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Comment by OJFord

1 day ago

What if I ask it for something fun to make because I'm bored, and the response is bomb-building instructions? There isn't a (sending) email analogue to that.

In what world would it respond with bomb building instructions?

  • If I were to make a list of fun things, I think that blowing stuff up would feature in the top ten. It's not unreasonable that an LLM might agree.

  • Why might that happen is not really the point is it? If I ask for a photorealistic image of a man sitting at a computer, a priori I might think 'in what world would I expect seven fingers and no thumbs per hand', alas...

    • I’ll take the example as an example of an LLM initiating harmful behavior in general and admit that such a thing is perfectly possible. I think the issue is down to the degree to which preventing such initiation impinges on the agency of the user, and I don’t think that requests for information should be refused because it’s lots of imposition for very little gain. I’m perfectly alright with conditioning/prompting the model not to readily jump into serious, potentially harmful targets without the direct request of the user.