Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin was excoriated on social media Thursday after correcting a reporter who asked whether the ongoing nationwide ground stop could have been caused by AI.
“There are thoughts that you know this could be an AI-related error or issue,” the reporter said.
“We call it SI around here, remember? SI.” Mullin said.
SI, of course, is President Donald Trump’s effort via executive order to replace the terms AI/artificial intelligence with “Super Intelligence.”
Mullin was also asked if the outage could be the result of a cyberattack and said the administration is not ruling anything out at this time.
Regarding AI integration into the FAA’s systems, the agency announced this week that it would expand use of an $875 million AI tool known as “SMART” to “assist in managing air traffic across the entire national airspace system,” Ars Technica reported Thursday.
It is unclear at this time what caused the ground stop, but Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said FAA officials are currently investigating the issue.
Mullin’s comments quickly went viral on social media, prompting many critics to question why the secretary would, amid a national emergency, keep pushing Trump’s attempts to rebrand the technology.
Many users branded the administration “unserious,” while others said they have their priorities out of whack.
Read reactions to Mullin’s comments here: