From Hilda Beaumont, Brighton, UK
You reported on the Dutch air force using AI to read pilots’ brain waves to toughen training. Older readers might remember the 1982 film Firefox, starring Clint Eastwood as US pilot Mitchell Gant, who steals a Russian experimental fighter jet that can be controlled by the pilot’s brain via a “thought control” helmet. In the final scene of the film, Gant confronts his Russian adversary, who is flying a similarly thought-controlled plane, only to learn that to use the technology, he has to “think” in Russian. Fortunately, he can! A case of AI helping us catch up with science fiction, perhaps (14 February, p 17).