FAA launches AI air traffic control tool SMART on the day of nationwide ground stop
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The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) launched SMART, an $875 million AI air traffic control tool, on the day of a nationwide flight ground stop in the United States, to help manage airspace traffic across the country. CNN aviation analyst and former U.S. Department of Transportation Inspector General Mary Schiavo called the timing "too much of a coincidence," and noted that integrating new systems with legacy ones has historically been prone to problems. She said there is currently no indication that the ground stop stemmed from a threat or terrorist crime.
AI overview based on source reports · Updated 31 min ago
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- Hacker News AIFAA Rolled Out New AI Traffic Tool Right Before Nationwide Ground Stop
CNN aviation analyst Mary Schiavo said it was "too much of a coincidence" that the FAA rolled out its new $875 million SMART AI tool for managing air traffic the same day a nationwide ground stop occurred. Schiavo, a former Inspector General of the U.S. Department of Transportation, noted that new air traffic control computer systems often have difficulty communicating with much older systems, and that one goal of SMART was to manage en route traffic. She said there have been no suggestions the stoppage was due to threats or criminal terror, and guessed it was another case of new AI systems struggling to communicate with old ones.
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