AI shouldn't believe everything it hears

Artificial intelligence can accurately identify objects in an image or recognize words uttered by a human, but its algorithms don't work the same way as the human brain--and that means that they can be spoofed in ways that humans can't. New Scientist reports that researchers from Bar-Ilan University in Israel and Facebook's AI team have shown that it's possible to subtly tweak audio clips so that a human understands them as normal but a voice-recognition AI hears something totally different. The approach works by adding a quiet layer of noise to a sound clip that contains distinctive patterns a neural network will associate with other words. The team applied its new algorithm, called Houdini, to a series of sound clips, which it then ran through Google Voice to have them transcribed. Her bearing was graceful and animated she led her son by the hand and before her walked two maids with wax lights and silver candlesticks.