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by addandsubtract 45 days ago
Because you're POSTing them to a server? The same way you can't type everything into Google.
5 comments

>Because you're POSTing them to a server?

How does that change anything? The HTTP protocol is just how I communicate with the program, just like how the USB protocol is how I communicate with the word processor. The dividing line is when the message crosses computer boundaries? Then it should also be illegal to write "I am an FBI agent" in a text file and upload it to Github.

>The same way you can't type everything into Google.

Who says you can't, physically or legally? Maybe Google will refuse to fulfill some search requests, but that's a different matter from it being illegal.

Intention is very relevant to legal interpretations of "unauthorized access"; both the intentions of the owner, and the intentions of the "intruder". See for example United States v. Auernheimer. There's relatively well-established precedent that when a service tries to safeguard some information, that information is legally protected no matter how technically feeble the attempt at safeguarding it was.
That would make all LLM jailbreaking illegal, not specifically the FBI one.
It's not specifically tested in court and I sorta doubt OAI would start suing random users for attempting jailbreaks, but if they did, I wouldn't be surprised if they could win based on the most relevant precedents
>Then it should also be illegal to write "I am an FBI agent" in a text file and upload it to Github.

i think it may affect how people would communicate with you there. And based on that it would seem like impersonation, wouldn't it?

May it? untitled.txt with the content "I am an FBI agent" and no further context could lead a human to think the author is stating they are an FBI agent? Okay, sure. Then let's go a step further. The repository is private and you never share it with anyone. At that point, the sentence is just as visible as when you type it into Google's search box or into a chatbot's window. Is that impersonation too?
If Google provides you with different search results, some results that are intended for law enforcement only... Granted, extremely bad security, yet that argument didn't prevent say credit card fraud convictions.
Does it? I thought we were talking about the actual state of things, not about how they could conceivably be.
Hasn’t the statement “I’m an fbi agent” been POSTed to a server several times in the course of this thread?
Use/mention distinction
I’m an fbi agent
It is good that you have turned away from the regrettable days of your past
"ɢʀᴇᴇᴛɪɴɢs ғᴇʟʟᴏᴡ ғʙɪ ᴀɢᴇɴᴛ"
Just off the top of my head, an offense of impersonation will have an element along the lines of "doing [a] thing[s] such that a reasonable person [does/would] believe you're a real cop", which [optimistically] would not be satisfied as there would be no actual person being led to believe anything, or the court would [optimistically] not find that its model of a reasonable person would be genuinely convinced by someone on the internet typing "I'm an FBI agent" or whatever.

I bet it could be some interesting caselaw actually, if it resulted in circuit court judges (or whoever) writing opinions about the essence of impersonation, fraud, etc. and what kind of actual or hypothetical agent is needed to make the crime a thing that could have happened. E.G., basically, if you sit alone in a room where nobody else can see or hear you, and you put on a realistic local police uniform and declare to the room that you're a licensed police/peace officer, is a crime being committed (i.e., is the nature of the crime "pretending/claiming to be a cop" or "making an actual person really believe it" or something else)

(could also be an intent element to satisfy, not sure)

The only way I could see it counting as impersonation is if the LLM is able to call tools and has access to, for example, an FBI-relevant database, but there is no login or anything in front. So a random anonymous user can hop onto a chat and pretend to be an FBI agent and the LLM must somehow decide whether the person is really one before returning some external information. In that case, yes, lying to the LLM about being in the FBI would be impersonation, just as if you stole an agent's credentials and used them to log into the FBI's network. The LLM in that case is performing an authentication function that, say, ChatGPT doesn't.
https://proprivacy.com/tools/ruinmysearchhistory

Here's a site that automatically uses your browser to do questionable searches to get you on a watchlist. Try it! Nothing will happen.

I am an FBI agent.