Safety-Critical AI

Safety-critical AI refers to AI systems whose failure could cause physical harm, loss of life, or serious damage to infrastructure, such as those used in medical devices, autonomous vehicles, aviation, industrial control, and power grids. For enterprise governance teams, these systems typically fall under the strictest regulatory and liability regimes, meaning they often require documented validation, human oversight, and incident reporting before and after deployment. Compliance leaders should treat any AI touching these domains as a higher-stakes category, with approval processes and testing standards that go well beyond those used for low-risk tools like internal chatbots.

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Corporate PolicyUS2026-11-14

FAA's $875M AI Traffic System Rolls Out Without Controller Union Input

The Federal Aviation Administration has deployed its $875 million SMART air traffic management system to all 22 air route traffic control centers across the US. This expands from an initial pilot covering Washington, DC airspace. The system uses cloud-based AI to combine weather, flight path, traffic flow, and staffing data to recommend routes and arrival sequencing. Human FAA specialists validate recommendations before they reach local controllers, who retain final authority over whether to accept them. The National Air Traffic Controllers Association, representing more than 15,000 members, stated it was not consulted in the design, testing, or implementation of SMART.

FAA critical infrastructure human oversight public sector AI labor consultation AI in transportation safety-critical AI