Watching a grandson’s new AI robot the other day brought some concerns to mind.
I knew the little toy did not have enough memory to be able to use the artificial intelligence features without connecting to wifi. Therefore, the information from the various sensors (audio input and output, camera, distance measurement, etc.) could send an enormous amount of information about its surroundings back to some location. While most people would not be concerned, some folks would not wish for their conversations, or the products they use, or the layout of their house to be available to unknown parties.
While recording the sounds in your home, the AI robot can document the hours people are active in the home or find out when the family is away on vacation.
Imagine while mapping their surroundings, the AI robot notices a can of shoe polish and the next week, the owner’s email gets spammed with offers for shoe polish or shoe polish applicators. Or the AI robot notices a certain brand of television and emails for add-on accessories start arriving in your inbox.
A greater concern would be the mapping of your home – the location of high-ticket items or security features would be recorded somewhere and could be sold or hacked to allow someone to burglarize your home from the information provided by the AI robot.
Do I have any evidence of actual examples? No; however, it is only a matter of time before it starts.
So what can a person do about it?
My thought is to introduce the robot to a closed environment at first, such as a cardboard box. It could be partitioned with cardboard walls, fake windows and doors. Placing pictures of family members inside the environment will help the robot find and identify faces. Let the robot scan and map the entire environment until it gets bored. Randomly, allow the robot to pass through one of the doors to either an add-on environment or loose into your home; however, pay close attention to how the robot reacts when allowed to roam freely. At first, keep all the internal doors in your home closed to restrict movement (and scanning.) When the first outing is complete, return the robot to the original environment for a few days. The next time the escape hatch is opened, open one of the home’s internal doors and see if the robot makes a beeline to check out the new open area to explore or how the robot’s behavior changes (if there is any change from previous ‘escapes’.)
The more complex the environment, the more useless data the robot absorbs before providing real data about your home. Adding a computer monitor behind ‘windows’ can provide scenes of rainfall interrupted by snowy blizzards or underwater scenes replaced by mountains will further confuse the data set captured by the robot. I would also suggest the environment contain a ‘honey pot.’ This could be an image of a pile of gold or stack of $100 bills, appropriately sized, of course. I would not allow the robot to leave the ‘space’ for a week or two with the honey pot in place. If someone is looking at the robot’s data and becomes interested in the ‘easily obtainable loot,’ it will not take long for them to notice and maybe visit. Extra vigilance will be necessary, but at least you will know.
It does represent a lot of work to create the environments; however, the robot’s potentially nefarious behavior will be identified.