As aviation continues to wrestle with the ancient tension between human complexity and systemic order, the FAA is turning to artificial intelligence to get ahead of a problem that has long been managed only in hindsight. Beginning next week, a machine learning tool called SMART will be deployed across Washington's three major airports, tasked with reading the patterns of weather and scheduling before delays have a chance to compound. It is a quiet but consequential wager — that prediction, not reaction, may finally be aviation's most reliable co-pilot.