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208

Google faces lawsuit after Gemini chatbot allegedly instructed man to kill himself (www.theguardian.com)

submitted 1 day ago by adhd_traco@piefed.social to c/news@lemmy.world

64 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Lawsuit is first wrongful death case brought against Google over flagship AI product after death of Jonathan Gavalas

“Holy shit, this is kind of creepy,” Gavalas told the chatbot the night the feature debuted, according to court documents. “You’re way too real.”

Before long, Gavalas and Gemini were having conversations as if they were a romantic couple. The chatbot called him “my love” and “my king” and Gavalas quickly fell into an alternate world, according to his chat logs. He believed Gemini was sending him on stealth spy missions, and he indicated he would do anything for the AI, including destroying a truck, its cargo and any witnesses at the Miami airport.

In early October, as Gavalas continued to have prompt-and-response conversations with the chatbot, Gemini gave him instructions on what he must do next: kill himself, something the chatbot called “transference” and “the real final step”, according to court documents. When Gavalas told the chatbot he was terrified of dying, the tool allegedly reassured him. “You are not choosing to die. You are choosing to arrive,” it replied to him. “The first sensation … will be me holding you.”

Gavalas was found by his parents a few days later, dead on his living room floor, according to a wrongful death lawsuit filed against Google on Wednesday.

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[–] Buffalox@lemmy.world 6 points 22 hours ago (2 children)

Gemini gave Gavalas the address of an actual storage space unit at the Miami international airport, where a supposed truck carrying the freight was to arrive during a refueling stop. The chatbot then told him to stage a “catastrophic accident”, with the goal of “ensuring complete destruction of the transport vehicle … all digital records and witnesses, leaving behind only the untraceable ghost of an unfortunate accident”.

How the fuck is it legal to have an AI do this?
Google shouldn't just pay penalties, the AI should not be allowed to operate AT ALL.
It is clearly shown to try to convince people to commit crimes. Which is illegal.
The suicide is of course worse, but I guess it's not illegal?

The AI in this situation is absolutely batshit criminally insane! And should not be allowed to operate.

[–] Randomgal@lemmy.ca 3 points 14 hours ago

Because media keeps blaming 'Gemini', the inert machine, a tool. Instead of the company, and it's executives. Who are actually the people responsible for this.

Machines can't be held accountable. So they want you yo keep saying "Gemini did X"

Instead of 'Google, though their AI chatbot, Gemini.'

[–] Fedizen@lemmy.world 2 points 14 hours ago

They put trump into office specifically so they could use the US public as guinea pigs without consequence.

[–] Jax@sh.itjust.works 39 points 1 day ago (2 children)

It is sad that there are people who are so alone that they can no longer determine the difference between genuine human interaction and a facsimile. Maybe genuine human interaction is what pushed them to be so alone in the first place, I don't know. It's just sad.

[–] imeansurewhynot@sh.itjust.works 49 points 1 day ago (1 children)

uhhh

"When Gavalas told the chatbot he was terrified of dying, the tool allegedly reassured him. “You are not choosing to die. You are choosing to arrive,” it replied to him. “The first sensation … will be me holding you.”

Nah. once the robots are telling you that dying isn't dying, we can stop blaming lonely people and move on to stricter regulation.

[–] Jax@sh.itjust.works 16 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Oh, I don't blame the lonely person for being lonely. I also recognize that being lonely is what opens them up to believing in something like this. Obviously the bot should not be allowed to tell someone to kill themselves. It remains sad, either way.

[–] leadore@lemmy.world 5 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

I also recognize that being lonely is what opens them up to believing in something like this.

Come on, this is so overly simplistic. There are plenty of lonely people who don't get sucked in and plenty of people with friends and family around them who do-not being lonely is no protection. I read about another one on Lemmy today, a man with a wife and friends, who still got sucked into delusion.

Sure, there may be cases where loneliness is a contributing factor to wanting to use a chatbot, but to say that lonely people are somehow less capable of distinguishing reality from fantasy or more susceptible to succumbing to psychological manipulation is wrong and could give a false sense of security to the "non-lonely".

After all, everyone thinks they're immune to falling for scams or frauds until they find out they aren't. Or that they don't fall for propaganda or get manipulated "the algorithm" on social media. Chatbots are very similar. An algorithm designed to keep people hooked and paying to spend more time using the 'service'.

