A US Air Force pilot is taking on AI in a virtual dogfight -- here's how to watch it

An AI-controlled fighter jet will battle a US Air Force pilot in a simulated dogfight next week -- and you can watch the action online. The clash is the culmination of DARPA's AlphaDogfight competition, which the Pentagon's "mad science" wing launched to increase trust in AI-assisted combat. DARPA hopes this will raise support for using algorithms in simpler aerial operations, so pilots can focus on more challenging tasks, such as organizing teams of unmanned aircraft across the battlespace. The three-day event was scheduled to take place in-person in Las Vegas from August 18-20, but the COVID-19 pandemic led DARPA to move the event online. Before the teams take on the Air Force on August 20, the eight finalists will test their algorithms against five enemy AIs developed by Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory.