When artificial intelligence learns to attack us -- GCN

As the use and power of artificial intelligence increases, the risk for AI to become the hacker, rather than the victim also grows, according to a new report. The problem is two-fold, wrote Bruce Schneier, a fellow at the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University, in "The Coming AI Hackers," a recent report from Harvard's Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs. "One, AI systems will be used to hack us. And two, AI systems will themselves become hackers: finding vulnerabilities in all sorts of social, economic, and political systems, and then exploiting them at an unprecedented speed, scale, and scope," Schneier said. We risk a future of AI systems hacking other AI systems, with humans being little more than collateral damage." He pointed to several public-sector examples where this threat is already becoming apparent. In one, researchers used a text-generation program to submit 1,000 comments to a request for input on a Medicaid issue, effectively fooling Medicaid.gov They interact normally but occasionally make a politically charged post. "Persona bots will break the'notice-and-comment' rulemaking process by flooding government agencies with fake comments," Schneier said, potentially affecting public opinion. "It's not that being persuaded by an AI is fundamentally more damaging than being persuaded by another human, it's that AIs will be able to do it at computer speed and scale." Governments tend to use AI to make their processes more efficient. For instance, in the United Kingdom, a Stanford University student built a bot to automatically determine eligibility and fill out applications for services such as government housing. AI is also used to inform military targeting decisions, the report added. "As AI systems get more capable, society will cede more -- and more important -- decisions to them," Schneier said. "They already influence social outcomes; in the future they might explicitly decide them.