The BaseVideoNBC News6 min75,979 views
AI startup says nationwide ground stop was not caused by its software
In a short NBC News segment during the nationwide FAA ground stop, reporters Brian Cheung and Jared Perlo say the AI vendor behind the FAA's SMART system denies its software caused the outage, while noting the cause was still unknown.
Why it matters
The same thing, for different readers.
What it means for you
Flights across the US were halted on November 13, and nobody had yet said what failed; the maker of the new AI routing tool says it was not to blame.
For lawmakers
The FAA switched its AI routing tool on nationwide three days before a ground stop, so officials face questions about testing, timing and disclosure.
For researchers
The vendor's denial came within hours, before any root cause was public, so it is an untested claim, not a finding.
The question it raises
If an AI system is part of the machinery during a failure, does responsibility rest with its maker, the agency that adopted it, or both?
The record
- Questions
- How is AI changing childhood, health and daily life? · Who can demand evidence, delay a release or stop an unsafe deployment?
- People
- Brian Cheung (Speaks, NBC News reporter) · Jared Perlo (Speaks, NBC News AI reporter) · Sean Duffy (Mentioned, Transportation Secretary)
- Also covered by
- CNN · The White House · Bloomberg Television
- What we read
- We read the whole source.
- Found by
- The Radar, run of November 14, 2026, via
yt-nbc-news(tier 1: the source’s own channel or an official record) - Cite this
- NBC News, “AI startup says nationwide ground stop was not caused by its software”, November 13, 2026. Entry in the Ctrl AI Base, https://ctrlai.com/base/nbc-2026-11-13-ground-stop-smart-ai-startup