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Autonomous cars, drones cheerfully obey prompt injection by road sign

theregister.com

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Re: Autonomous cars, drones cheerfully obey prompt injection by road sign

#151

> In a new class of attack on AI systems, troublemakers can carry out these environmental indirect prompt injection attacks to hijack decision-making processes. I have a coworker who brags about intentionally cutting off Waymos and robocars when he sees them on the road. He is "anti-clanker" and views it as civil disobedience to rise up against "machines taking over." Some mornings he comes in all hyped up talking ab…

These drones have cameras, it's a matter of time before they "share" footage... basically becoming robo-cops, traffic edition - this might be of interest to your coworker.

> "share" footage

The escalation will be more than just cutting them off, it will be camera's being blinded...

Re: Autonomous cars, drones cheerfully obey prompt injection by road sign

#153
This reminds me of a bit from Car Wars by Cory Doctorow. It is currently at https://doctorow.medium.com/car-wars-a01718a27e9e in a text only view. The original had a bit more mixed media nature to it that is now offline. https://web.archive.org/web/20170519202315/http://this.deaki... for that version (the microblogging of chapter 2 makes more sense when it shows up in that style).

You have to have some ability to do "prompt injection" - https://www.trafficsign.com/road-work-signs are all "prompt injection". It needs to even be able to handle things that change - https://www.trafficsign.com/products/10023/stop-slow-roll-up... ... or things like billboards "Truck Stop Ahead" a chain control site ( https://www.facebook.com/61556756493806/posts/-chain-control... )

In the "what about funny road signs" that might be confusing to an AI I stumbled across https://www.npr.org/2024/01/19/1225370260/driven-to-distract... - apparently, they're no more. From 2024:

    Over the years, the agency has flagged signs that could be confusing. Now, in rules issued last month, it gives states two years to phase out signs that have "obscure" meanings or use pop-culture references that could require drivers "greater time to process." In a statement, the agency said safety is the priority and states "are expected to exercise good judgment."

Re: Autonomous cars, drones cheerfully obey prompt injection by road sign

#154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Luddites were employed by textile manufacturers and destroyed machines to get better bargaining power in labor negotiations. They weren't indiscriminately targeting automation, they targeted machines that directly affected their work.

Which makes the comparison of modern anti-AI proponents (like myself) and Luddites even more apt and accurate.

Unless you're committing serious crimes vandalizing machines to get leverage over a counterparty in a negotiation you're not comparable to the Luddites.

Re: Autonomous cars, drones cheerfully obey prompt injection by road sign

#155
post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Be careful with the assumptions you're making. A risk management strategy, for example, will often appear to be of zero benefit except in the case where shit hits the fan. We can stop feeding cattle, producing ethanol, and whatever else overnight in the event that something happens. > Rational policy would create a large scale food shortage and then let market forces take over. Well I'm just going to state that I'm _…

You may be happy with the current status but it’s actually both risky and expensive. Risk management means managing risks, there’s plenty of things having more farmland doesn’t actually protect you from. On the other hand having a decade of food protects you from basically everything as you get time to adjust as things change. Just as an example, meteor strike blocks sunlight and farmland is useless for a few years.…

I fully support having huge stockpiles in addition to subsidies. There's a lot of things midway on the scale between "business as usual" and "meteor strike" where minimizing supply chain disruptions would likely prove to be of great benefit.

I completely agree that the current way things are being handled appears to have its share of problems and could stand to be better optimized. But that doesn't mean it's useless either.

Re: Autonomous cars, drones cheerfully obey prompt injection by road sign

#156
post #17
post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

4-way stops are terrible in general. They train people to think "I stopped, now I can go", which is dangerous when someone confuses a normal stop for a 4-way stop. It also wastes a good bit of energy.

Weird, I was taught that I can only go after yielding to the right.

Having moved between states and taken a lot of drivers tests. I can say the exact rules are something that vary between states and over time. Including how it was taught.

My first drivers test was yield to the right. Later it was fifo order of who made it to the stop.

My running interpretation is fifo order with yielding to the right in case of ambiguity.

Re: Autonomous cars, drones cheerfully obey prompt injection by road sign

#157

One year in my city they were installing 4-way stop signs everywhere based on some combination of "best practices" and "screeching Karens". Even the residents don't like them in a lot of places so over time people just turn the posts in the ground or remove them. Every now and the I'll GPS somewhere and there will be a phatom stop sign in the route and I chuckle to myself because it means the Google car drove through…

Don’t use people’s names as a slur.

Re: Autonomous cars, drones cheerfully obey prompt injection by road sign

#158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So use a mini roundabout. They are common in the UK. It's just a painted circle with a slight hump, in the middle of a four-way junction. Vehicles can drive over it (and larger ones have to) but it indicates to everyone that they have to give way to traffic from the right and don't have to stop otherwise. They typically aren't big enough for multiple vehicles to be turning a corner at the same time. They fit anywhere…

This image from the OpenStreetMap Wiki seems to be the best match for the type of mini roundabout you're talking about: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/77/Mini-rou... It seems like most of the examples on the mini roundabout page‡ are larger mini roundabouts for some reason though ‡: https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Tag:highway%3Dmini_round...

Yes, and they can be smaller. The circle is about the right size but it has lots of room around it. Imagine a crossroads at the meeting of two residential streets, both just wide enough for two cars. Stick the circle from your picture in the middle of that imagined junction. That's what the mini roundabouts are like on the 1930s suburban estate I live next to.

Re: Autonomous cars, drones cheerfully obey prompt injection by road sign

#159
post #153

This reminds me of a bit from Car Wars by Cory Doctorow. It is currently at https://doctorow.medium.com/car-wars-a01718a27e9e in a text only view. The original had a bit more mixed media nature to it that is now offline. https://web.archive.org/web/20170519202315/http://this.deaki... for that version (the microblogging of chapter 2 makes more sense when it shows up in that style). You have to have some ability to do…

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