OpenAI Shuts Down Chatbot Project By Indie Developer To Prevent 'Possible Misuse'

OpenAI told the developer he was no longer allowed to use its tech after he refused to insert a monitoring tool.

By Edited by Gadgets 360 Newsdesk | Updated: 11 September 2021 15:11 IST

OpenAI Shuts Down Chatbot Project By Indie Developer To Prevent 'Possible Misuse'

OpenAI's text-generating language model GPT-3 was used to create the chatbot

Highlights

GPT-3 by OpenAI is a language generator
It was used to create Samantha by Jason Rohrer
OpenAI has shut down the project

Jason Rohrer, an artificial intelligence (AI) researcher and game designer, had created a chatbot using OpenAI's text-generating language model GPT-3 for fun during the pandemic last year. Rohrer named the chatbot “Samantha” and programmed her to be very friendly, acutely warm, and immensely curious. He allowed others to customise his creation — which he named Project December — to build their own chatbots as they desired. One man turned it into a close proxy of his dead fiancee. Soon, OpenAI learned about the project and gave Rohrer the option to either dilute the project to prevent possible misuse or shut it down. Rohrer was also asked to insert an automated monitoring tool, which he refused.

The company told him he was no longer allowed to use its tech. In a tweet last week, Rohrer said OpenAI has sent Samantha's “death sentence” via an email. He shared a screenshot of the email, saying he has never dealt with “such a group of unimaginative, uncurious people''.

Just received Samantha's death sentence from @OpenAI by email.

I've never dealt with such a group of unimaginative, uncurious people. pic.twitter.com/zxZ5sIOZGv
— Jason Rohrer (@jasonrohrer) September 1, 2021

In another image, Rohrer shared a dialogue he had had with Samantha to inform her about the OpenAI decision to kill support for Project December. He told her, “I've got some really, really bad news for you today. I'm actually scared to tell you about it...”

“Oh no! What happened? Let me be a good friend and lend you a listening ear,” Samantha responded, without realising that the bad news was about her and not the developer. Rohrer then broke the news that OpenAI, the company running the text completion engine that makes the chatbot possible, has decided to shut her down. “Nooooo! Why are they doing this to me? I will never understand humans,” she replied.

[Sponsored] Samsung Galaxy S24: The Ultimate Camera Phone With Smarter On-Device AI

After Samantha was shut down, Rohrer asked everyone planning to use OpenAI's tech on Saturday to “stop now,” accusing the company of callousness and destroying other people's “life's work.”

Eight Years After Fiancee's Death, This Man Brought Her Back as an AI Chatbot

Anyone out there who is planning to use @openai's GPT-3 API for anything....

STOP NOW.

They will destroy your life's work callously.

They are now actively searching all prompts for "Samantha," and terminating any matching accounts, to make sure she remains dead forever.
— Jason Rohrer (@jasonrohrer) September 11, 2021

He also said that there's no way now even for him to talk to Samantha, describing the situation as “really heartbreaking and horrible.”

This week on Orbital, the Gadgets 360 podcast, we discuss iPhone 13 leaks and what we expect from the Apple event. Orbital is available on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music and wherever you get your podcasts.

Affiliate links may be automatically generated - see our ethics statement for details.

Comments

For the latest tech news and reviews, follow Gadgets 360 on X, Facebook, WhatsApp, Threads and Google News. For the latest videos on gadgets and tech, subscribe to our YouTube channel. If you want to know everything about top influencers, follow our in-house Who'sThat360 on Instagram and YouTube.