Air Force secretary plans to ride in AI-operated F-16 fighter aircraft this spring

Frank Kendall, the secretary of the Air Force, told the U.S. Senate Committee on Appropriations he will get to fly in an AI-flown plane later this year. Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall told members of the U.S. Senate on Tuesday that he plans to ride in the cockpit of an aircraft operated by artificial intelligence to experience the technology of the military branch's future fleet. Kendall spoke before the U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee's defense panel on Tuesday, where he spoke about the future of air warfare being dependent on autonomously operated drones. In fact, the Air Force secretary is pushing to get over 1,000 of the AI-operated drones and plans to let one of them take him into the air later this spring. The aircraft he plans to board will be an F-16 which was converted for drone flight.