AI and Drones are not the same thing.
AI is something that can calculate and think.
Drone is an unmanned device for performing tasks.
Not in the same category of things.
Ok... kinda weird seeing this as reply to my post since I explicitly mentioned similar considerations
To me, it's still simpler AND cheaper to develop a solid auto-pilot that is an unpredictable, independant flying ace and copy/paste it to every fighter in the fleet than it is to: Spend years training new pilots, drug them, augment them with cybernetic implants, build them a ship with a cockpit, lifesupport system and inertial dampers or whatever else you want to add.
This is probably the case. I can't imagine a grounded scenario in which simple, fast program (good computer but not an AI) dealing with all known combat doctrines being topped off by super intelligence by any value of importance.
The strongest and most definitive limitations would likely be the hardware's capability, not how well it is controlled.
Unless the lore explicitly deals with how the tech is so control reliant on their limitation (like either the craft itself has capability that requires extremely fine on-the-fly adjustments to keep at peak performance OR combat doctrines are so complex that no simple machine can ever execute without coming off as too predictable) but that doesn't seem to be the case here?
Or maybe they are all already equipped with auto-pilot and the pilot is there to just take that extra step ahead of the unmanned craft? But even so it's probably more space efficient to just stack even more auto-pilot controller in the place of a pilot.
