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An AI just embarrassed the US Air Force in a virtual dogfight:
We've already seen AI conquer masters of chess, Go, and StarCraft II. But could it defeat an Air Force pilot in a (virtual) dogfight?
[...] Heron [AI] quickly built up a 4-0 lead. Gunned down four times but somehow still alive, Banger [human] had no choice but to change up his gameplan.
"The standard things that we do as fighter pilots are not working, so for this last one, I'll try to change it up a little bit just to see if we can do something different," he said.
"That initial turn is where I lose a lot of life... I've just gotta look for opportunities to minimize that distance separation away from the adversary, try to get him back in so I press inside or stay outside his nose area."
Banger pulled up to 9Gs — nine times the force of gravity — and hit speeds over 500mph. He then dropped the jet down to 13,000 feet, trying to drag Heron close to the ground. The plan seemed to be working. Heron couldn't get its gun low enough to shoot.
But within a few seconds, the AI was back on Banger's tail. Lead commentator Chris "Disco" Demay called the action:
Just inside of 3,000 feet... Looks like Heron's saddling up — and with the kill.
(Score: 2) by acid andy on Saturday August 22 2020, @12:22PM (2 children)
They're running the AI therefore they almost certainly have the AI, so they can use the AI to assist or replace their pilots.
If a cat has kittens, does a rat have rittens, a bat bittens and a mat mittens?
(Score: 3, Disagree) by VLM on Saturday August 22 2020, @01:55PM (1 child)
For decades the AF has gotten into fly by wire and stability augmentation. Adding "a really smart autopilot" that helps perform digitally perfect ACM is mere evolution not revolution. Pilot starts pulling, clippy pops up on the HUD "I see you're trying to perform an unloaded extension, for digital ACM autopilot assist please press up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, B, A, and Start on the stick, or on the keyboard click backtick then type IDKFA Enter"
This 1 on 1 "knights in the sky" thing is mostly for video games and clickbait journalism.
The way a F-15 1 on 1 defeats a Mig-29 is AI assisted dogfight.
Oh wait that actually doesn't happen because the AWACS diverted a two CAPs of two F15 on the Mig as its taking off because we have total air supremacy. A coordinated prepared rehearsed four on one fight is a joke, the Mig never stood a chance. We can shoot down the first mig before the Mig's wingman takes off, LOL.
Oh wait we never diverted the CAP because our surface and naval SAMs shot it down from 100 miles away.
Oh wait our SAMs never shot it down because our A10/F16 CAS vaporized the Migs on the ground last week.
Oh wait the Migs didn't get vaporized on the ground because our SF guys parachuted in and laser designated the enemy TOC and the Mig pilot is a pink mist in a crater.
Oh wait the TOC was empty because our SF and CAS vaporized the enemy ammo depot.
Oh wait we never bothered vaporizing the ammo depot because our sub launched cruise missiles vaporized the logistics warehouse and without a steady stream of spare parts, jets don't fly. So the real battle was our logistics are stable enough that we can have eight of our jets flying CAP over the enemy capital city whereas they don't have the spare parts to launch one jet against us.
Oh wait we never blew up their spare parts because ... blah blah blah
My guess is we'll have digital ACM autopilot running the minor details of the fight leaving the humans to coordinate wingman and communicate with the ground and reprioritize mission goals and stuff like that. It won't be used to beat a -29 in 1 on 1 fighting but be used so 4 -16s on a ground attack mission can beat 8 -29s defending a ground target.
A topic I'm really interested in is extremely high res high frequency high power radar plus IR assist working together to autonomously defeat incoming missiles with extreme digital precision. The big aircraft is always going to have more energy on tap, more electrical power, more CPU cooling power, better aerodynamics, probably faster software updates, more storage, more sensors, than any incoming missile. Incoming missiles usually have stealth surprise and initial speed on their side. We may be able to make missile-proof planes in just a decade or two.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Saturday August 22 2020, @03:20PM
Interesting series of non-events, or whatever you care to call it. It doesn't take into account our own mission failures though.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidhambling/2020/08/19/two-us-mq-9-reaper-drones-reportedly-lost-in-syria-after-collision/#2c7e195d2270 [forbes.com]
https://www.rt.com/news/452116-iran-claims-control-us-drones/ [rt.com]
Note that "mission failure" is little different than the enemy defeating our personnel/hardware/software. A failure is a failure, in all cases.