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Hacking AIs

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Mon, 2011-02-07 22:12
#1
ghostwolf ghostwolf's picture
Hacking AIs
This has come in a player conversation. We have rules for crashing AI's, but what if an enterprising hacker wanted to adjust the AI's code on the fly, say to make the AI think that he was a necessary part of the system or to make it do something else? This might be unbalancing for the game, since if you can hack an AI, you could hack a muse, or anything really, and repurpose it on the fly, making life a living hell for anyone. We do have mention of exsurgent viruses reprogramming/infecting infolife, so there's kind of a precedence.
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Tue, 2011-02-08 03:12
Arenamontanus Arenamontanus's picture
Re: Hacking AIs
I think it is possible, but extremely hard. A running AI likely has software integrity checks that detects whether there is code corruption, and then stops/sounds the alarm/activates the emergency bailout. More problematic is that the AI code is likely fluid, complex and changing as it runs: there is nothing as simple as a loyalty field you can insert your own name into, but merely a complex neural network encoding who the proper authority is through a multiply redundant representation tied to all other representations - hackable in principle, but in practice you need a stopped AI and time to go through various combinations.
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Tue, 2011-02-08 13:17
Draconis Draconis's picture
Re: Hacking AIs
Hacking AI on the fly? No way. That'd be a gross underestimation of the complexity of AI code. You can't equate a transhuman hacker with the exsurgent virus. That's not even the same league. Even then the virus needs time.
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Tue, 2011-02-08 22:32
Axel the Chimeric Axel the Chimeric's picture
Re: Hacking AIs
Yeah, last I checked, even the Exsurgent Virus takes at least a few months to take effect... That said, if you know what the AI is (such as a particular make/model/template), you might have a virus that could target specific code lines. If it's an unknown or custom one, though, you're out of luck.
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Wed, 2011-02-09 03:24
nick012000 nick012000's picture
Re: Hacking AIs
Axel the Chimeric wrote:
Yeah, last I checked, even the Exsurgent Virus takes at least a few months to take effect... That said, if you know what the AI is (such as a particular make/model/template), you might have a virus that could target specific code lines. If it's an unknown or custom one, though, you're out of luck.
Almost every AGI would be capable of altering their own code; that's how they learn. Also, if you want to change how an AI thinks, that's what Psychosurgery is for.
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Wed, 2011-02-09 14:15
Arenamontanus Arenamontanus's picture
Re: Hacking AIs
nick012000 wrote:
Almost every AGI would be capable of altering their own code; that's how they learn.
Can you describe how you change your basal ganglia when you learn to play a musical instrument? Learning is not the same as conscious changing of code, not even in AGIs.
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Also, if you want to change how an AI thinks, that's what Psychosurgery is for.
Exactly. AGIs in EP seem to be largely based on "neuromorphic" architectures where solutions are borrowed (or copied directly) from biology. That means that much of the AI will be an opaque mess of neural network modules and similar messy algorithms. Hard to reprogram in the usual programming way, but possible to "retrain" using psychosurgery.
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Tue, 2011-02-15 02:03
Killebrew Killebrew's picture
Re: Hacking AIs
Arenamontanus wrote:
nick012000 wrote:
Almost every AGI would be capable of altering their own code; that's how they learn.
Can you describe how you change your basal ganglia when you learn to play a musical instrument? Learning is not the same as conscious changing of code, not even in AGIs.
You don't change your DNA or any actual physical structure of your body, but your neural pathways would change/grow. Which would be equivalent to an AGI altering its own code. Now I would not expect an AGI to alter its own hardware anywhere near as easily.
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Fri, 2011-02-18 17:39
Decivre Decivre's picture
Re: Hacking AIs
The only way you can "hack" an AI on the fly is if you trap it within a given system and use psychosurgery on it.
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