Duffy: AI replacing air traffic controllers ‘not going to happen’

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy pushed back on concerns that the department’s modernization push could replace human air traffic controllers with artificial intelligence tools.

In an interview with CBS News on Tuesday, Duffy said he sees potential for AI to make the nation’s airspace safer, while insisting human controllers will retain final authority in important decisions.

“AI is a tool, but we do not replace humans in how we manage the airspace. The final say, in anything we do, is going to be an air traffic controller,” Duffy told CBS News’s Kris Van Cleave.

“Am I going to replace a controller and have AI manage the airspace? The answer to that is hell no,” Duffy added. “That’s not going to happen.”

The Department of Transportation is undergoing a process of modernizing the air traffic control system, a $12.5 billion effort that includes replacing copper wire with fiber........

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