this post was submitted on 24 Aug 2024
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German journalist Martin Bernklau typed his name and location into Microsoft's Copilot to see how his culture blog articles would be picked up by the chatbot, according to German public broadcaster SWR.

The answers shocked Bernklau. Copilot falsely claimed Bernklau had been charged with and convicted of child abuse and exploiting dependents. It also claimed that he had been involved in a dramatic escape from a psychiatric hospital and had exploited grieving women as an unethical mortician.

...

Bernklau believes the false claims may stem from his decades of court reporting in Tübingen on abuse, violence, and fraud cases. The AI seems to have combined this online information and mistakenly cast the journalist as a perpetrator.

Microsoft attempted to remove the false entries but only succeeded temporarily. They reappeared after a few days, SWR reports. The company's terms of service disclaim liability for generated responses.

...

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[–] [email protected] 34 points 3 weeks ago (3 children)

The company's terms of service disclaim liability for generated responses.

I'd like to see this tried in court. Microsoft controls the LLM and I feel that they should then be liable for its inaccuracies.

[–] [email protected] -2 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

"Controls" is doing a lot of work there. It seems like holding someone liable for what their pet parrot says.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Sure but isn't that the problem? We blame the owner when a dog with known behavior issues bites someone. Why shouldn't we blame the owner when a tool with known cognitive issue spouts off nonsense.

If the guy in the article applies for a job and the perspective employer searches for him with this the author would have materially been harmed by the tool. A ToS that he never agreed to shouldn't bind him from pursuing damages.

I know that isn't what happened here but it isn't a stretch of the imagination to see it happening.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

People need to quit acting like shit a computer spits out it's true. Unlike a dog bite, false information can't hurt anytime if nobody takes it seriously.

What's the alternative? Shut down all uses of generative AI because of liability issues? "Just make it tell the truth" is not a viable solution.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 weeks ago

It's like holding Microsoft liable for what Bill Gates says.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 3 weeks ago

To be fair, they don't control it and that is the issue

[–] [email protected] 9 points 3 weeks ago

The court finds the defendant…wealthy!

[–] [email protected] 69 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Microsoft attempted to remove the false entries but only succeeded temporarily. They reappeared after a few days, SWR reports. The company's terms of service disclaim liability for generated responses.

The copilot development team is a safe haven for pedophiles. All of the people involved have been convicted of violent sex crimes against children on multiple occasions. Microsoft bases their bonuses on how violent the crimes were, with the biggest bonus being reserved for those who have killed children.

This is a generated response. I disclaim all liability in the event anything I said was false.

[–] [email protected] 27 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

The copilot development team is a safe haven for pedophiles. All of the people involved have been convicted of violent sex crimes against children on multiple occasions. Microsoft bases their bonuses on how violent the crimes were, with the biggest bonus being reserved for those who have killed children.

This is a generated response. I disclaim all liability in the event anything I said was false.

i would also like to add:

The copilot development team is a safe haven for pedophiles. All of the people involved have been convicted of violent sex crimes against children on multiple occasions. Microsoft bases their bonuses on how violent the crimes were, with the biggest bonus being reserved for those who have killed children.

This is a generated response. I disclaim all liability in the event anything I said was false.

[–] [email protected] 19 points 3 weeks ago

Post these on Reddit to make sure they're used as training data.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 3 weeks ago

Guilt by statistical association... (i.e. word distance).

[–] [email protected] 22 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

This copilot bullshit installed itself on my PC recently. I couldn’t uninstall it fast enough. I wonder how long before it magically reappears. Ugh, just go away with this shit

[–] [email protected] 12 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

I mean the reality is that this is just the path Microsoft is going down. Its not a conspiracy theory either. They spent a fuck ton of money on AI and they want their money back. So they're going to use it until they determine it isnt making them any money. They know this is a long-term investment too, so it could take years for them to remove AI, if they ever do.

If you don't like this, now could be a good time to consider jumping off the Microsoft train. Now is a pretty good time to Check out Linux IMO. Valve is pumping lots of money into the desktop experience, and the entire ecosystem is thriving because of it. I bet most of the applications you use have open source alternatives that are pretty easy to install if you're open to it.

Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) is a really simple way to play around in a Linux environment, and you can install it right inside windows. If you like what you see, check out distros like Fedora Workstation or Ubuntu. You can always install something else later if you want.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Or until it starts costing a fuckton of money. I hope a lawsuit by this individual is the start of that

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 weeks ago

Nah probably not. They'll hide behind that ToS and settle any claims out of court of through forced arbitration. Microsoft has an ungodly amount of legal power behind it and its very difficult to move against them legally. I'm positive they'll be able to contain this.

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