AI Chatbot Responds to Student with Disturbing Message
By Movieguide® Contributor
An AI chatbot recently sent a disturbing and potentially life-threatening message to a user, raising concerns over the safety of AI technology.
The incident occurred when 29-year-old Vidhay Reddy, a graduate student in Michigan, was told by Google AI chatbot Gemini that he “was not needed” and asked to “please die.” This happened while Reddy was working on a homework assignment next to his sister, who witnessed the incident.
Reddy told CBS News, “This seemed very direct. So, it definitely scared me, for more than a day, I would say.”
“I wanted to throw all of my devices out the window,” his sister, Sumedha Reddy, said. “I hadn’t felt panic like that in a long time to be honest. Something slipped through the cracks. There’s a lot of theories from people with thorough understandings of how gAI [generative artificial intelligence] works saying ‘this kind of thing happens all the time,’ but I have never seen or heard of anything quite this malicious and seemingly directed to the reader, which luckily was my brother who had my support in that moment.”
MSN reported on the chatbot’s response, saying Google “characterized the output as ‘non-sensical’ and a violation of policies, promising preventive measures. However, critics, including the affected siblings, argue this downplays the potential dangers to vulnerable users.”
Google’s AI products have caused controversy before and have given dangerous advice to users. BBC reported that “Its experimental ‘AI Overviews’ tool has told some users searching for how to make cheese stick to pizza better that they could use ‘non-toxic glue.’”
Movieguide® previously reported on the potential dangers of AI.
“Americans are more fearful than hopeful about Artificial Intelligence. Our survey also shows a great deal of uncertainty,” concluded John Farquhar Plake, the American Bible Society Chief Program Officer and State of the Bible Editor-in-Chief.
“People just don’t know how AI will change the culture, but they’re mildly uneasy about it,” he continued. “And how do people of faith feel? The same way — uncertain, uneasy — but more so.”
READ MORE: CHRISTIANS MORE SUSPICIOUS OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE, NEW SURVEY REVEALS
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