Highway to the Danger Zone

With Season 3 drawing to a close, Andy and Dave decided to focus this discussion entirely on the latest results from DARPA's Air Combat Evolution (ACE) program. On 20 August, DARPA held a contest between 8 competitors, and pitted their AI agents in simulated combat against each other, and against a human pilot (who used a VR system). Heron Systems won the event, beating out the other AI agents, and also not allowing the human pilot to attain a valid targeting solution. Andy and Dave discuss the results, the limitations, and the broader context of these results in light of other research and announcements.