When Arnold brought the Terminator to life, we were all worried that steroid-driven Austrian bodybuilders were going to take over the world and kill us all. But it turns out we should be more worried about what we invite between the sheets. A security researcher from Deakin University, Dr Nick Patterson, says that a breached sex-bot could turn on its owner. This is definitely not the droid you’re looking for.
Patterson’s patter is the usual IoT meets AI FUD. Someone adds some malware to the robot’s software controls and before you can say “No, really, it is six inches” the electric friend-with-benefits crushes you faster than Xenia Onatopp from the Bond movie GoldenEye.
Despite the seeming ludicrousness of Patterson’s comments, made to the Daily Star he does make a good point.
We are entering an age where we trust more and more to automation. And we expect that automation to have some intelligence based on algorithms created by humans.
The fact remains, we need to ensure any connected device, whether that’s running a complex industrial process or a complex “personal” process, is secured against unauthorised use.
I wonder if the developers of these sex-bots know about Data 61’s secure computing project.