Why Google's Artificial Intelligence Confused A Turtle for A Rifle

When artificial intelligence works smoothly, computers are able to spot cats in photographs at lightning-fast speeds. When it goes wrong, they can confuse images of turtles with rifles. Researchers from MIT's computer science and artificial intelligence laboratory have discovered how to trick Google's (goog) software that automatically recognizes objects in images. They created an algorithm that subtly modified a photo of a turtle so that Google's image-recognition software thought it was a rifle. What's especially noteworthy is that when the MIT team created a 3D printout of the turtle, Google's software still thought it was a weapon rather than a reptile.