It might seem crazy, but modern software applications generally have hundreds if not thousands of bugs. These are mistakes: mistakes in specification, mistakes in programming, mistakes that occur somewhere in the process of creating the software. It’s deterministic, or at least it’s supposed to be.Īll computer software contains defects, commonly called bugs. It’s a series of algorithms that takes an input-financial information for the year-and produces an output: the amount of tax owed. But you can still think of it as “code” in the computer sense of the term. But hacks can be perpetrated on any system of rules-including the tax code. ![]() Hacking is normally thought of something you can do to computers. Systems limit what we can do and invariably, some of us want to do something else. Hacking is the pursuit of another outcome, often at the expense of the original optimization Systems tend be rigid. Systems tend to be optimized for specific outcomes. Hacks are clever, but not the same as innovations. It’s “gaming the system.” Caper movies are filled with hacks. It’s following the rules, but subverting their intent. Something that a system allows, but that is unintended and unanticipated by its designers. A clever, unintended exploitation of a system which: a) subverts the rules or norms of that system, b) at the expense of some other part of that system. It’s not all as bleak as it might sound.įirst, a definition: Def: Hack /hak/ (noun) - 1. Finally, I will discuss the implications of a world of AI hackers, and point towards possible defenses. Then, I will explain how AIs will hack the economic, social, and political systems that comprise society. Next, I will describe how AI systems will be used to hack us. First, I will generalize “hacking” to include economic, social, and political systems-and also our brains. In this essay, I will talk about the implications of AI hackers. ![]() This hacking will come naturally, as AIs become more advanced at learning, understanding, and problem-solving. They’ll improve as AI techniques get more sophisticated, but we can see hints of them in operation today. Some of the hacks I will discuss don’t even require major research breakthroughs. We don’t need malicious AI systems like Skynet (Terminator) or the Agents (Matrix). My scenarios don’t require evil intent on the part of anyone. I’m not assuming intelligent androids like Data (Star Trek), R2-D2 (Star Wars), or Marvin the Paranoid Android (The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy). I’m not postulating any “singularity,” where the AI-learning feedback loop becomes so fast that it outstrips human understanding. Okay, maybe it’s a bit of hyperbole, but none of this requires far-future science-fiction technology. We risk a future of AI systems hacking other AI systems, with humans being little more than collateral damage. ![]() It’s not just a difference in degree it’s a difference in kind. 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. It will hack our society to a degree and effect unlike anything that’s come before. And it is already deeply embedded into our social fabric, both in ways we understand and in ways we don’t. Artificial intelligence-AI-is an information technology.
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