Chapter 1 Excerpt: Meet Kelly, Randy, and Perry, the Three AI Tools Within Neurifact
In the conference room was a team of Lockheed-Martin F-35C simulator engineers. Also, engineers from Topest Technologies, the AI development contractor for the Air Force Research Lab, AFRL, were gathered separately in a corner. Dr. Simon Burkholder, the Chief Scientist and co-founder of Topest Technologies, was among the group of engineers.
Burkholder had chosen the name Topest as a subtle jab at the Navy’s famous “Top Gun” fighter weapons training program, implying that his AI autopilot technology was superior to the best Top Gun pilot, or “Topest.”
Everyone in this group in the conference room knew each other, since their work overlapped around the F-35C. As Nate moved around the room shaking hands with the other engineers, he came to Simon.
“Good morning, Dr. Burkholder,” Nate said as he grasped Simon’s hand.
“Good morning, Dr. Walters,” Simon said with a cynical glance as he tightly squeezed Nate’s hand. “Just between you and me, I’ll bet you a cold beer that my Kelly AI Autopilot will whack your Captain Lancer today.”
Nate replied with a grin, “Well Simple, I’m not normally a gambling man, but I’ll take that bet. Lancer's recorded dogfights show his amazing ability to shock opponents with unconventional jet contortions. It will be worth a beer just to see how he performs today.
“Simon visibly bristled at Nate’s use of the call sign “Simple.” Nate knew that Simon’s former USAF F-15 squadron pilots had scoffed at his arrogance as a pilot and tagged him with the call sign, Simple-Simon, or Simple for short.
Nate also knew that Simon hated that call sign.
Simon burrowed his brow and his tone sharpened. “Well, we’ve added some significant maneuver assessment capabilities to Kelly such that not even your ‘super-pilot’ can out-think Kelly today. This engagement will be over in a minute and I’ll be thirsty. Have your wallet ready.”
Simon walked away, fuming. Nate reflected on Simon’s experience as an AI researcher. Simon's team developed their AI autopilot for the Lockheed F-35 simulator under an Air Force Research Lab (AFRL) contract. Burkholder wanted to win favor with Lockheed Martin, so he named his AI Autopilot "Kelly" after their renowned designer, Kelly Johnson.
ONR had its own AI autopilot being developed internally for the Navy by Art Baldwin’s team that included an APL partnership. The Navy believed the human pilot was more important, thus developing their AI Autopilot to be more like an agent to assist the human pilot. ONR and APL were moving slower than the Air Force and had funded Nate’s research in parallel to their efforts.
APL had nicknamed the ONR AI Autopilot under development as “Randy” after Commander Randy Cunningham, a Navy F-4 ace in the Vietnam War who, when later elected to Congress, had been convicted of taking bribes and served time in prison. Cunningham was a superb pilot, and his antics of a control tower fly-by were the basis for the original “Top Gun” movie.
The Randy autopilot was an emerging but very capable AI autopilot for eventual prototype integration into the Navy and Marine Corps F-35Cs as an augmenting agent for the human pilot.
Nate and his FIT research team, most recently supported by Lindsey in the last year, had spent over four years developing his separate AI analytical tool to explore the human dimension of piloting a fifth-generation F-35C aircraft. Nate also had a nickname for his AI analytical tool set, calling it “Perry.” He got the name from the 1960s TV series, “Perry Mason”, a defense attorney who could always win freedom for his client by proving who was the actual murderer. Perry Mason would burrow diligently through all the evidence to ferret out the truth in a courtroom adversarial engagement.