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Can Claude Fly a Plane?

so.long.thanks.fish

61–70 of 103 posts

Re: Can Claude Fly a Plane?

#61
post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>I think it is more interesting to have 99% of flying done with automated systems but have an LLM focus on recognizing unanticipated situations and recovering or mitigating them. Seeing how Claude (or any current LLM) perform in even the most low-stake coding scenario I dont think I would ever set foot on a plane where the 1% of most risky scenarios are decided by one.

Using an LLM doesn't mean it has to take the final decision. You can also use it as a warning system.

Is there any indication that current warning systems are insufficient in any way that would be improved by LLM involvement?

Re: Can Claude Fly a Plane?

#62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are soooo many pilot decisions that AI is nowhere near making. Managing a flight is more than flying. It is about making safety decisions during crisis, from deciding when to abort an approach to deciding when to eject a passenger. Sure, someone on the ground could make many of those decisions, but i prefer such things be decided by someone with literal skin in the game, not a beancounter or lawyer in an office

I sincerely doubt that pilots decide "when to eject a passenger". Mostly it would be the cabin crew: the flight attendants are 100% in charge of flight safety, and they would be managing relationships with passengers, and they would be the ones to make the call. It would ultimately be them calling some kind of law enforcement. If an Air Marshal is onboard already, obviously they would be on the front line as well. Fu…

The Pilot in Command has ultimate legal responsibility over the operation of the flight, ICAO conventions explicitly state this. Whilst in practice the cabin crew will be the ones dealing with the passenger(s) and supplying information to the PIC , it won’t be them making the final decision.

Re: Can Claude Fly a Plane?

#63
post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Using an LLM doesn't mean it has to take the final decision. You can also use it as a warning system.

Is there any indication that current warning systems are insufficient in any way that would be improved by LLM involvement?

We won't know that until someone has actually investigated how an LLM would do in those scenarios.

Re: Can Claude Fly a Plane?

#64

The question of 'can it fly' is clearly a 'yes, given a little bit of effort'. Flying isn't hard, autopilots have been around a long time. It is recognizing and dealing with things you didn't anticipate that is hard. I think it is more interesting to have 99% of flying done with automated systems but have an LLM focus on recognizing unanticipated situations and recovering or mitigating them.

> Flying isn't hard

Most of the time. Sometimes you get a double bird strike when you've barely cleared the Hudson river, or similar.

Re: Can Claude Fly a Plane?

#65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are soooo many pilot decisions that AI is nowhere near making. Managing a flight is more than flying. It is about making safety decisions during crisis, from deciding when to abort an approach to deciding when to eject a passenger. Sure, someone on the ground could make many of those decisions, but i prefer such things be decided by someone with literal skin in the game, not a beancounter or lawyer in an office

I sincerely doubt that pilots decide "when to eject a passenger". Mostly it would be the cabin crew: the flight attendants are 100% in charge of flight safety, and they would be managing relationships with passengers, and they would be the ones to make the call. It would ultimately be them calling some kind of law enforcement. If an Air Marshal is onboard already, obviously they would be on the front line as well. Fu…

No. Cabin crew recommend. Pilots actually decide.

Re: Can Claude Fly a Plane?

#66
Lots of people commenting seem to have not read the article. The author didn't hook Claude up directly with the controls, asking it to one-shot a successful flight.

The author tried getting Claude to develop an autopilot script while being able to observe the flight for nearly live feedback. It got three attempts, and did not manage autolanding. (There's a reason real autopilots do that assisted with ground-based aids.)

Re: Can Claude Fly a Plane?

#69

Humans can also fly. Once.

Douglas Adams formulated how it would be possible for a human to fly continuously, though. http://extremelysmart.com/humor/howtofly.php

I have the hitchhikers guide to the galaxy but I never got around to reading it. I might have to read it next

Re: Can Claude Fly a Plane?

#70

We already have advanced autopilots that can fly commercial airliners. We just don't trust them enough to not have human pilots. I would trust the autopilot more than freaking Claude. We already do, every day.

It would be interesting to see if Claude can land and take off. Don't think the autopilot can do that yet.
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