The Federal Aviation Administration is betting on artificial intelligence as part of its ambitious overhaul of the nation's air traffic control system, but its rollout comes at a moment of rising public concern about the technology.The head of the company building the AI-assisted software for the federal agency emphasized that humans will still be making key air traffic control decisions."I want to be very clear because this is important.This is not about automating air traffic control," said Phillip Buckendorf, co-founder and CEO of Air Space Intelligence (ASI).
"What we're focused on is how do we optimize the airspace in its entirety."The FAA tapped the Boston-based company to make the nation's crowded airspace more efficient.Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy unveiled the $875-million software tool last week."Let's use the best technology possible, the best predictors possible, so humans can make the best decisions possible," Duffy said.
"We're just giving them way better technology, way better foresight."In a wide-ranging interview, Buckendorf said air traffic controllers will still be in charge of keeping planes separated.The FAA's software tool is designed for traffic managers, who are tasked with managing the airspace as a whole, to help them make better decisions about flight routing and scheduling."The AI does the math, the AI does the computation," Buckendorf said, but it's ultimately up to the human operator whether to take the system's recommendation.
"They make the decision, they are the decider, they are the judge."Buckendorf compared the process to a game of chess, where the tool can help traffic managers see four or five moves into the future."We're looking at over 200 data sources from weather, congestion, turbulence, winds, runway closures, to figure out what is the most optimal flight path for every flight across the country," Buckendorf said."So that traffic is flowing, flights arrive on time, delays are reduced, cancellations are reduced, w...