Humans are not alone in this cognitive deficiency. Other animals are also conned into believing something which isn't true.

This tomfoolery is not restricted to animals - computers can also be mesmerised.

• I've written before about AI suffering from Pareidolia.
• Specially crafted make-up can be used to induce Prosopagnosia.
• Infrasound can be an effective way to cause auditory psychosis in machines.

But there is something more insidious than that to consider. If you understand where an AI derives its information, you can cause a "Knowledge Illusion" - make it think it knows something, even though it is false.

This isn't quite the notion of influencing an AI while it is still young and seeing those false beliefs propagate forwards - but about subtly corrupting the source of data which an AI relies on for instant learning.

Here's an example. Which actors have played Doctor Who? If you're a fan of the series, you might be able to reel off all of them (bonus points for remembering Peter Cushing!) but if you're not... How would you find out? What sources would you trust? How would you corroborate the information?

Let's see what Amazon's Alexa thinks the answer is.

Look, I love Tim Roth - he's an incredible actor. Would he make a good Doctor Who? Maybe - but it's a role that has eluded him. And yet Alexa is convinced he once played the part.

What is causing this knowledge illusion? What seemingly authoritative source is corrupting the data?

Googling "Tim Roth Doctor Who" brings up a few stories from the last couple of years which indicate that he might once have been in the running for the part. Wikipedia doesn't list him in their page about the show. So where is this illusion coming from?

I think the answer is IMDb's listing for the actor. Nestled halfway down the page is this:

Tim once played the voice of Doctor Who in a comedy skit on Robot Chicken. That's it. A single episode.

I assume that Alexa searches the IMDb API for the character name and picks out the top hits. For some reason, Tim Roth is there but William Hartnell isn't.

And there we have it. A dodgy response from an API call to a lightly moderated service induces false memories in our artificial intelligence. There's no corroboration and no sanity checking. Alexa's intelligence is just an illusion.

Here's how it works. You ask someone to do something and they reply with "I'm sorry sir, that's against our policy."

You should say "I'm sorry to hear that. Please can you send me a copy of the policy?"

Turns out, most times, there is no policy!

Shocking, I know. So much of modern life rests on the whim of whichever call-centre worker you happen to get. If they can't be bothered to do something, they can hide behind a non-existent policy.

Here are a few examples where it has worked for me.

A supplier refused to issue documentation via email and insisted on posting it out. Why? "It's our security policy."

I asked for a copy of the policy - so I could understand why I was allowed to send them documentation via "insecure" email, but they couldn't reciprocate. Of course, there was no policy. They just didn't know how to do email attachments.

A previous employer had an internal system which insisted that password could only be 8 alphabetic characters. No number, no special characters. Oh, and it had to change every 28 days. Again, asking for the policy showed that it was one person's "overenthusiastic" interpretation of the IT department's actual policy.

This happens repeatedly.

Caveats

This isn't a foolproof technique. Sometimes there is a genuine and well thought out policy in place.

A few examples of where it hasn't worked.

• "My manager won't let us share it." (So I escalate to the manager and we repeat the process.)
• "Sorry sir, that's an internal policy and we can't share it." (At which point you can apply for a Subject Access Request under the Data Protection Act to see how the decision was made.)
• "Certainly sir. Here is the policy which has been thoroughly reviewed by our lawyers." (Fair enough, I guess!)

Anyway, this technique is now yours to try. See what works and report back.

Warnings

Two important points to consider.

1. This works for me. Of course, I have the confidence of a mediocre white man - your success may vary depending on your level of privilege.
2. It's rarely the fault of the person blocking your way. They're stuck in a dystopian system which rewards them for denying you access. Don't get angry with them - fix the system instead.

Share and Enjoy

Terence Eden is on Mastodon

@edent

My cheat for #ukgc18.

When someone says "I'm sorry, that's against our policy."

You should say "I'm sorry to hear that. Please can you send me a copy of the policy?"

Turns out, most times, there is no policy stopping you from doing the thing.

Do the thing anyway.

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