First successful AI dogfight carried out, US Air Force confirms [Video]

The U.S. Air Force on Wednesday publicly confirmed the first successful dogfight between a fighter jet piloted by artificial intelligence (AI) and a human-piloted aircraft.

The AI-versus-human dogfight was carried out as part of the Air Combat Evolution (ACE) program that the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) launched in 2019. The Air Force conducted the AI dogfights at Edwards Air Force Base in California, the home base of the 412th Test Wing.

The dogfight pitted a manned F-16 against the X-62A VISTA (Variable In-flight Simulator Test Aircraft), an experimental variant of the F-16, and leveraged live AI agents that were installed in the X-62A less than a year before.

“The potential for autonomous air-to-air combat has been imaginable for decades, but the reality has remained a distant dream up until now,” Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall said in a press release. “In 2023, the X-62A broke one of the most significant barriers in combat aviation. …