CodeX, The Stanford Center for Legal Informatics reposted this
Attorney | Fellow, Stanford Law School | Advisory Board Member, Stanford Artificial Intelligence Law Society | Adjunct Professor, University of Minnesota Law School | Public Speaker
OpenAI’s use of a voice similar to Scarlett Johansson for its ChatGPT is creepy. Not just because they did so even though she reportedly declined their offer to lend her voice to ChatGPT (that’s bad enough), but because of why they did it. To understand the “why” we need to look at how computers and humans interact. Now, the power of technology to persuade people is well documented. In his seminal work on the topic, Persuasive Technology: Using Computers to Change What we Think and Do, Stanford Professor B.J. Fogg laid out how computers are capable of creating relationships with humans through rewards and positive feedback. Now bundle that together with Professor Daniel C. Dennett’s observation in his book Kinds of Minds: Toward and Understanding of Consciousness that “we treat [computers] as they were just like us” and it becomes clear that humans form strong bonds with computers. Are you starting to see what OpenAI was up to with Scarlett Johansson’s likeness? Ok, so now let’s bring in AI. Pretty much any time AI is introduced into a computational platform, the platform’s persuasive capabilities tend to be significantly magnified. It is even more so when the AI system uses a highly recognizable voice. OpenAI’s move here was not simply to make its ChatGPT more likable, more user friendly. It was to make it more persuasive; that’s why they did it. This is problematic because the likelihood of emotional entanglement dramatically increases and the attendant risks to the end user. And it’s even more problematic because OpenAI’s move is misaligned with the Human-Centeredand Governance core principles, which puts their decision on a collision course with the NIST AI Risk Management Framework. https://lnkd.in/gmu5PAtS
