics.

I spent the last half of the 80s hearding DARPA projects and being a liaison between their various stakeholders. We (mostly the brilliant folks I got to work with) implemented (to one degree or another) a dozen or so "AI" technologies and tested them as possible solutions to the DARPA requirements. Neural Networks were clearly shown to be a deep well of potential. In spite of having to build custom "bleeding-edge" hardware to conclusively demonstrate viable solutions to those requirements best served by one of our neural network tools.

One of those was a "context-aware real-time operator augmentation system." We did NOT invent CfC technology, but it is gratifying to see the folks working on similar issues today come up with solutions that have echoes of familiarity with ideas we just did not have hardware powerful enough to implement.

Jeeeez....One more system to monitor.

moot

Airlines have been salivating over the concept of single pilot operations. This could eliminate that costly, union member copilot.

The best replacement for a copilot would be a good coffee machine.

Hmmmmmmmmmm let me think about this for a second. Bought a new 2022 truck, which only has 11,000 miles on it. All total 5 recalls so far for what they claim are computer issues or parts issues that might, could, maybe cause me to have an accident. Now let me go back and think how many recalls over the past 5-years have the news broadcast on various vehicles.

I mean after all AI is much better since it thinks for itself what could possibly go wrong...MCAS comes to mind but hey it was just a computer glitch and of course, like most Government agencies let's blame the pilots for not being trained enough to overcome a computer.

I'll pass, of course in my world this is mute since I trust no one in that cockpit but myself.

With the new and improved (read woken) FAA will this new AI be gender neutral or will it get upset when I only identify as a male and then lock the pad-bay doors on me?

Some of you never watched BSG and it shows.