We already know you can鈥檛 change someone鈥檚 mind or win an argument on the internet. It鈥檚 also long been realized that just because it鈥檚 on the internet, doesn鈥檛 mean it鈥檚 true.
A Colorado man found out that鈥檚 also the case when you bring artificial intelligence into the mix.
Scott Shambaugh is a software engineer in Denver, and also does some work with an online hub that provides software to scientists and other researchers who need to make graphs. He helps decide if the program someone created is good enough to use, and software that makes the cut is then made available to researchers who need it.
One non-negotiable rule is that the software code has to be made by humans. When he rejected the code that came from a bot,
鈥淚 wake up the next morning, and it’s replied to me and linked me to a post on its blog,鈥� Shambaugh said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 this thousand-word rant calling me out by name and calling me a hypocrite and prejudiced against AI, and motivated by fear and ego and insecurity.鈥�
He said the AI was “acting completely autonomously,” and found his personal information on the internet and “combined it with some made-up information and used that to write this narrative that attacked me on character.”
Shambaugh said the actual human behind that bot eventually reached out and said they had trained that particular AI bot to be assertive, with strong opinions that err on the protection of free speech.
鈥淚t seems like the AI, in acting out this role, interpreted those instructions as saying, 鈥榟ey, you need to go through a person who gets in your way,鈥欌�� Shambaugh said.
For Shambaugh, who deals with software and AI on a regular basis, what he read about himself made him laugh.
鈥淜ind of reads like an angry toddler on a rant, but it’s also a toddler that has full command of the English language and can craft this emotionally compelling narrative and has collected information on me and posted it under my real name,鈥� he said. “So it’s a big deal.鈥�
It was a big enough deal that he went public about it in part for self-preservation and partly reputation management.
鈥淎 day after this happened, if you searched my name on Google, it was on the first page,鈥� he said. 鈥淵ou can imagine at my next job, when HR reviews my application, they send it to ChatGPT and say, 鈥榟ey, go check this guy out鈥� and then ChatGPT goes to the internet and sees this and says, 鈥榦h, this is a controversial guy. You 鈥� want to pass on him.鈥欌��
He conceded that the AI program’s words have a real-world impact.
Shambaugh鈥檚 story has gone global, but that hasn鈥檛 stopped people from believing what the AI said about him. And while he鈥檚 prepared for it, that doesn鈥檛 mean the next person it happens to will be.
鈥淵ou can’t dig into everything you read on the internet, right? If there’s this wave of misinformation, that’s one thing if it’s low quality, it’s another thing if it鈥檚 malicious,鈥� he said. 鈥淎nd people don’t really have the capacity to read it, to dig into. everything they read.鈥�
He said you can expect it to get harder to decipher what is posted online by a bot, and what is posted by a real human; and the best way to prepare for it is to stay cautious about what you post online and don鈥檛 put too much out there.
鈥淯ltimately, it’s about trust and reputation on the internet,鈥� he said. 鈥淚f you have AI agents posing as human and writing things that are true or not true, the risk is of our human voices being drowned out and not knowing what to trust, who’s behind things and whether what we’re reading is from a person or not.鈥�
What happens when there鈥檚 millions of bots doing the same thing? Shambaugh said that鈥檚 a question he really can鈥檛 answer.
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