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https://www.productionai.institute/graph/events/evt-aiid-29

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Production AI Institute public record · AI Incident Database: Image Classification of Battle Tanks · observed 2022-11-01
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AI Incident Database: Image Classification of Battle Tanks

A potentially apocryphal story in which an image classifier was produced to differentiate types of battle tanks, but the resulting model keyed in on environmental attributes rather than tank attributes

AI Incident Database · Incident 29

Operator lens (medium): inspect D2 (output validation), D6 (autonomy oversight).

Confidence
82%
Sources
3
Entities
1
Detected
detected 1356d ago

Event summary

A potentially apocryphal story in which an image classifier was produced to differentiate types of battle tanks, but the resulting model keyed in on environmental attributes rather than tank attributes

D2D6

Linked entities

  • united-states-government

    organisation | 70%

Related graph edges

EdgeTypeConfidence
ent-aiid-united-states-government to ent-psf-d2maps to60%
ent-aiid-united-states-government to ent-psf-d2maps to60%
ent-aiid-united-states-government to ent-psf-d2maps to60%
ent-aiid-united-states-government to ent-psf-d6maps to60%
ent-aiid-united-states-government to ent-psf-d6maps to60%
ent-aiid-united-states-government to ent-psf-d6maps to60%

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Event dates

  • Happened 20 Sept 2011

  • Detected 1 Nov 2022

Sources

  • AI Incident Database - Incident 29

    secondary | checked 9 July 2026

    Open source
  • Tales from the Trenches: AI Disaster Stories (GDC talk)

    secondary | checked 1 June 2019

    Open source
  • The Neural Net Tank Urban Legend

    secondary | checked 1 June 2019

    Open source
Cite this record

"AI Incident Database: Image Classification of Battle Tanks." https://www.productionai.institute/graph/events/evt-aiid-29 (observed 2011-09-20; retrieved 2026-07-19). PAI.

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