Todd Citron on artificial intelligence
From Boeing Fireside Chat (Forum 360) · · AIAA
“I think the thing that never goes away is the importance of having that intuitive understanding of how things work because the machine can spit out all sorts of things and sometimes what it spits out is not practical or has other implications. But if you don't understand at the intuitive level, it's really hard to know whether that's true.”
On , Todd Citron, Chief Technology Officer, Vice President and GM of Boeing Research & Technology at Boeing, spoke about artificial intelligence during Boeing Fireside Chat (Forum 360) on AIAA.
About Todd Citron
Todd Citron, Boeing's Chief Technology Officer, discussed the company's technology strategy and safety approach during a January 2026 fireside chat. He said Boeing is working to embed human-focused engineering design in commercial aircraft by partnering with universities to layer real-world certification examples onto academic safety analysis. Citron noted that about a third of Boeing's demonstrated technologies appear on real products, citing the natural laminar flow winglet tested in 2012 that led to the split winglet on the 737 Max, which he said provides a 2% efficiency improvement per aircraft. He also called for collaboration among regulators, oil and gas companies, and OEMs to advance sustainable aviation fuel, and described end-to-end optimization with real-time data as a potential source of 10% fuel efficiency gains. In May 2025, Citron participated in a podcast discussing the "Art of Business" program, which provides financial education and mentorship to student-athletes and musicians in Lafayette, Louisiana. He said that with the existence of name, image, and likeness (NIL) programs, student-athletes should be treated as small businesses requiring community investment)Skip. Citron expressed skepticism about simply giving athletes money without education, stating that programs like "Art of Business" could help athletes avoid financial missteps.