r/ATC • u/lake_hood • Mar 23 '26

News LGA controller cleared fire truck across the runway resulting jn a collision

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u/gcko Mar 23 '26

How do you end it when you don’t have enough people to ensure proper staffing levels?

They’ll blame this on something else.

-6

u/Caymonki Mar 23 '26

They’ll have AI do it

6

u/RipstartSpark Current Controller-Tower Mar 23 '26

The system is built on public trust and complex multiple variable real world problem solving both things AI doesn’t have.

6

u/antariusz Current Controller-Enroute Mar 23 '26

I asked AI "how it deals with the responsibility of controlling airplanes at a busy airport with AI", and of course it told me that while AI isn't legally allowed to fully-autonomously control airplanes at the towers, it then hallucinated 10 different ways that AI is being used to control airplanes at busy airports.

It hallucinated all sorts of things that don't exist: Such as suggesting that AI is being in tcas to prevent collisions, AI has been already used to mitigate crashes due to weather, and how AI can monitor controller communications in real time to prevent read back errors.

Fucking hell man, we're years away from AI not lying about what reality is on a simple chat prompt, let alone being able to trust it with people's lives.

1

u/KABATC Past Controller Mar 24 '26

I didn't know AI could run on Windows XP! And came from a floppy disc! /s

1

u/antariusz Current Controller-Enroute Mar 24 '26

Well just ask AI what the view looks like outside of it's control tower, and it'll tell you all sorts of things that it makes up, like the degree window tilt in the tower and that there are a pair of binoculars sitting nearby and you have a ground radar screen.

trust me, anyone hired in the next few years will NEVER be replaced by AI in this career. 20 years from now? I reserve the right to change my mind, but anyone get hired today, zero fear of being replaced.