The Air Force Wants You to Trust Robots--Should You?

A British fighter jet was returning to its base in Kuwait after a mission on the third day of the 2003 Iraq War when a U.S. anti-missile system spotted it, identified it as an enemy missile, and fired. The two men in the plane were both killed. A week and a half later, the same system--the vaunted Patriot--made the same mistake. This time, it was an American plane downed, and an American pilot killed. The missile battery that targeted the two jets was almost entirely automated.