The experiment might seem outlandish initially, but the results demonstrate why relying on machines to identify objects in the real world could be problematic.
If an image of a stop sign was blurred (or altered), an AI program controlling a vehicle could theoretically misidentify it, leading to terrible outcomes.
The results of the study, which were published online today, show that AI programs are susceptible to misidentifying objects in the real-world that are slightly distorted, whether manipulated intentionally or not.
AI scientists call these manipulated objects or images, such as turtle with a textured surface that might mimic the surface of a rifle, "adversarial examples."
In the first experiment, the team presents a typical turtle to Google's AI program, and it correctly classifies it as a turtle.