US FAA Explores AI Use for National Security

The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is exploring the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in the national airspace system. The FAA recently published a Request for Information (RFI) seeking information on the use of AI capabilities to improve aviation safety. 

Through the RFI, the administration is seeking help to improve its safety information systems and incorporate analytics from commercially available tools.

“The FAA envisions a new safety analytics system that will vastly expand and accelerate insights from current and additional sources of data and provide a comprehensive understanding of causal factors of safety events to help predict high-risk operations and environments. The end state will be built on commercially available analytics tools that are widely used by a substantial number of companies and organizations to make similar improvements to the safety of operations or to reduce mistakes in operations,” the FAA said in the RFI.

The FAA also seeks to advance predictive analytics to preemptively detect and address safety hazards, employing AI and machine learning for in-depth analysis of safety data. 

By integrating diverse data streams, they aim to gain a holistic perspective on aviation safety, ensuring enhanced safety across the National Airspace System (NAS) with swift risk mitigation measures.

Earlier this year, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) announced that it is exploring the utilization of AI and machine learning algorithms in identifying explosives and other prohibited items during luggage screening, TSA Administrator David Pekoske said before the House Appropriations Committee’s Homeland Security subcommittee.

TSA is working closely with the Department of Homeland Security's Science and Technology Directorate on a method to enable X-ray screening machines to detect explosives.