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Neural Networks-Equipped Robots Evolve the Ability To Deceive

Posted by timothy on from the I-never-blinked-that dept.

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."

7 of 116 comments (clear)

  1. Mhm by alexborges · · Score: 5, Funny

    I mean, yesterday, they built an certified evil robot. Today they made a lying one....

    Cant tag it for some reason but... what could possibly go wrong?

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    NO SIG
    1. Re:Mhm by netruner · · Score: 5, Funny

      Wasn't there also a story a while back about robots fueled by biomass? This was twisted to mean "human eating" and we all laughed.

      Combine that with what you said and we could have a certified evil, lying and flesh eating robot - What could possibly go wrong indeed.....

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      DISCLAIMER: This post was not checked for speling and grammar- if you complain- you're a whiner
  2. The next step is clearly... by billlava · · Score: 5, Funny

    A robot that learned not to flash lights that would give away the location of robot food to its competitors? The next step is clearly a robot that learns not to flash lights when it is about to wipe out humanity and take control of the world!

    I for one welcome our intelligent light-eating bubble robot overlords.

  3. Not really that impressive. by lalena · · Score: 5, Interesting

    From the article, staying close to food earned the robot points. I think a better experiment would be a food collection algorithm. Pick up a piece of food from a pile of food and then return that food to the nest. Other robots could hang out at your nest and follow you back to the pile of food or see you going to your nest with food and assume that the food pile can be found by going in the exact opposite direction. Deception would involve not taking a direct route back to the food, walking backwards to confuse other robots...
    I've done Genetic Programming experiments using collaboration between "robots" in food collection experiments, and it is a very interesting field. You can see some experiments here: http://www.lalena.com/ai/ant/ You can also run the program if you can run .NET 2.0 through your browser..

  4. Re:The robots didn't learn... by jasonlfunk · · Score: 5, Interesting
    (Fixed formatting)

    FTA: The team "evolved" new generations of robots by copying and combining the artificial neural networksof the most successful robots. The scientists also added a few random changes to their code to mimic biological mutations.

    The "scientists" changed the code so that the robots didn't blink the light as much when it was around food. Therefore other robots didn't come over and therefore got more points then the other robots. The "scientists" then propagated that ones code to the other robots because it won. The AI didn't learn anything.

  5. Re:Define deception? by odin84gk · · Score: 5, Informative
    Old news. http://discovermagazine.com/2008/jan/robots-evolve-and-learn-how-to-lie

    These robots would signal other robots that poison was food, would watch the other robots come and die, then move away.

  6. Re:Mis-Leading by ashtophoenix · · Score: 5, Funny

    who's to say we aren't all very evolved GA's ?

    The Creationists!

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