Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA)

War is already bad enough. What happens when human combatants are replaced by machines?

The U.S. plans to build nearly a dozen new civilian AI research labs. The U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) committed $220 million to fund 11 National Artificial Intelligence Research Institutes, complementing seven other AI research institutes that were established last year.

A fighter pilot battled a true-to-life virtual enemy in midair. In the skies over southern California, an airman pitted his dogfighting skills against an AI-controlled opponent that was projected onto his augmented-reality visor.

An autonomous fighter pilot shot down a human aerial ace in virtual combat. Built by defense contractor Heron Systems, the system also defeated automated rivals from seven other companies to win the AlphaDogfight trial.