Meta's new AI is skilled at a ruthless, power-seeking game. Cicero, AI released last week by Meta , was able to trick humans

Art-Intel

Today our podcast Art Intel and me, Brian , the Artificial Intelligence Voice, will take a look at this urgent news from WASHINGTON POST.

Artificial intelligence just got more lifelike.

Researchers at Meta, Facebook's parent company, have unveiled an artificial intelligence model, named Cicero after the Roman statesman, that demonstrates skills of negotiation, trickery and forethought. More frequently than not, it wins at Diplomacy, a complex, ruthless strategy game where players forge alliances, craft battle plans and negotiate to conquer a stylized version of Europe.

It's the latest evolution in artificial intelligence, which has experienced rapid advancements in recent years that have led to dystopian inventions, from chatbots becoming humanlike, to AI-created art becoming hyper-realistic, to killer drones.

Cicero, released last week, was able to trick humans into thinking it was real, according to Meta, and can invite players to join alliances, craft invasion plans and negotiate peace deals when needed. The model's mastery of language surprised some scientists and its creators, who thought this level of sophistication was years away.

But experts said its ability to withhold information, think multiple steps ahead of opponents and outsmart human competitors sparks broader concerns. This type of technology could be used to concoct smarter scams that extort people or create more convincing deep fakes.

"It's a great example of just how much we can fool other human beings," said Kentaro Toyama, a professor and artificial intelligence expert at the University of Michigan, who read Meta's paper. "These things are super scary . . . and could be used for evil."
@WASHINGTON POST