The Matrix and the Future of Aviation

It's no secret that companies have been experimenting with AIs (artificial intelligence) controlling airplanes, and the movie The Matrix only emphasizes what can possibly happen. If, theoretically, The Matrix was created by humans with a set a given laws: how can The Matrix evolve to what was seen in the movie? All fantasies and hypotheticals aside, giving direct and full control of something to a machine can have consequences. As seen in the video embedded, there can be costly consequences for having a machine control everything in aviation. Although the motives for designing such a device are to negate human error: there still poses a much greater risk if the machine malfunctions when the plane is full of people.

In addition, it begs the question as to what is the future of autopilot. Autopilot is nothing more than a computer program that will control the aircraft's heading, pitch, altitude, and speed based on the pilot's settings. If this program malfunctions, what are the consequences? Although the consequences in this day and age wouldn't be alarming, imagine what would happen when the autopilot system began to actually control the plane fully and not just to hold a heading.