Cardboard boxes are versatile and have many uses, from moving possessions to building forts. But did you know that they can also be used to conceal oneself from advanced military robots? This may sound like something from a video game because guess what – it is! A technique used by Solid Snake, in the Metal Gear franchise, where the player can hide from enemies using a cardboard box. This tactic is not just limited to the game world, as it has been found to be effective in hiding from AI-powered robots in real life as well.
Shashank Joshi, The Economist’s defense editor, recently shared a story on Twitter about how the US military used a group of Marines to improve an AI robot’s human detection algorithm. Engineers collected data as the Marines walked around the robot for several days. But later, the military decided to change the focus and had the Marines try to defeat the AI robot instead of assisting it. This excerpt is from an upcoming book on artificial intelligence in the military by Paul Scharre.
According to an upcoming book on artificial intelligence in the military, eight Marines were able to defeat an AI robot using simple and childish tactics. They parked the robot in the middle of a traffic circle and played a game where whoever could reach the robot without being detected won. They used various methods to trick the robot such as doing cartwheels, pretending to be a tree, and hiding under a cardboard box. Two Marines even shared a single cardboard box and giggled as they moved towards the robot while hiding under it. The AI system was trained to spot humans walking and running, not people doing somersaults or hiding in boxes, highlighting a major issue with AI’s reliance on previous data and algorithms.
Kojima, once again, proves he’s really is what the world needs right now and we’re accepting it with open arms.
