Boeing and Thales race to adopt AI, but say it won't kill jobs

Artificial intelligence can increasingly be used to support human tasks but will not replace people completely, aerospace giants Boeing and Thales said Monday on the sidelines of the Singapore Airshow. Both companies, which are among a growing number of aerospace manufacturers integrating AI into operations, emphasized that the emerging technology was not about take away jobs from people in their industry for the forseeable future. "This technology is going to be primarily about improving productivity of the workforce in aviation or any industry, rather than replace or displace," said Naveen Hussain, general manager of research and technology at Boeing, who was on the panel. The U.S. plane maker is rolling out AI to automate processes on the factory floor, Hussain said. According to Boeing's website, its technologists are applying AI to machines used in the assembly process for fuselage sections of its 787 aircraft, which has helped speed up the manufacturing line.