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Neural Networks-Equipped Robots Evolve the Ability To Deceive
pdragon04 writes "Researchers at the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne in Switzerland have found that robots equipped with artificial neural networks and programmed to find 'food' eventually learned to conceal their visual signals from other robots to keep the food for themselves. The results are detailed in a PNAS study published today."
To use the term "learned" for a consequence of evolution to what seems to me to be a Genetic Algorithm seems mis-leading. So the generation that emitted less of the blue light (hence giving less visual cues) was able to score higher, and hence the genetic algorithm favored that generation (that is what GAs do). Isn't this to be expected?
Life is about being a Phoenix!
In this instance they were playing against other robots for "food".
In that regards I'm sure that is the evolutionary drive for most species in acquiring meals and keeping the next animal from taking it away from him.
Like a dog burying a bone... He's not doing it to be evil. Its just instinctive to keep his find from other animals because it helped his species survive in the past.
"I am the king of the Romans, and am superior to rules of grammar!"
-Sigismund, Holy Roman Emperor (1368-1437)
The question of what exactly constitutes deception is a fun philosophical problem but; in the context of studying animal signaling, it is generally most convenient to work with a simpler definition(in particular, trying to determine whether an animal that doesn't speak has beliefs about the world is a pile of not fun). I'd assume that the robot researchers are doing the same thing.
In that context, you essentially ignore questions of motivation, belief, and so on, and just look at the way the signal is used.
Yes, but not flashing the light near food seems like a simple matter of discretion, not deception.
I'm not constantly broadcasting my location on Twitter like some people do. Am I being deceptive?