The Smarter AI Gets, the More It Start Cheating When It's Losing

"As you train models and reinforce them for solving difficult challenges, you train them to be relentless." In the short history of Silicon Valley, the mantra "move fast, break things" has often applied to trivial things like tedious consumer protections or pesky finance laws. Now, the phrase is taking on a new meaning, at least for chess enthusiasts. A recent study by Palisade Research, a research group studying AI safety and ethics, has revealed an unsettling trend: newer AI models can find and exploit weaknesses in cybersecurity on their own, bypassing safeguards and using shortcuts to complete tasks even when they're not technically allowed to. The team lined seven of the top large language models (LLMs) up against Stockfish, an infamously strong chess engine that's been stumping grandmasters since 2014. Up against the impossible but determined to win, OpenAI's o1 and DeepSeek's R1 took to manipulating system files in order to change their pieces' positions on the board. The re ... Read full article.