I still have yet to hear anyone offer up an explanation how AI will integrate with our current air traffic control system and other aircraft. Right now if I want to fly through certain kinds of airspace (basically any airspace around a medium sized airport, civilian or military) I have to talk to air traffic control, and they tell me what do to. As a pilot in command, I have final authority to deviate from these clearances for safety reasons, mainly because it is my ass on the line.
So if a drone flight is flying an instrument flight plan from point A to point B, how does an air traffic controller command them? Part of the advantage of verbal commands being given to aircraft over a common frequency is that other pilots know what aircraft are doing around them. If a drone is being silently told to avoid for traffic, that doesnt help me if I am the aircraft being avoided. If a drone is told to hold but doesnt have enough fuel, or to divert due to weather, can it recognize a command that would create a state of emergency and over rule the air traffic controllers directions? Since air traffic controllers have need to communicate with aircraft in their airspace, how will these comms be authenticated so someone doesnt spoof ATC to make a drone do something stupid?
I know NASA is working on these problems with the FAA, but I havent heard anything yet. However, aviation isnt a "move fast and break things" area. Regulations are written in blood, and I dont really want to be the guy who gets sacrificed so that the FAA can retroactively fix an issue that someone dismissed as "psychological".