AI Has Enshittified America’s Advanced Stealth Fighter
Artificial Intelligence has enshittified the F-35, America’s long-embattled 5th generation stealth fighter jet. Produced by Lockheed Martin and coming in three different flavors, the F-35 relies on an AI system called the Autonomic Logistics Information System (ALIS) to maintain the aircraft. The pitch was that ALIS would keep the F-35 in flying shape cheap and easy.
The reality has been the opposite. “ALIS is the backbone of maintenance support for the F-35 aircraft. Squadrons depend on it to support day-to-day flight operations and maintenance activities … ALIS demonstrated poor usability and impeded, rather than facilitated, effective maintenance operations,” a recently revealed government report about the F-35’s many failings said.
The report comes from the Office of the Director, Operational Test and Evaluation, a Reagan-era Pentagon department that tests American weapons systems. It’s highly classified but the Project On Government Oversight, a non-profit watchdog group that investigates government spending, shook it loose with a Freedom of Information Act Request. The 382-page report is an in-depth indictment of the F-35 from the DoD itself. Greg Williams over at POGO has gone through the report in-depth and pulled out the most scandalous and ridiculous bits.
