▲ aschla 5 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Doubtful. That tool likely suggests "improved" clearances, which a controller can use at their discretion. It likely does not control clearances directly.

And the early reports describe the issue as related to ATC communication infrastructure.

	▲	llama052 5 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Depends on why systems they've tied into it. I could see an AI system DDOSing legacy systems that are relied on by ATC.

▲ jacquesm 6 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

That is an extremely bad idea.

	▲	ceejayoz 6 hours ago \| parent [-]
		It's just a route optimizer. Unlikely to have anything to do with this.

▲ lunarboy 6 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

This actually makes sense. I can't believe people actually think outlook being down would take down all departures across the US

	▲	krapp 5 hours ago \| parent [-]
		>I can't believe people actually think outlook being down would take down all departures across the US Because American infrastructure is modern, well designed, maintained and funded? Because government is competent and rational? I could absolutely believe that would happen.

▲ augment_me 6 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

[flagged]

▲

903543958568 6 hours ago | parent [-]

What can you expect from gawker?

	▲	eli 5 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Gizmodo hasn't been run by Gawker for over a decade

▲ dysoco 6 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

lfmao, really bad timing but I really doubt something announced yesterday went into effect today, it's probably going to be rolled out in the future.

▲ 6 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

[deleted]

▲ nsoam 6 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

You are right, it isn't. Good for you.

▲ bbor 6 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

If true and this ends up lasting an hour or more, that's going to be undeniably, objectively hilarious. At least they used to keep the planes running on time!

--- EDIT:

This could just be the first issue that's arisen -- the FAA announced it "is expanding across the nation" on Tuesday. Which could really mean anything.

FAA Announcement: https://www.faa.gov/newsroom/statements/general-statements

The Ars Technica article behind the Gizmodo one sadly doesn't have more info, either.

It'd be kind of absurd if a read-only integration took down nationwide infrastructure, but A) we've all been there... and B) the gizmodo article does mention they're also trying to phase out floppy disks for some jobs still, which tells me their CI/CD and rollback hygiene might not be top-notch. Hopefully the Real World contestant in charge of our transportation network is on site with a ClaudeCode terminal as we speak!

It does sound pretty deeply integrated, I will say:

  SMART is a cloud-based system that centralizes 200 data streams – including weather patterns, flight paths, traffic flow, and controller staffing metrics – into one platform.

The fact sheet has two more vaguely worrying bullet points -- I would say such wild speculation is unwarranted, but I struggle to think what else could cause all the radios in the nation to go down at once... Emphasis mine:

  Creates **a single shared real-time picture** of schedules, weather, airport capacity, and airspace conditions.
  ...
  Enhances the effectiveness of **existing** FAA air traffic management systems.

	▲	llama052 5 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Oh boy, that feels plausible. Some of these legacy systems are pretty fragile and aren't designed to be queried heavily outside of well established patterns. I could see AI deploying something that just obliterates those systems with requests. If so we are really speedrunning into idiocracy with AI.

▲ 6 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

[deleted]