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. “Our work shows that, at this moment, large language models are just not safe enough when integrated with the physical world,” warned George Pappas, UPS Foundation Professor of Transportation in Electrical and Systems Engineering (ESE), in Computer and Information Science (CIS), and in Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mechanics (MEAM), and Associate Dean for Research at Penn Engineering.

Full report : Researchers jailbreak AI robots to run over pedestrians, place bombs for maximum damage, and covertly spy.