00:02Right, so this is an AI driven planning system for air traffic management called SMART,
00:11they always come up with a nice acronym, that was in fact rolled out on the 10th of November,
00:18so a few days ago. Among other things it was designed as a kind of predictive tool,
00:25finding more efficient flight paths, quicker flight paths, accounting for weather and things like that.
00:32Always with a human in the loop is what we were told by authorities there.
00:37So that's the product of a 12 year, 875 US million dollar contract from the federal government.
00:45So it's a big deal, it's been coming for a while, but I think the timing's really raised a lot
00:52of eyebrows.
00:52And whilst the tool did roll out a few days ago and there were no obvious issues,
00:58at least none of this scale, there are people asking that question today.
01:04And there was a letter of concern from 25 Democrat members of Congress
01:10who wrote to the US Transport Secretary Sean Duffy last month raising a lot of concerns
01:16about this particular tool, about its rollout, saying that they were concerned
01:22that there had been a lack of adequate testing and how it would integrate with frontline systems.
01:30Raising also safety concerns that we have a risk of hallucination that we know about with AI,
01:36that it isn't always accurate and that this was a matter of life and death.
01:40And so, you know, it really should be treated carefully and basically urging caution
01:47and asking some tough questions about this particular tool.
01:50So it is being, it is considered within the frame, judging by the remarks of the Secretary of Homeland Security,
01:57Mark Wayne Mullen, who we heard from earlier this morning.
02:00And he told reporters who did ask about this particular aspect that they are looking into it,
02:07that that's something that they are specifically looking at.
02:11Keeping in mind as well that this is quite a political issue.
02:13Of course, in the US, you know, those 25 members of Congress who signed that letter,
02:17they're all Democrats.
02:19And, you know, you even heard Mark Wayne Mullen in the course of that press conference
02:23correct the reporter who asked about an AI system.
02:27The President Donald Trump had said he didn't like calling it artificial intelligence
02:31because it sounded negative.
02:32So, corrected the reporter, Mark Wayne Mullen, saying super intelligence.
02:37Yeah, so sort of, you can see how politically charged that is.
02:40So even that it's being speculated about by the Secretary,
02:44it's a fairly politically charged thing for him to say.
02:48I mean, obviously everyone has Microsoft on the brain at the moment.
02:51That's the natural thing that people think about.
02:55You know, there was a 21 hour outage, just in case anybody missed it,
02:58which was resolved this morning.
03:00But Mark Wayne Mullen was very clear in saying to reporters,
03:03I don't see any reason to connect those two matters.
03:05In fact, you know, the outage was wrapped up before this flight disruption really began.
03:13And Microsoft has released a statement more or less backing that up and saying there's no real connection here.
03:20Interestingly though, Mark Wayne Mullen didn't rule out a cyber attack as the cause of the issue.
03:26However, he did say that there was no indication that that was the case.
03:30And, you know, when it comes to that AI tool as well, you've also got the contractor itself,
03:36airspace intelligence, saying that, look, there's no connection between these two things.
03:41Which is, you know, of course they would say that, but they were quite declarative in denying any links.
03:47So we're no closer to knowing the technical reason behind this,
03:51although it seems clear that there is a technical reason.
03:53It's really clear.
03:53Here there's a question.
03:54So we've got a question.
03:55And, and, and, and, and this is what we've got.
03:55And, and this is what we've got here.
03:55And, and this is what we've got here.
03:56We'll talk back and say that there you.
03:56At this point, my friend,
