Emirates Chief Says AI Won’t Replace Pilots

The head of Emirates says his customers may never be ready to trust their lives to ChatGPT, but artificial intelligence will likely be along for the ride in every flight deck. Tim Clark told CNBC that single-pilot operations might be a possibility, but he doubts passengers will accept a pilotless flight deck. “You might see a one-pilot aircraft,” Clark said, adding that it will likely be a long time coming. “Could the aircraft be flown on a fully automated basis?" Clark said. "Yes it could, technology is right up there now, [but] there’ll always be somebody on the flight deck in my view.”

Clark said AI is a powerful new tool and he expects the industry to embrace it. “A lot of people are concerned about what AI should and shouldn’t be doing … but if you’re in business and you’ve got something as powerful as this coming along and you’re very processes driven, manpower intensive, you’ve got to take time to look at what this could do to improve what you do,” he said.