Tactical AI beats a US Air Force colonel in a dogfighting simulation

Whether it's Deep Blue beating Garry Kasparov at chess, Watson defeating Ken Jennings at Jeopardy!, or Google DeepMind's AlphaGO besting Lee Sedo at Go, artificial intelligence can't be underestimated when it comes to taking on the champions and winning. That's because a new AI system called ALPHA -- developed by recent University of Cincinnati doctoral graduate Nick Ernest, now CEO of Psibernetix -- recently defeated retired United States Air Force Colonel Gene Lee in an air combat simulator. Not only did Colonel Lee, who has extensive aerial combat experience as an instructor, fail to kill ALPHA's aircraft during combat, he was also repeatedly shot out of the air by the bot. According to Lee, ALPHA is "the most aggressive, responsive, dynamic and credible AI I've seen to date." "ALPHA is an incredibly difficult opponent to face," Psibernetix CEO Nick Ernest tells Digital Trends. "Even flying against other pilots when ALPHA has severe handicaps to a number of its systems -- including speed, turning, missile capability and sensors -- it is able to win.