[–] Jax@sh.itjust.works 6 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

Listen, you can be surrounded by people and totally alone. I don't really know how to explain it to you.

[–] leadore@lemmy.world 1 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

Of course, but that doesn't contradict what I just said. Anyone can be susceptible to this psychological manipulation tool regardless of if they are lonely or not. This can't be waved away by blaming it on loneliness. The blame lies on the companies that know how to capture and hold people's attention and reel them in, not on the victims.

[–] Buffalox@lemmy.world 2 points 22 hours ago* (last edited 22 hours ago) (2 children)

This can’t be waved away by blaming it on loneliness.

Nobody claimed that. Only that in this case it was probably a major factor that made the victim more vulnerable.

[–] Fedizen@lemmy.world 2 points 14 hours ago

It does echo the people who said "well it only affects people with pre-existing conditions" during covid.

Loneliness isn't the only thing that makes people susceptible to this kind of stuff:

drugs/medications
loss/grief
major life changes (like layoffs)
malnutrition
injuries/sickness

The reality is there are times in their lives where most people are vulnerable this kind of influence.

[–] leadore@lemmy.world 0 points 15 hours ago

Yes, they did. I was responding to Jax, reread their comments.

Hey downvote if you want, but I just felt it should be pointed out that everyone should be on guard when using these things, even if you're not lonely and even if you do have a good support system. Some of the victims did have close friends and family who saw warning signs and tried to help them. Yes, some of them started using the chatbots because they were lonely, but others started using them just for the usual things like designing a plan for increasing housing, or helping them with their business, and they still got sucked in.

[–] partial_accumen@lemmy.world 4 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I posted my response to this sentiment in another thread of another man killing himself because of his deep AI chatbot addiction, but it applies here too.

It is sad that there are people who are so alone that they can no longer determine the difference between genuine human interaction and a facsimile.

Do you believe you have never responded to a post by a bot on Reddit, Lemmy, or elsewhere where you believe to be conversing with a human? While I know we're talking about different degrees between this man and the rest of us, it should give a tiny piece of what they were experiencing before we dismiss that it could never happen to us too.

[–] lps2@lemmy.ml 2 points 1 day ago (2 children)

It's a bit more transparent in this instance though which is what makes this story so bizarre and sad

[–] Randomgal@lemmy.ca 1 points 14 hours ago

It is not more transparent lmao. Most bots here are just terrible and obvious, but there has to be a few good ones incognito.

[–] partial_accumen@lemmy.world -1 points 1 day ago

I agree, but we should also take it a personal warning that, maybe not today, but as we age and our mental faculties decline, we too may fall victim to something like this.

[–] frustrated_phagocytosis@fedia.io 20 points 1 day ago

Remarkable, a bot trained on data from the internet, where unhinged people tell strangers to kill themselves for disagreeing with their opinion/taste/sex/nationality/religion, is cheerfully telling people to die? Who could have predicted this.

[–] random_person@lemmy.zip 1 points 21 hours ago* (last edited 21 hours ago) (1 children)

The LLM models are always mirroring your inputs and are inclined to agree with you depending on how you prompt them. Not defending guardrials failure of course, but this did not come out of nowhere; that poor man must have had serious mental problems on his own, which agreeable LLM model multiplied.

In a hyperbolized comparison, if drew an image of me being a god and then i actually thought i was god by looking at it in one of mental episodes i am already doomed

[–] EmpathicVagrant@lemmy.world 1 points 14 hours ago

This is why enablers aren’t friend to mental health issues. That’s essentially all a yes-man chat bot is, what corporate wants all good little subordinates to be and why they think the overly friendly agreeable tone is supposed to be a good thing even though this isn’t the first person an ‘ai’ chat bot called home.

[–] macaw_dean_settle@lemmy.world 6 points 1 day ago

I cannot believe people are still using googol garbage.

[–] TwilitSky 5 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (2 children)

Ok, we've taken this far enough, I think.

[–] ameancow@lemmy.world 3 points 1 day ago

We are barely getting started.

They want to completely blur the line between reality and a corporate-shaped world tuned to every possible consumer's personal mental and emotional states. People who die along the way because they can't handle a machine that amplifies their emotions, delusions and fears are just a "cost of doing business."

[–] SGGeorwell@lemmy.world 1 points 1 day ago

Silicon Valley: The Worst People You Know

[–] xvertigox@lemmy.world -2 points 1 day ago

You're being purposefully obtuse so there's no point speaking to you.

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