The FAA just dropped $875M on an AI to do what your local gamer already does
The FAA is throwing nearly a billion dollars at SMART, a cloud-based AI system built by Air Space Intelligence to manage air traffic. Apparently, after trying to recruit gamers, they decided software might be slightly less prone to mood swings.
The FAA is officially betting big on SMART, or Strategic Management of Airspace, Routes, and Trajectories, to untangle the mess in the skies. This cloud-based platform is essentially a massive predictive engine that crunches airline schedules, weather patterns, and airport congestion, all to spot mid-air drama before it turns into a headline.
The project, managed by Air Space Intelligence, carries a price tag of $875 million over the next 12 years. It isn't replacing the human soul in the tower just yet, but it’s designed to act as a digital safety net that keeps planes separated when the humans are, perhaps, feeling the weight of a long shift. The rollout is starting specifically in the Washington area, serving as the test lab for this expensive cloud experiment.
This move follows a desperate recruitment campaign that saw the Department of Transportation trying to turn Call of Duty addicts into air traffic controllers. While they claimed to hit near-total hiring targets, the FAA clearly decided that software doesn't need lunch breaks or health insurance, making the nine-figure investment look like a bargain for a system that never asks for a raise.
Source: Federal Aviation Administration
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