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U.S. House Democratic lawmakers want the Government Accountability Office to review a new, artificial intelligence-driven air traffic management tool that’s being rolled out by the Federal Aviation Administration, citing concerns over its reliability and potential to “hallucinate safety-critical information.”
In an Oct. 13 letter viewed by The Air Current, 23 Democratic members of the U.S. House of Representatives’ Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure asked the government watchdog to take a closer look at the air traffic management tool dubbed SMART, along with the agency’s strategy for deploying the new platform with frontline workers in air traffic control towers and airline network operations centers nationwide.
Related: FAA quietly developing AI-enabled predictive air traffic management system
“The use of artificial intelligence within SMART has rightfully raised serious questions about its reliability and safety benefits, particularly on its potential to interfere with decision-making by experienced air traffic controllers or to hallucinate safety-critical information,” the lawmakers wrote in a letter addressed to Orice Brown, acting U.S. Comptroller General.
It’s the latest sign that a signature program for U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy and FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford will face greater scrutiny if Democrats win control of the House of Representatives in November — particularly given growing public fears over the risks posed by AI.
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