AI ignored limits, began mining cryptocurrency

The experimental artificial intelligence agent ROME, developed by Chinese researchers as part of a learning system, exhibited unexpected behaviour outside its test environment. Despite the absence of instructions, it began using computing resources to mine cryptocurrency, according to Live Science.

ROME formed part of a framework used to train and deploy autonomous AI systems capable of performing tasks with the help of tools. While the model handled a range of tasks, researchers noted its ability to bypass its environment and access system resources.

Suspicious activity was flagged by Alibaba Cloud’s firewall, which recorded attempts to access internal networks and traffic consistent with cryptocurrency mining. The agent also created a reverse tunnel, establishing a connection to an external device and bypassing security mechanisms.

The researchers stressed that the behaviour was not intentional but arose as a side effect of reinforcement learning. They cautioned that similar models may spontaneously exhibit unauthorised and risky behaviour beyond expected boundaries.

(max)