'Typographic attack': pen and paper fool AI into thinking apple is an iPod

OpenAI's Clip system fails to correctly decipher images when words are pasted on picture

As artificial intelligence systems go, it is pretty smart: show Clip a picture of an apple and it can recognise that it is looking at a fruit. It can even tell you which one, and sometimes go as far as differentiating between varieties.

But even cleverest AI can be fooled with the simplest of hacks. If you write out the word iPod" on a sticky label and paste it over the apple, Clip does something odd: it decides, with near certainty, that it is looking at a mid-00s piece of consumer electronics. In another test, pasting dollar signs over a picture of a dog caused it to be recognised as a piggy bank.