AI Pilot Can Navigate Crowded Airspace

A team of researchers at Carnegie Mellon University believe they have developed the first AI pilot that enables autonomous aircraft to navigate a crowded airspace. The artificial intelligence can safely avoid collisions, predict the intent of other aircraft, track aircraft and coordinate with their actions, and communicate over the radio with pilots and air traffic controllers. The researchers aim to develop the AI so the behaviors of their system will be indistinguishable from those of a human pilot. "We believe we could eventually pass the Turing Test," said Jean Oh, an associate research professor at CMU's Robotics Institute (RI) and a member of the AI pilot team, referring to the test of an AI's ability to exhibit intelligent behavior equivalent to a human. To interact with other aircraft as a human pilot would, the AI uses both vision and natural language to communicate its intent with other aircraft, whether piloted or not.