Flying Too High: AI and Air France Flight 447

Cautionary Tales with Tim Harford

Pushkin Industries

History, Society & Culture

4.7 • 6.4K Ratings

🗓️ 19 July 2024

⏱️ 47 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Panic has erupted in the cockpit of Air France Flight 447. The pilots are convinced they’ve lost control of the plane. It’s lurching violently. Then, it begins plummeting from the sky at breakneck speed, careening towards catastrophe. The pilots are sure they’re done-for.

Only, they haven’t lost control of the aircraft at all: one simple manoeuvre could avoid disaster…

In the age of artificial intelligence, we often compare humans and computers, asking ourselves which is “better”. But is this even the right question? The case of Air France Flight 447 suggests it isn't - and that the consequences of asking the wrong question are disastrous.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Pushkin
0:09.0	The Medal of Honor is the highest military decoration in the United States. Since it was
0:15.1	established in 1861 there have been 3,317 people awarded with the medal.
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0:44.0	In 2009, Mitrese Richardson was released from the Malibu Lost Hill Sheriff Station
0:50.0	and she never made it home.
0:52.0	Nearly a year later, Mitre's remains were found in a canyon,
0:56.0	six miles from the station.
0:58.0	Her death is Malibu's greatest unsolved mystery.
1:01.0	I'm Dana Goodyear in Lost Hills Dark Canyon. What happened to
1:06.3	my Tries Richardson? Listen to Lost Hills Dark Canyon wherever you get your
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1:14.9	add free, subscribe to Pushkin Plus on our Apple Podcasts show page or at pushkin.
1:21.2	FM slash plus.
1:23.0	When the trouble started in the middle of the Atlantic, Captain Mark Dubois was in the middle of the Atlantic.
1:32.8	Captain Mark Dubois was in the flight rest compartment
1:36.7	right next to the flight deck.
1:38.4	He was in charge of Air France flight 447, en route overnight from Rio de Janeiro to Paris.
	...

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