It was a joke. The ATF (YF-22/YF-23) was supposed to get something like this and it was called the "pilot's associate".
"Boeing Military Systems became engaged in the advancement of decision aiding for aircraft flight systems in the early 1990’s starting with the Pilot’s Associate Program for tactical fighters and later more extensively with the Rotorcraft Pilot’s Associate (RPA). These early concept definition programs demonstrated the effectiveness of Cognitive Decision Aiding System implementations as an aid to the human in the cockpit. This technology evolved into more advanced Boeing projects including Airborne Manned/Unmanned System Technology Demonstration, Joint Unmanned Combat Air Systems, and Future Combat Systems. New technologies and methods traditionally advance through a set of defined measures known as Technical Readiness Levels (TRL) before they are considered viable, safe, cost effective, and mature enough that they can be integrated onto an operational military aircraft. This chapter will focus on RPA to illustrate the importance of simulation and technology demonstration during early concept definition (i.e., low TRL levels) to assure potential customers of the concept’s operational applicability and technical readiness; in addition to providing risk reduction for future integration."
Thought I'd heard the term generically earlier than that.
"The Pilot's Associate program, a joint effort of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and the US Air Force to build a cooperative, knowledge-based system to help pilots make decisions is described, and the lessons learned are examined. The Pilot's Associate concept developed as a set of cooperating, knowledge-based subsystems: two assessor and two planning subsystems, and a pilot interface. The two assessors, situation assessment and system status, determine the state of the outside world and the aircraft systems, respectively. The two planners, tactics planner and mission planner, react to the dynamic environment by responding to immediate threats and their effects on the prebriefed mission plan. The pilot-vehicle interface subsystem provides the critical connection between the pilot and the rest of the system. The focus is on the air-to-air subsystems."
