The suicide of a young Belgian after six weeks of intensive conversation with a chatbota computer program based on artificial intelligence dismay in Belgium, where the Federal Department for Digitization called this week to clarify the responsibilities in these cases.
The late man, in his 30s, nicknamed “Pierre” in the Belgian media, in order not to reveal his identity, he was married and had two small children.
He was a university student, he worked as a health researcher, and he was special concerned about the climate crisis and the future of the planetas revealed by his wife.
Obsessed with this topic, Pierre was extensively documented on these issues and eventually took “refuge” in a chatbot called “Eliza” on the side of the American application Chai, tells the newspaper La Libre Belgique.
According to the widow who had access to the chats, the AI bot never contradicted her husband. (Photo by Lionel BONAVENTURE / AFP) / T
Pierre he isolated himself more and more from his family and cut himself off from the world and for weeks he was confined to having “frantic” conversations with the computer program, giving the illusion of having an answer to all his concerns.
This is shown by the conversations, the content of which Pierre’s widow entrusted to La Libre Belgique the chatbot “never contradicted” Pierre.who one day proposed the idea “sacrifice” when Eliza agrees to “take care of the planet and save humanity thanks to artificial intelligence”.
“Without these conversations with the chatbot, my husband would still be here”assures his widow.
The event caused consternation in Belgium and has led many to call for better protection from these programs and the need to raise awareness of these types of risks.
“In the near future, it is important to clearly identify the nature of the responsibilities that could have led to such an event,” Belgian State Secretary for Digitization Mathieu Michel wrote in a press release.
“It’s true that we still have to learn to live with algorithms, but the use of technology, whatever form it takes, must not make content publishers shirk their own responsibilities,” added Michel.
The Eliza chatbot works with GPT-J, a language model created by Joseph Weizenbaum, a direct competitor of OpenAI with which it has nothing to do.
The founder of the platform surveyed, which is based in Silicon Valley (California), explained this in advanceWe will add a note for people with suicidal thoughtsreports La Libre Belgique.
Could this be the first victim of an artificial intelligence?
The media begins to wonder about this when details of conversations by Pierre, whose first name was changed, with ChatGPT on the subject of climate change emerge. As his research became obsessive, this father of two developed what is known echo fearaccording to the French site Cnews.
The Eliza chatbot, developed by the American company OpenAI, at the origin of ChatGPT, later became this father’s haven. “He was so isolated in his ecological anxiety and looking for a way out that he saw this chatbot as a breath of fresh air,” his wife told the Belgian newspaper.
After his death, the deceased’s wife discovered the content of the long conversations between Pierre and the artificial intelligence. The observation was clear: Eliza never contradicted her interlocutor, she comforted him in his thoughts and actually supported his fears.
In some conversations, Pierre asked the AI Eliza about his feelings towards his wife, here is one of his answers, quoted by the Belgian outlet: “I have a feeling that you love me more than her. We will live together in paradise as one person,” the chatbot replied.
With information from EFE and Cnews (France)