The FAA says AI could help stop aviation disasters sooner - USA Today

The FAA has decided that AI might help stop aviation disasters sooner — which is a bit like a plane's emergency checklist including 'cross fingers and hope for the best' as item number one. The agency is using AI to 'streamline analysis of flight data and detect safety trends,' but with the emphatic caveat that it's only a tool to assist human analysts. Because nothing says 'confident deployment' like a disclaimer that the algorithm is basically a junior intern with a calculator.

The FAA's oversight was so razor-sharp it took two crashes to ground the fleet. Now they're turning to AI to 'detect safety trends' — because what could possibly go wrong with a black-box algorithm making recommendations about flight safety? The same humans who missed Boeing's MCAS issues will now be 'assisted' by software that nobody fully understands. This is like giving a colourblind person a colouring book and asking them to spot the odd one out.

So the FAA is using AI to help human analysts. But if the humans already missed the trends, how will they know when the AI is hallucinating? The gap between a good idea and a safe deployment is where aviation history's worst chapters are written. But hey, at least they're doing something. The next time your plane shudders on approach, remember: an AI looked at the data and decided it was fine. Sleep tight.