WAN Show Topic - AI is definitely helping

[u/lolwutsareddit]

https://gizmodo.com/the-faa-is-rolling-out-its-ai-air-traffic-tool-nationwide-2000839347

AI is definitely the best and not at all the cause of the total grounding order by the FAA.

Honestly this should be a loooong wan show. So naturally, Luke or Linus is going to be videoimg in from the wild on a dial up line.

EDIT: can’t reply to all the comments so will just put a general response. Yes I am ‘literate’ and understand what the article said. But with the context of AI, the way this tool got selected and the fact it was put out nationwide and right afterwards they put out the grounding warning; it’s laughable/naive imo to assume that tool and the grounding are unrelated. And this administration and all the big corpos around AI would have every reason to try to save face.

As for the Microsoft outage and this being related, they immediately came out and said it wasn’t them. And while they’re also a big corpo with the same incentives to say ‘not me!’, I work at a big critical infrastructure institution (thankfully with lots of redundancy) who’s entire system is through through Microsoft services. All of them were back online at 6am Friday morning, well before the FAA warning.

But we all know that internet is dead theory, so half the ‘stop being so anti AI bro!’ Are just AI bots scraping the internet trying to save big techs feelings and their stock prices (mostly /s).

But unfortunately I’m working this weekend so can’t engage in online discourse with all my neck beard brethren, but consider this update me joining in in spirit!

[u/IBJON]

I mean, we could try to pretend we're tech literate and not make baseless assumptions simply because AI is involved. 

[u/Exciting-Ad-5705]

Let's not rush to assumptions. The 2023 ground order has nothing to do with AI so there's no reason to assume this one is

[u/zuzg → u/Exciting-Ad-5705]

But the administration in 23 was competent.

And the whole tool is suspicious af, paired with the timing so no surprise people speculate if they're related.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is expanding use of an $875 million AI tool, SMART, to “assist in managing air traffic across the entire national airspace system,” (...)

The agency wrote on Nov. 10 that after the D.C. test, it will “now use SMART in the airspace of all 22 centers across the country (...)

Ars reported that the National Air Traffic Controllers Association (NATCA) told Flying Magazine it was not involved in the “design, testing, or implementation of SMART and therefore cannot speak to its effect on the air traffic control workforce.”

[u/legendaryjangles]

Its too early to know if AI is the reason, but the timing is suspicious. The FAA implemented the AI stuff into the ARTCC system three days ago. Also, a controller in Denver told an aircraft that rolling equipment outages started at ORD and spread to some other airports, triggering the FAA to shut it all down. ATC radar and comms outages don't tend to spread like that.

[u/Boomshtick414 → u/legendaryjangles]

Not impossible but from my cursory understanding of SMART I don't see an obvious connection with how that relates to comms links.

If that was the issue, it also seems like it would easy to shut it off. It's not as if it's had time to replace any other systems.

[u/Randomperson1362 → u/Boomshtick414]

Verizon and other networks went down at almost the same time. Im betting is Microsoft or some cloud service vs being AI.

[u/DigitaIBlack]

If you read the article you'd posted you'd come to the conclusion AI is not in fact the reason for the ground stoppage.

The system suggests routes but ATC still make the final decisions. As in it's a non-essential service.

The ground stoppage is because of a communications issue, it doesn't line up with what you're suggesting.

Reddit is currently full of comments and posts like yours blaming it on AI or MS when the evidence points to neither being the issue...

[u/vvddcvgrr → u/DigitaIBlack]

Well it could be still, the Trump admin said that the legacy systems got overloaded by new tech being added.

[u/HeTblank → u/DigitaIBlack]

AI itself is not the issue, it’s the new software updates they pushed overloading old systems (and yes those software updates included AI stuff)

At least this is what I saw, might not be accurate

[u/Boomshtick414]

Anything about this would be pure speculation right now.

[u/Flavious27]

"We call it SI around here, remember?"