The US military has confirmed that it staged the world’s first ever human versus AI dogfight in the skies above California. The battle took place over Edwards Air Force base in September of last year, when a piloted F-16 went up against an unmanned X-62A VISTA (Variable In-flight Simulator Test Aircraft), as part of DARPA’s Air Combat Evolution (ACE) program.

On Wednesday, DARPA released a video about the encounter on YouTube, and hailed the world first on its Twitter account.

The military is currently refusing to disclose which combatant won. In 2020, during a totally simulated dogfight between a human and an AI pilot, the AI pilot won.

“Asking the question of who won [the dogfights] doesn’t necessarily capture the nuance of the testing that we accomplished,” said DARPA ACE Program Manager Lt. Col. Ryan Hefron.

According to the commandant of the Air Force Test Pilot School, James Valpiani, the larger point of the program is “How do we apply machine learning to combat autonomy?” 

One current headache for the program is the question of certification, and ensuring that AI aviators can be trusted to operate aircraft safely.

“The potential for machine learning in aviation, whether military or civil, is enormous,” Valpiani said.

“And these fundamental questions of how do we do it, how do we do it safely, how do we train them, are the questions that we are trying to get after.” 

The next stage of the ACE program is to explore and demonstrate the potential for collaboration between human and AI pilots in dogfighting scenarios.

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