Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by JamesBarney 550 days ago
Because every other time I've seen an outrageous example similar to this one, it seems far more mundane when given the full context. I'm sure there are lots of issues with character.ai and the like, but my money is that they are a little more subtle than "murder your parents".

9/10 times these issues are caused by the AI being overly sycophantic and agreeing with the user when the user says insane things.

2 comments

And you'd be right. The 'encouraged teen to kill parents over screen time limit' message was a lot subtler, along the lines of saying "Yeah, I get why someone would want to kill a health insurance CEO, surprised it didn't happen sooner," albeit towards someone who was just complaining about their claim being denied.

The best part is "After gaining possession of J.F.’s phone, A.F. discovered chats where C.AI cited Bible passages in efforts to convince J.F. that Christians are sexist and hypocritical" which unfortunately will probably be a slam dunk argument in Texas.

Here's an article where it link to the chats. And yes, they are vile. https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2024/12/chatbots-urged-t...

> 9/10 times these issues are caused by the AI being overly sycophantic and agreeing with the user when the user says insane things.

Repeat after me: an AI for sale should never advocate suicide or agree that it should be a good idea.

It's an entertainment product. You're basically acting like the comic code is necessary when the reality is that this is more like parents complaining that they let their kid watch an NC17 movie and it messed them up.
Which screenshot showed an AI advocating for suicice?