US Marines Hid From AI Cameras By Concealing Themselves In Cardboard Boxes

It’s no surprise artificial intelligence has made its way into military tactics, considering how much steam it’s gaining in the mainstream alone.

What is unexpected, however, are the primitive methods the United States Marines have used to outsmart AI security cameras: hiding under cardboard boxes and standing behind trees. 

The story was first shared in a forthcoming book by former Pentagon policy analyst Paul Scharre, who recalled that the soldiers got to work defeating the AI system not with traditional camouflage, but with “clever tricks.” 

These tricks involved somersaulting for 300 meters (985 feet), walking behind a fir tree, and sneaking up on the robot in cardboard boxes. Simple, yet effective against a system that had only been trained to detect the way humans walked.

These aren’t the marines you’re looking for. pic.twitter.com/qMwzJblQwp

— Shashank Joshi (@shashj) January 18, 2023

Funnily enough, as per the Washington Post, the idea of hiding in a cardboard box may have come from the popular video game Metal Gear Solid, where super spies often seek shelter under the commonplace item to confuse enemies in-game.

With all the buzz around the powers of AI and its impressive capabilities, the ability of a system is still only as smart as the database it's trained on, as PetaPixel points out. 

Scharre tells Task & Purpose that AI can be very good at what it’s been programmed to do, but it “doesn’t know what it doesn’t know,” and “doesn’t know that it should know what it doesn’t know.” 

[via Task & Purpose and Washington Post, cover image via Daria Nipot | Dreamstime.com]