Aeronautics, can we fly with artificial intelligence? What remains of Icarus’ dream

The union: "A way to hide missed screenings? We will monitor"

RIMINI – “Behind a flying plane there is a sea of professionals who toil and spit blood, there are those who defend the bases, the airports, those who act as guards”. Enzo Trevisol said this to Dire, on the occasion of the national congress of the USAMI Aeronautica union which took place in Rimini. The people, the flight suit they wear, the work and the sweat in a hangar, those who are at the controls of a helicopter on rescue nights, those who pilot a fighter, those who are at the radar, the mechanic who checks before and after that everything is okay. What will remain of them, of these men and women, in a scenario in which there is increasingly talk of new domains and artificial intelligence? Because, it would seem, there is something more in this announced revolution than that blood relationship that the Air Force has had with technology since its very birth.

“I struggle to understand how artificial intelligence will change the face of the Air Force, how it will be applied to work processes – Trevisol replied – but I want to make an effort because I have faith in my Armed Force. I will be worried if colleagues will be squeezed, I will be worried if it has an impact on safety and related stress, and I will be legitimized as a union to intervene on the condition of the soldiers. So far we have not been involved, but we will be vigilant”.

On working conditions, “it happens today – Trevisol further denounced – that colleagues are squeezed like lemons and tasks are multiplied, and 3 euros per hour are given for overtime. I don’t want it to be a way to justify the fact that there hasn’t been a projection on the future of the Armed Forces for years. I remember that almost 10 thousand non-commissioned officers will leave in the next few years. We are losing professionals… young people, think and wake up.” And in the meantime the enlistment numbers are anything but comforting.
On the other hand, no one wearing the shapeless blue can have a desire for the rearguard: a contradiction for aviators.

And to frame the issues in the dynamics of current defense and the “threats that arrive and grow from the southern flank”, MP Andrea De Maria of the Defense commission who took part in the conference also spoke. Pilots at the joystick and aircraft with half crew, and AI applied in other services. There are those who have faith in the end, those who cast doubt that the man-machine bond on which the air force lives will become just a machine. “It won’t happen – said Marco Viscovich of the Siam aeronautical union – human beings will always be needed to guide it”. The dream of Icarus does not exist without Icarus.