PM · ABC listenArtificial intelligence creeping into our livesBroadcast Friday, 22 December 2000 · Reporter: maura angle← Full PM episode — Friday, 22 December 2000COMPERE: Use the term 'artificial intelligence' and some people shudder at the thought of computers making decisions normally made by humans. It sounds like a concept for sci-fi movies like 'The Matrix'.But it's already creeping into our everyday lives, and as Maura Angle reports it's something that may soon be used to help airline pilots track their routes.MAURA ANGLE: The number of planes in our skies is ever increasing and it's causing nightmares for air traffic controllers around the world. The problem is aircraft are restricted to specific corridors. It's a bit like a car sticking to the roads, or a train to its tracks.The President of the Aircraft Owners' and Pilots Association, Bill Hamilton, says it's time for a change.BILL HAMILTON: I've always joked that current air traffic control is a means whereby a small number of aircraft in a vast and empty sky are all concentrated over one point increasing the collision risk and thereby justifying the existence of air traffic control.But seriously, modernisation of the way we manage aircraft in the air will depend on using literally the whole sky, not just cramming everybody into little bits of it.MAURA ANGLE: An international conference in Hobart has heard artificial intelligence may be the answer. Mathematicians in the United States are developing software which will make decisions on the best route to take.Free flight programming would be in the cockpit and, as the name suggests, gives pilots more freedom.One of the designers, Professor Boris Stillman [phonetic], admits many people don't like the idea of a computer giving such important advice.BORIS STILLMAN: People think this would never happen during their lifetime but it should happen because the current situation is very difficult for aircraft control. It's very, very difficult. So they want to have this but I know that FAA, which is Federal Aviation of Administration in the United States, is very afraid of implementing even small pieces of this programme.MAURA ANGLE: Bill Hamilton from the Aircraft Owners' and Pilots Association says he understands the scepticism, but is keen for the technology to be applied.BILL HAMILTON: I think this is a very exciting prospect. The idea of putting control back in the cockpit where it belongs - we've been moving in this direction for some years - very exciting.MAURA ANGLE: Similar programs have been trialed by the developers in Colorado, but on the land in emergency service vehicles. Professor Stillman says he's been working in the area for nearly 20 years.He started out in Moscow with a former world chess champion. They wanted to adapt his game strategies to the real world.BORIS STILLMAN: So the idea was to try to simulate his approach in chess, to pass this to the computer and more importantly to develop a mathematical foundation, to develop a theory, which would explain what is going on and then, of course, to apply this theory in many different problem domains.COMPERE: Boris Stillman, talking to Maura Angle.