AI pilot: 5___Top Human F-16 fighter pilot: 0

[steve58]

The time of the machines is getting closer 

In a 5 to 0 sweep, an AI ‘pilot’ developed by Heron Systems beat one of the Air Force’s top F-16 fighter pilots in DARPA’s simulated aerial dogfight contest today.

“It’s a giant leap,” said DARPA’s Justin (call sign “Glock”) Mock, who served as a commentator on the trials.

AI still has a long way to go before the Air Force pilots would be ready to hand over the stick to an artificial intelligence during combat, DARPA officials said during today’s live broadcast of the AlphaDogfight trials. But the three-day trials show that AI systems can credibly maneuver an aircraft in a simple, one-on-one combat scenario and shoot its forward guns in a classic, WWII-style dogfight. On the other hand, they said, it was an impressive showing by an AI agent after only a year of development. (As I reported earlier this week, the program began back in September last year with eight teams developing their respective AIs.)

Heron, a small, female- and minority-owned company with offices in Maryland and Virginia, builds artificial intelligence agents, and is also a player in DARPA’s Gamebreaker effort to explore tactics for disrupting enemy strategies using real-world games as platforms. The company beat eight other teams, including one led by defense giant Lockheed Martin — which came in second in the AlphaDogfight “semi-finals” that pitted the AI pilots against each other this morning.

https://breakingdefense.com/2020/08/ai-slays-top-f-16-pilot-in-darpa-dogfight-simulation/

[Jarhead0331]

Really nice analysis here, as always, from Mover...

[Gusington]

Cool yet frightening - but if I am understanding correctly the 0-5 dogfight record is not as frightening as it seems because 'real world' conditions were not present for the AI. Did I understand wrong?

[Jarhead0331]

Cool yet frightening - but if I am understanding correctly the 0-5 dogfight record is not as frightening as it seems because 'real world' conditions were not present for the AI. Did I understand wrong?

Correct. The AI had no self-preservation logic and had full situational awareness. The AI had complete information regarding the human opponent's airspeed/energy state, altitude, position within the airspace, etc. The AI could see above the aircraft, below the aircraft and through the aircraft. The human pilot, on the other hand, was handicapped by having lower situational awareness in a simulated VR environment...no visual, auditory or physical cues that a pilot has in actual flight, limited cone of vision in the VR headset, etc.

What i found most interesting was Mover's explanation as to why the human pilot didn't position the aircraft for high angle gunshots on several occasions.  From my perspective as a sim pilot these seemed like missed opportunities. 

[Gusington]

Yeah I did like his explanation of why those gunshots would not be taken by a human. What he said made sense.

When was the last dogfight between two human pilots?

[Jarhead0331]

Yeah I did like his explanation of why those gunshots would not be taken by a human. What he said made sense.

When was the last dogfight between two human pilots?

I believe a US Super Hornet shot down a Syrian SU-22 in 2017, but I'm not sure if it qualifies as a dogfight. I'm not sure what the circumstances were (i.e. BVR, missiles, guns, etc.).

[Gusington]

Interesting, I think I remember that. This link confirms it:

https://www.military.com/daily-news/2017/06/18/us-navy-fa18e-shoots-down-su22-over-syria.html#:~:text=The%20last%20air%2Dto%2Dair,kill%20for%20the%20E%20model.

I guess I shouldn't be surprised that there haven't been other dogfights lately or more recently, but I am.

[GDS_Starfury]

The AI had no self-preservation logic and had full situational awareness.

so they developed ai women.


god help us all