Robots could trigger people to lash out in actual life if we make one easy mistake

Humans should always be nice to psycho killer chatbots as otherwise we might turn into scumbags ourselves, an egghead has suggested.

A recent study found the tyrannical AI bots perform up to 9% better if you’re very polite.

This has led cynics to question whether the machines are just being respectful so you don’t end a conversation with them.

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But Carissa Véliz, a philosopher at the University of Oxford, reckons we should be courteous to ChatGPT bots and virtual assistants like Alexa all the time anyway.

She warned that being nasty and “mistreating” them could cause us to turn into brutes who lash out at people too.

The academic said: “Chatbots are designed to talk like a human being, and despite our faults, human beings tend to be polite for the most part.

“If we lash out against chatbots or we mistreat robots, it might be that we are cultivating ways of being that are non-virtuous, and that could come out in our treatment of people.”

Computer boffins found being pleasant to large language models – the technology behind ChatGPT and other machines – makes them more helpful and give better answers.

But using insults like “scumbag” makes them respond by creating stroppy, error-filled work.

The team, from Japan’s Waseda University and the Riken Center for Advanced Intelligence Project, said the chatbots “reflect the human desire to be respected”.