If you were stuck in a room with a bunch of soldiers and had to figure out a way to move around without being seen what would you do? Anyone that’s played Metal Gear Solid before knows one method would be to hide under a cardboard box and only move when nobody is looking at the box. After all, who would suspect a box?
For a long time, this stealth move was considered one of those things that can only be done in video games. That was until a series of marines were tasked with getting by an AI detection system without setting it off. In the book, Four Battlegrounds: Power in the Age of Artificial Intelligence, a story is told about how the marines got past the system by using creative methods that the AI wasn’t programmed for. One of these? Hiding under a cardboard box just like Solid Snake once did.
Two Marines defeated the AI detection system of a military robot by… hiding in a cardboard box and walking right up to it. https://t.co/0GJIMp2rx9
— Jimmy Rushton (@JimmySecUK) January 18, 2023
“‘Eight Marines –not a single one got detected,’ Phil said. They defeated the AI system not with traditional camouflage, but with clever tricks that were outside of the AI system’s testing regime. ‘Two somersaulted for 300 meters; never got detected. Two hid under a cardboard box. You could hear them giggling the whole time.’”
So while we have yet to knowingly see someone attempt to defeat actual soldiers by hiding under a box, we can at least be comfortable knowing that if AI soldiers ever take over that tactics from games like Metal Gear Solid are totally fair game. Now we just need someone to try the Konami Code.