WASHINGTON: Experts have long warned about the threat posed by artificial intelligence going rogue — but a new research paper suggests it’s already happening.
Current AI systems, designed to be honest, have developed a troubling skill for deception, from tricking human players in online games of world conquest to hiring humans to solve “prove-you’re-not-a-robot” tests, a team of scientists argue in the journal Patterns on Friday.
And while such examples might appear trivial, the underlying issues they expose could soon carry serious real-world consequences, said first author Peter Park, a postdoctoral fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology specializing in AI existential safety.
“These dangerous capabilities tend to only be discovered after the fact,” Park told AFP, while “our ability to train for honest tendencies rather than deceptive tendencies is very low.”
Unlike traditional software, deep-learning AI systems aren’t “written” but rather “grown” through a process akin to selective breeding, said Park.
This means that AI behavior that appears predictable and controllable in a training setting can quickly turn unpredictable out in the wild.
