Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy unveiled the FAA's new AI-powered air traffic tool on Monday, moving quickly to head off concerns that machines might start making the calls in America's skies. "I want to be clear, humans control the airspace. Humans make decisions, but we're just giving them way better technology, way better foresight," Duffy said alongside FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford as they demonstrated the system known as SMART, short for Strategic Management of Airspace, Routes, and Trajectories. The tool pulls together roughly 200 data streams, including weather patterns, flight paths, and real-time traffic, to recommend optimizations aimed at cutting delays and easing congestion, with the initial rollout focused on Washington, DC-area airports including Reagan National, Dulles, and BWI.

The launch came the same day a severed fiber optic cable triggered unrelated ground stops and disruptions for flights along the East Coast, an awkward coincidence given the timing of the AI debut, though officials stressed the two issues were not connected. The National Air Traffic Controllers Association offered a measured response, noting it had not been involved in designing or testing SMART and stressing that any new technology should complement rather than replace the judgment of trained controllers. Duffy echoed that framing directly, telling reporters the tool "won't manage the airspace" but will instead hand controllers sharper data to work with. The rollout is part of a broader push from Duffy's Transportation Department to modernize air traffic infrastructure that officials have described as dangerously outdated, with some systems still running on decades-old technology even as passenger volumes climb toward major upcoming events like the 2026 World Cup and 2028 Olympics.