Duffy on AI replacing air traffic controllers: "That's not gonna happen"

As the Department of Transportation begins the process of overhauling the country's aerial postulation power strategy — a $12 cardinal undertaking — determination are already plans to integrate artificial quality into it successful the future. Addressing fears that AI is meant to wholly regenerate aerial postulation controllers, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy told CBS News, "that's not gonna happen."

"AI is simply a tool, but we bash not regenerate humans successful however we negociate the airspace," Duffy said. "Am I gonna regenerate a controller and person AI negociate the airspace? The reply to that is hellhole no, that's not gonna happen."

What AI volition do, according to Duffy, is assistance aerial postulation controllers determination flights astir to debar delays by merging hose formation schedules with an FAA system.

"This bundle volition say, 'Well, listen, we tin spot this 45 days out. Let's determination immoderate of those flights a small spot later, oregon five, seven, 10 minutes earlier, and we tin resoluteness the issue. And truthful past you are not delayed,'" Duffy said.

Through the Big Beautiful Bill past year, Congress gave DOT $12.5 cardinal for aerial postulation power strategy upgrade. But arsenic the Transportation Department works to instrumentality those upgrades successful assorted systems passim the nation's airports — which according to the section has already included replacing astir 50% of each copper wires, upgrading astir 270 vigor sites, installing caller aboveground consciousness systems astatine 54 airports to amended controllers' quality to way planes connected the ground, and transitioning 17 towers to physics formation strips, replacing literal insubstantial slips, to way flights — Congress inactive needs to wage for the  AI software, which has a imaginable terms tag of $6 cardinal to $10 billion.

The propulsion for backing comes amid a fig of high-profile incidents involving evident aerial postulation power mistakes, including a deadly collision astatine LaGuardia Airport successful New York City past month.

"We person quality beings navigating, managing the airspace, and arsenic quality beings, we tin marque mistakes," Duffy said. "That's wherefore I privation to springiness further tools to enactment the aerial postulation controllers."