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AI United Kingdom

UK Military Fears Robots Learning War From Video Games (bbc.com) 68

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.
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UK Military Fears Robots Learning War From Video Games

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  • 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.
    • If we don't do it, someone else will. We need to do it for the same reason we keep an arsenal of nuclear weapons - to deter others from attacking us.

      And don't even get me started on the necessity for defense from aliens.
      • Fine. Know what? There are idiots who want to ban all of us from driving, force us all into Level-5 SDCs. Fuck that, let's ban humans from war. Make it all into Battlebots but with explosives. No one need die in war again. But we shouldn't have humans fighting robots in a real-world war. Of course that's precisely what'll end up happening, won't it? We humans, we're getting dumber and dumber, aren't we? We don't LEARN.
        • by Kjella ( 173770 ) on Wednesday May 23, 2018 @01:12PM (#56660454) Homepage

          But we shouldn't have humans fighting robots in a real-world war. Of course that's precisely what'll end up happening, won't it?

          Far more civilians than military die in modern war and we've lived 70+ years with the threat of entire cities being nuked into oblivion. If you're spending billions on a Terminator it's to kill with extreme precision, carnage is much cheaper.

          • Precision? How do we know precision is part of the program? Dominance is the program, likely. It's the end-game.

            Ultimately, there is no need for war, no need for stockpiles of weapons. It is a legacy of our animal origins coupled with too much testosterone.

            Leaders gin up false enemies, or go to war over oil or other assets they covet.

    • The so-called 'AI' they keep using for everything isn't even fully up to the job of operating a vehicle safely,

      I don't know. Google's car has an almost spotless record. Tesla's isn't supposed to be fully automatic, it's supposed to have a human ready to override. Most of their problems is because of humans trusting it more than it is ready to be trusted.

      Uber... well, anyone that trusts Uber is a fool. Uber is corrupt and driven by the bottom line, I wouldn't expect safety to be high priority with them.

      In truth, for 80% of driving conditions, Waymo is probably already much safer than a human.

    • Just don't do it at all, problem solved.

      You'd feel better if only your enemies use this technology ?

    • by nagora ( 177841 )

      You do understand that a drone with a machine gun isn't supposed to be safe, don't you?

      • by jwhyche ( 6192 )

        You do understand that a drone with a machine gun isn't supposed to be safe, don't you?

        I sit here shaking my head wondering what kind of world we live in when we even have to contemplate a line like this.

  • by Anonymous Coward

    Nothing that a tiny bit of EMP can't fix, just as it can easily fix many of these new tech problems.

  • by mysidia ( 191772 ) on Wednesday May 23, 2018 @11:54AM (#56659978)

    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"

    • I agree - there's little to no connection between being a Team Fortress DemoMan and hacking JPL's science database.

    • by mea2214 ( 935585 )

      How do you equate becoming good at a Real-time Strategy or Shoot-em-up game with being able to be a good hacker?

      Watch the movie "War Games."

      • by mysidia ( 191772 )

        Watch the movie "War Games."

        I saw that a long time ago, but "War Games" is only a work of fiction; not even a close approximation to how machine learning works --- general purpose AI is FAR beyond our capabilities at the moment. Machine learning is essentially an application of statistical classification (math) --- These programs don't become sentient or capable of exercising any kind of control or autonomy independent of their domain-specific purpose; becoming strategic at one task does no

    • by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

      They saw that documentary "Hackers" and realised that hacking over an acoustically coupled public phone is pretty much just like playing a video game.

  • When robots start bunny hopping, spamming grenades and talking crap after they kill someone.

  • by Nidi62 ( 1525137 ) on Wednesday May 23, 2018 @12:05PM (#56660040)
    Killer robots bunny-hopping and dolphin-diving all over the battlefield....And oh god, the spawn camping......
  • 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)
    • Am I the only one who gets the feeling that certain video games are recruitment tools, like that 80s movie...The Last Starfighter.

      That was a good movie, at least when I watched it as a kid. I remember thinking "we'll never had graphics this good on our home game systems". LOL stupid younger me.

    • Am I the only one who gets the feeling that certain video games are recruitment tools, like that 80s movie...The Last Starfighter (IIRC)

      Nope. Hideo Kojima agrees with you. Go play MGS4. Not a main plot element, but definitely part of the plot that PMCs use video games to indoctrinate youth.

    • ...you have been recruited by the Star League to defend the frontier against Xur and the Ko-Dan armada.

  • 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.
  • 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.

  • 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."

  • There's much more efficient ways than all-out warfare. Any AI capable of "learning war" is certainly capable of knowing better. Cmon now.

  • 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 anyth

  • by AndyKron ( 937105 ) on Wednesday May 23, 2018 @04:12PM (#56661728)
    That's it. I'm selling my computer and buying a Bible because only Jesus can save us now.
  • by Anonymous Coward

    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 dr

  • And now, thanks to the internet, the robot armies will teabag every human they kill. BALLS OF STEEEEEEEEL.

Put your Nose to the Grindstone! -- Amalgamated Plastic Surgeons and Toolmakers, Ltd.

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