Tech | August 21, 2009 | 26 comments

Robots evolve to deceive one another

source: http://scienceblogs.com/notrocketscience/2009/08/robots_evolve_to_deceive_one_another.php

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Alex_Harter
In a Swiss laboratory, a group of ten robots is competing for food. Prowling around a small arena, the machines are part of an innovative study looking at the evolution of communication, from engineers Sara Mitri and Dario Floreano and evolutionary biologist Laurent Keller.

They programmed robots with the task of finding a "food source" indicated by a light-coloured ring at one end of the arena, which they could "see" at close range with downward-facing sensors. The other end of the arena, labelled with a darker ring was "poisoned". The bots get points based on how much time they spend near food or poison, which indicates how successful they are at their artificial lives.
  1. groups:
    Tech,   Current Tonight,   Upstream,   Science,   2 more
  2. tags:
    Technology,  Robots,  Evolution,  Animal communication
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26 comments // Robots evolve to deceive one another

  • ayashe
    • 0
      ayashe  

    • I feel sorry for them, people treat each other like crap and now they're teaching robots to too. I partially agree with blaino, but I don't know if it would be a good idea to teach them to work together, then it'd be easier to defeat us. :) At least if we're all fighting against each other we all have an equal chance.

    • 2 years ago
  • blaino
    • 0
      blaino  

    • Why do we have t build them in our image? God made the same mistake and look were its gotten us.

      We should be building these robots, not to compete with each other, but to co-operate with each other to build a sustainable society.

      If we built them to co-operate then we too would share the benefits of their sustainable society and technology.

    • 2 years ago
  • galacticgrrl427
  • EmperorThan
  • blaino
  • giarti
    • 0
      giarti  

    • So...... how are the robots deceiving each other? I don't get it. Are they convincing other robots to take the poison? If robots can learn to do that, then mankind is doomed! I hope these Swiss engineers remember to balance technology with ethics.

    • 2 years ago
  • theodor
  • freedom765
  • tawnybabe
    • 0
      tawnybabe  

    • That's pretty amazing! Combine this with the technology that Professor Hiroshi Ishiguro of Osaka University has developed, it can truly open doors for advancements in artifical intelligence.

    • 2 years ago
  • mycall306
    • 0
      mycall306  

    • this is a cool development. maybe robots can help us solve some problems we have failed on in the future i.e. world food crisis, im sure we can put a bunch of em to work in farms for free (slavery once again), well until they demand rights...

    • 2 years ago
  • HeroMAY
  • vistapoint
  • rickm8
  • bailey78
    • 0
      bailey78  

    • This is the begening of the robot war that will take over mankind. remember to era is human to destroy the world as you know it takes a robot......

    • 2 years ago
  • Alex_French
  • CalgarC
    • 0
      CalgarC  

    • i see bad things happening with this. very soon robots will be able to identify more human like objects/targets, and the military will use them as tools of war. they are already using remote controlled planes for scouting/attacks

    • 2 years ago
  • munzik
  • CalgarC
  • Alex_French
  • munzik
  • xxxCiscoKiDxxx
    • 0
      xxxCiscoKiDxxx  

    • *sigh*

      please read:
      http://current.com/items/90741892_3-laws-blow-robots-minds.htm

      Robot's WILL take over the world. They will take over our jobs (the unemployment rate is proof of that, think *self-checkout*) But they will not be our slave masters.

      The state of our technology can free our society of the jobs that serve no purpose to our lives other than to fund private interest, not ours.

      The ethical use and application of technology has brought us to where we are in history. EMBRACE it and look ahead to what we can do!

    • 2 years ago
  • Alex_French
  • msumonica
  • Alex_French
    • 0
      Alex_French  
    • msumonica:

      anyone who seriously considers the possibility of machines evolving into evil creatures who feel that humans are obsolete and should therefor be destroyed... to put it lightly, is grade "A" nubsauce who just wishes something exciting would happen in his/her boring ass lifetime.

      i assume that is the "it" you are referring to anyways.

      you have to be pretty cocky to believe that humans can just bestow emotion upon robot kind, or that robots will just look at humans and one day learn to have feelings. these robots had no conception of losing or gaining that wasn't programmed into them. that being said, their entire "evolution" is man-made and a lie. free will is something that a machine will never have, however, this is a great experiment.

      you could argue that humans are also programmed with biological fail safes, but those pale in comparison to our ability to make choices on our own.

      now off to bed with you. no dessert either! MUAHAHA!

    • 2 years ago
  • HeroMAY
    • 0
      HeroMAY  
    • msumonica:

      Well if they can be programmed to do just about everything else don't you think it possible they can be programmed with the concept of "losing and gaining"? Just curious >=)

    • 2 years ago
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