Could US flight groundings be linked to rollout of new AI tool? | ABC NEWS — Transcript

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1. 0:00tell us about these uh AI systems that's
2. 0:03just been introduced and why is it in
3. 0:06the frame as a possible cause.
4. 0:08>> Right. So this is an an AIdriven
5. 0:11planning system uh for air traffic
6. 0:14management called smart. They always
7. 0:17come up with a nice acronym um that was
8. 0:20in fact rolled out uh on the 10th of
9. 0:23November. So, a few days ago, um, among
10. 0:26other things, it was designed as a a
11. 0:28kind of predictive tool, um, finding
12. 0:31more efficient flight paths, um, quicker
13. 0:34flight paths, accounting for weather and
14. 0:36and things like that. Um, always with a
15. 0:39human in the loop is what we were told,
16. 0:41um, by authorities there. So, that's the
17. 0:44product of a a 12-year, $875,
18. 0:48uh, US million contract, uh, from the
19. 0:50federal government. So, it's a big deal.
20. 0:52It's been coming for a while. Um, but I
21. 0:56think, you know, the timings really
22. 0:57raised a lot of eyebrows and whilst, you
23. 0:59know, the tool did roll out a few days
24. 1:01ago and there were no obvious issues,
25. 1:04um, at least none of none of this scale,
26. 1:06uh, there are people asking asking that
27. 1:09question today. Uh, and there was a a
28. 1:11letter of concern from 25 Democrat
29. 1:14members of Congress who wrote to the US
30. 1:18uh, Transport Secretary Shan Duffy last
31. 1:20month raising a lot of concerns about
32. 1:23this particular tool, about its roll out
33. 1:26um, saying that they were concerned that
34. 1:28there had been a lack of adequate
35. 1:30testing um, and how it would integrate
36. 1:33with with frontline systems, raising
37. 1:36also safety concerns. you know that you
38. 1:38know we have a risk of hallucination
39. 1:40that we know about with AI that it isn't
40. 1:42always accurate um and that this was a
41. 1:45matter of life and death um and so you
42. 1:47know it really should be um treated
43. 1:50carefully and and basically urging
44. 1:52caution and asking some tough questions
45. 1:54about this particular tool. Yeah, we
46. 1:56heard actually Sean mentioning this
47. 1:59potential uh AI link and sounds like
48. 2:03there is speculation but do we know if
49. 2:05authorities are looking into this as a
50. 2:08possible cause at this stage? So it is
51. 2:10being uh it is considered within the
52. 2:13frame judging by the remarks of the
53. 2:16secretary of homeland security Mark
54. 2:18Wayne Mullen who we heard from earlier
55. 2:19this morning and he told reporters you
56. 2:21did ask about this particular aspect um
57. 2:25that that they are looking into it that
58. 2:28that's something that they are
59. 2:29specifically looking at keeping in mind
60. 2:31as well that this is quite a political
61. 2:33issue of course in the US you know those
62. 2:3525 members of Congress who signed that
63. 2:36letter they're all um they're all
64. 2:38Democrats And uh you know, you even
65. 2:41heard Mark Wayne Mullen in the course of
66. 2:43that press conference correct the
67. 2:44reporter who asked about an AI system.
68. 2:47Um the President Donald Trump had said
69. 2:49he didn't like calling it artificial
70. 2:50intelligence because it sounded
71. 2:52negative. So corrected the reporter Mark
72. 2:55saying super intelligence. Yeah. So sort
73. 2:58of you can see how politically charged
74. 2:59that is. So even that it's being um
75. 3:02speculated about by the secretary is
76. 3:04it's a fairly politically uh charged
77. 3:06thing for him to say. Are there other
78. 3:09theories at the moment that we know
79. 3:11investigators are looking at in terms of
80. 3:13a cause?
81. 3:15>> Yeah, I mean obviously everyone has
82. 3:16Microsoft on the brain at the moment.
83. 3:18That's the natural thing that people
84. 3:20think about. Um, you know, there was a
85. 3:2221-hour outage just in case anybody
86. 3:24missed it. Uh, which was resolved this
87. 3:26morning. Um, but Mark Wayne Mullen was
88. 3:28very clear in saying to reporters, I
89. 3:30don't see any reason to connect those
90. 3:31two u matters. In fact, you know, the
91. 3:33the outage was wrapped up kind at the
92. 3:36before this this um flight disruption
93. 3:39really began and Microsoft has released
94. 3:42a statement um more or less backing that
95. 3:44up and saying, "Look, there's no real
96. 3:46connection here." Interestingly though,
97. 3:48um Mark Mullen didn't rule out a cyber
98. 3:51attack as the cause of the issue.
99. 3:53However, he did say that there was no
100. 3:55indication that that was the case. And
101. 3:57you know, when it comes to that AI tool
102. 3:59as well, you've also got the contractor
103. 4:01itself. um airspace intelligence saying
104. 4:04that look there's no connection between
105. 4:07um these two things which which is a you
106. 4:09know of course they would say that um
107. 4:11but they were quite declarative in um in
108. 4:13denying any link so we're no closer to
109. 4:15knowing uh the technical reason behind
110. 4:17this although um it seems clear that
111. 4:19there is a technical reason
112. 4:21>> yeah indeed thank you Angela Vapierre
113. 4:23there thanks for keeping us across the
114. 4:25latest
115. 4:25>> thank Okay.