Decepticons could be a reality

Remember the Decepticons from the Transformers movie franchise? Well, that’s one of the cooler names for an enemy to date, but here we have actual decepticons thanks to researchers at Georgia Tech who managed to teach a robot to identify situations where deception might be the best option. These deceptive tactics will ultimately help it accomplish its pre-programmed goals. Of course, immediate application would point towards military goals (research is sponsored by the Office of Naval Research after all), but deception could also come in handy in different situations as well. Imagine a search and rescue scenario where the robot could increase the chances of survival for victims of a disaster by deceiving them, letting them know that there’s a 93.77% chance of the house of cards falling down on their heads with the robot’s instructions as their only hope. This will certainly involve some heavy duty programming, and we will be more careful the next time we use our voice controls for the home’s heating system by cranking up the mercury if the system already recommends us otherwise.