FAA takes $875M SMART AI advisor to all 22 traffic centers

The Federal Aviation Administration is now running an AI route-advisor called SMART in all 22 of its air traffic control centers, after a Washington pilot that rerouted 180 flights, Gizmodo reports. The $875 million system, Strategic Management of Airspace Routing Trajectories, "combines weather patterns, flight paths, traffic flow and controller staffing metrics" into route suggestions a human controller can accept or reject.

The pilot ran from September 21. Average savings were 10 minutes and 80 gallons of jet fuel per flight. By November 10 the tool was live in all 22 centers.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy framed the rollout at a Washington event. "It's always going to be a human that manages the airspace in America," he said. SMART cannot fly aircraft or issue direct instructions; a D.C.-based team validates its recommendations before they reach each center, where local facility leadership decides whether to accept them.

The controllers' union is less sold. "NATCA has not been involved in the design, testing, or implementation of SMART and therefore cannot speak to its effect on the air traffic control workforce at this time," the National Air Traffic Controllers Association said, adding that any new technology "should complement and not replace the experience, training, and professional judgment of air traffic controllers." House Democrats have asked the Government Accountability Office to review the deployment, citing the AI's potential "to interfere with decision-making by experienced air traffic controllers or to hallucinate safety-critical information."

Six researchers we track had already shared the story.