This Pilot Defeated An AI-Driven Drone In A Race, But Machines Will Defeat Humans By 2023

Last week we saw AI defeat a renowned player in a board game dubbed ¡®Go¡¯ that literally forced him to retire. If this made you feel scared for humanity, the next news could give you a sigh of relief.

A human defeated AI this time in a Drone Racing League. The AI drone was designed by Delft University of Technology¡¯s MavLab and it was pitted against a human drone pilot named Gabriel Kocher.

The race was definitely one of the most hyped with its ¡®man vs machine¡¯ theme however, by the time the race ended, the AI got embarrassingly beaten by the human pilot.

What you also need to understand is the fact that handling these drones aren¡¯t a child¡¯s play. Drone, in general, take quite a while to fully master, and these drones fly as fast as 110 kilometres per hour.

The pilot wore VR headsets that help them manoeuvre these blazing fast drones with ease. On the circuit, the AI drone took 12 seconds to complete the course, whereas Gabriel took just 6 seconds. Now you might be wondering that this AI is really dumb to have lost with such a difference, but that¡¯s not the case.

MavLab¡¯s AI previously won the match against other AIs. It also got awarded $1 million which was sponsored by Lockheed Martin. It¡¯s after winning the match against the AI, it was ready to challenge the human.

It goes without saying that drone racing, much like F1 is severely instinctive and unpredictable where a human operator or driver applies his/her experience and intuition to stay on track, something the AI¡¯s are trying to do, but still end up not being as fast as a trained human.

A board game is predictable with the number of outcomes and probability -- that formula doesn¡¯t work here. But this doesn¡¯t mean AI won¡¯t get smart enough to come close.

In a statement to CNET, the Drone Racing League¡¯s CTO Ryan Gury feels that AI will be ready to take down humans in drone flying by 2023.