8 Terrifying Truths About Artificial Intelligence (3 of 5)

5. War Robots Could Be Hacked to Switch Sides

In 2011, Iran captured a U.S. stealth drone, claiming it hacked its GPS and tricked it into landing safely. The U.S. denied that this was possible, but how else would the drone have been captured in one piece? In any event, there’s undoubtedly going to come a time when autonomous military tech is able to be hijacked and turned against its creators. This will lead to all sorts of unpleasant surprises. Imagine a battalion of robotic soldiers suddenly turning on their own army mid-battle.

4. Robots Are Becoming Good at Lying

Researchers at Georgia Tech were able to program robots to deceive others during games of hide and seek. The robot assigned to hide would head one way, knock things over in their path, and then sneak off the opposite way once out of the “seeker’s” field of vision. Essentially, it was an exercise of misdirection, a behavior that could expand in other ways and become a common AI survival strategy.