The tragedy of Adam Raines death by suicide at age 16 this year should have shocked the world into a renewed focus on accountability in Silicon Valley but instead, we heard the familiar excuse from the no-man’s land of moral hazard – user error.
In the first court filings from OpenAI they defended themselves by victim blaming. “Misuse” and “unforeseeable use” are cited even though according to the parents claims, ChatGPT basically gave him instructions for self-harm including offering to help write the suicide note.
Using legalese and technical “terms and conditions” arguments to defend jeopardising a vulnerable teen only further lays bare the morally hollow position the company has taken. GenAI is an incredibly powerful tool that must come with responsibility instead of marketing gimmicks – we now see what’s at stake.
And not knowing is no longer an excuse.
The research paper, The Illusions of Thinking published by Apple earlier this year is a pretty chilling read in this context. We know that as the complexity of problems hit a threshold, the models basically collapse and their accuracy and the reduction in “thinking” drops dramatically.
That’s not just a problem for automating a business workflow with AI, it speaks directly to the complex problems being fed into these models by everyday people. People who struggle with depression, loneliness, and other mental health issues requiring empathy, nuance, and a depth of humanity not possible with GenAI.
Further to that, in 2023 the G7 countries agreed to implement a code of conduct for developing “Advanced AI Systems” including “risk-based design, post-deployment safety, transparency about limitations” and accountability when things go wrong because these systems require more than a TOR like an app that plays music on your phone.
The point is, we know to do better and are on the familiar path to let big tech off the hook on the grounds of “user error”, which ultimately treats a teenager’s tragic death as just a design flaw.
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