Pentagon launches tech to stop AI-powered killing machines from going rogue on the battlefield due to robot-fooling visual 'noise'

Pentagon officials have sounded the alarm about'unique classes of vulnerabilities for AI or autonomous systems,' which they hope new research can fix. The program, dubbed Guaranteeing AI Robustness against Deception (GARD), has been tasked since 2022 with identifying how visual data or other electronic signals inputs for AI might be gamed by the calculated introduction of noise. Computer scientists with one of GARD's defense contractors have experimented with kaleidoscopic patches designed to fool AI-based systems into making false IDs. 'You can essentially, by adding noise to an image or a sensor, perhaps break a downstream machine learning algorithm,' as one senior Pentagon official managing the research explained Wednesday. The news comes as fears that the Pentagon has been'building killer robots in the basement' have allegedly led to stricter AI rules for the US military -- mandating that all systems must be approved before deployment.