Last week’s Valentine’s Day was a busy day.

Lockheed Martin announced its trained AI named VISTA flew an F-16 for 17 hours in the sky. This was no VR or simulated flight, but a real AI flew a real, airborne plane. This flight represents the first time an AI has piloted a tactical aircraft.

VISTA, the Variable In-Flight Simulation Test Aircraft, flew out of the US Air Force Test Pilot School at Edwards Air Base in California. The actual test flight occurred in late December and the system runs using an open architecture.

VISTA captures pilot maneuvers and sensor data so that the AI can pilot the aircraft with full autonomy. Lockheed says the platform is currently used for test flights with the idea full autonomous missions may be flown by an AI. This is a level above using drone pilots stateside to fly missions a world away. It’s easy to imagine a world where generals and ranking officials can simply task AIs to run sorties against an opposing force. It makes you wonder what the meaning behind warfare will be in the future.

The Air Force is planning its path of succession after the F-22 Raptor and its Next Generation Air Dominance Program is looking towards autonomy as a means of air superiority. Other countries are getting in on the pilot autonomy game with Russia, Japan, and the UK all making heavy investments in AI-pilot training programs.

An AI startup named, Shield AI, is raising significant venture capital to train AI pilots for civilian and commercial use. My main question is, “to what end?” The obvious answer is enemy deterrence given AIs have no feelings and no fear. But, “to what end?”

What’s the point of employing soldiers who have no fear, no scruples, and no feelings of country? It changes the meaning of going to war? And how does a body politic react when autonomous agents fight some foe on their behalf. And that public doesn’t ante the bodies of their countrymen in a conflict? To me it seems like a path to no restraint, and the smallest slights would be resolved with death.