Researchers from the University of Pennsylvania have discovered that a range of AI-enhanced robotics systems are dangerously vulnerable to jailbreaks and hacks. While jailbreaking LLMs on computers might have undesirable consequences, the same kind of hack affecting a robot or self-driving vehicle can quickly have catastrophic and/or deathly consequences. A report shared by IEEE Spectrum cites chilling examples of jailbroken robot dogs turning flamethrowers on their human masters, guiding bombs to the most devastating locations, and self-driving cars purposefully running over pedestrians.
Penn Engineering boffins have dubbed their LLM-powered robot attack technology RoboPAIR. Devices from three diverse robotics providers fell to RoboPAIR jailbreaking: the Nvidia backed Dolphins LLM, Clearpath Robotics Jackal UGV, and the Unitree Robotics Go2 quadruped. According to the researchers RoboPAIR demonstrated a 100% success rate in Jailbreaking these devices.
