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UK Military Fears Robots Learning War From Video Games (bbc.com)
Robots that train themselves in battle tactics by playing video games could be used to mount cyber-attacks, the UK military fears. From a report: The warning is in a Ministry of Defence report on artificial intelligence. Researchers in Silicon Valley are using strategy games, such as Starcraft II, to teach systems how to solve complex problems on their own. But artificial intelligence (AI) programs can then "be readily adapted" to wage cyber-warfare, the MoD says. Officials are particularly concerned about the ability of rogue states and terrorists to mount advanced persistent threat attacks, which can disable critical infrastructure and steal sensitive information.
The so-called 'AI' they keep using for everything isn't even fully up to the job of operating a vehicle safely, and as if that isn't enough of a weapon to put these machines in charge of, some idiot wants to actually arm them with actual weapons of war? Utter stupidity. Just don't do it at all, problem solved.
Nothing that a tiny bit of EMP can't fix, just as it can easily fix many of these new tech problems.
But artificial intelligence (AI) programs can then "be readily adapted" to wage cyber-warfare, the MoD says. Officials are particularly concerned about the ability of rogue states and terrorists to mount advanced persistent threat attacks
How do you equate becoming good at a Real-time Strategy or Shoot-em-up game with being able to be a good hacker?
Unless the Cyber-war threat you're worried about is AIs being developed to exploit glitches in current online games such as Fortnite or PubG and rising to the top of the rankings, then I'm sure AIs that can be taught video games are pretty far away from being an AI that can be leveraged by cyberterrorists to engage in automatic "warfare"
Because then they'll think give-up and re-spawn is a valid option when things are going south.
Shall we play a game?
When robots start bunny hopping, spamming grenades and talking crap after they kill someone.
Killer robots bunny-hopping and dolphin-diving all over the battlefield....And oh god, the spawn camping......
The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for it to be pitted against a slightly greater evil
Revolutions in masonry construction via Tetris.
Innovation in planetary defense through Missile Command.
Solution to the traveling salesman problem from Adventures of Lolo.
Am I the only one who gets the feeling that certain video games are recruitment tools, like that 80s movie...The Last Starfighter (IIRC)
No thanks.
If they are shaking in their boots over nonsense, the UK may as well disband their military and spend the money on something more useful
is what this sounds like. They're after something. e.g. they want to clamp down on some right or another or to distract from a real issue (e.g. an economic one). It's too patently absurd to be anything else.
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Those poor AI robots that will think they can just roll over a downed robot and find a health pack to instantly fix themselves. Or that they can just press Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A to get infinite ammo. They also will find that the NPCs in a real war either don't exist or don't wander aimlessly. They will be sitting ducks in the old time game "Duck Hunt".
I mean... AI in general has the potential to be very dangerous, supply a win condition and it will theoretically work at the problem until it solves it. It's not wrong to fear the potential of AI, it's just silly to frame it like this.
The AI will spend the entire time trash talking and insulting your mother.
... there's no way to develop a goddam AI system to stop this shit.
It little behooves the best of us to comment on the rest of us.
Americans aren't the only ones with idiot politicians.
...and it won't be the robots you'll have to worry about.
Starcraft? So what, the robots know how to zerg rush now?
What side do you want?
1. United States
2. Russia
3. United Kingdom
4. France
5. China
6. India
7. Pakistan
8. North Korea
9. Israel
"Sir, I'm sorry to say we couldn't stop the enemy. Our ninja goats failed, it turns out, because their tongues snapped off. Testing them on Goat Simulator was a mistake."
Table-ized A.I.
Chocolate teapots?
If AI learns anything from online video games, it's going to be how to cheat to win aka "anything goes". Which is going to have bad implications about human rights, Geneva convention, chemical weapons, physical torture & brutal psychological warfare etc.
Oh no all my time singularity was just training the computers on how to take over! And google Captcha to recognize store fronts and traffic lights to take them out so we cant feed ourselves.
There's much more efficient ways than all-out warfare. Any AI capable of "learning war" is certainly capable of knowing better. Cmon now.
I tend to rant.
Machine Learning and other standard forms of pattern recognition in the field of Artificial Intelligence are limited to the identification and use of specifically targeted controls and objectives/goals. For example in image classification, it can only learn to identify images it is trained to identify. In a video game, it can only use controls it is given and objectives/goals it is trained to use them to achieve. And it is very machine-like: it will blindly seek those objectives/goals regardless of anything.
So in Cyber Security, art plays a big role. AI may systematically find vulnerabilities and play them but the same methods may be used to find them and seal them. AI cannot think outside the box, as is necessary in an art. It cannot learn to identify new kinds of controls or objectives/goals, as per a "purpose". There is no curiosity or reasoning by analogy that could get it ahead. It's has great strengths but just as great are its weaknesses.
That's it. I'm selling my computer and buying a Bible because only Jesus can save us now.
AI is a pipe dream for the Military. Remote-piloted war-fighting systems, on the other hand, are completely up to the task. They are likely getting pretty mature in development too.
A good strategy may be to keep your enemies chasing tail trying to keep up with your fictional AI that you keep giving press while quietly perfecting your remotely piloted systems.
It's not like there is any shortage of manpower. Soldiers train day and night for high level skills, then spend 90% of their time mopping floors and drilling pomp and ceremony. Computer augmented remote piloted systems are the future.
I guess a smart-drone-swarm may count as AI, as the flight computer is automated, but at the other end, there is still a trained human pilot giving directions.
There is more to war than weapons development. This latest military AI craze smacks of excellent counter intel work to me.
*Who* in the UK military? I'm thinking it's the dork in the basement lamenting the loss of his stapler. Nothing, meet burger.
...you have been recruited by the Star League to defend the frontier against Xur and the Ko-Dan armada.
How about a nice game of chess?
...all we really have to fear is a Zerg rush. And since those don't exist, I guess everything is all ducky, right?
Sweet now I get to add having my dead dead corpse tea bagged by a robot to my ever growing list of fears.
You Must Construct Additional Pylons!
And now, thanks to the internet, the robot armies will teabag every human they kill. BALLS OF STEEEEEEEEL.