US military to pit fighter pilot against AI-controlled jet in actual dogfight

Following a recent virtual dogfight between an artificial intelligence program and an F-16 fighting Falcon pilot, the Pentagon is raising the stakes and will pit an AI-controlled jet against a fighter pilot in a real aerial battle, according to Defense Secretary Mark Esper. Speaking during the Defense Department's AI Symposium 2020 on Wednesday, Esper championed the "tectonic impact of machine learning on the future of war fighting" after the AI algorithm beat the human pilot during a simulated dogfight hosted by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency last month. "The AI agent's resounding victory demonstrated the ability of advanced algorithms to outperform humans in virtual...