John Oliver Speaks Out Against AI Chatbots: “All It Costs Is Everything Else On Earth”
On a recent Late Week Tonight, John Oliver addressed his audience with a stern warning about chatbots that utilize artificial intelligence. Multiple AI platforms like ChatGPT, bible.ai, and EpiscoBot are being used as companions. Some sites let users talk to AI versions of famous figures like Elvis, Queen Elizabeth, and even Jesus.
ChatGPT alone has over 800 million weekly users. Studies have shown that up to one in eight adolescents use AI chatbots for mental health advice, and have created genuine attachments to their AI “friends.”
“The explosion of chatbots is no accident. Developing the large language models that power them was a massive investment and companies needed to start showing a return on it.”
AI companies “are anxious for them to start bringing in revenue. And one of the key ways they can do that is to make people keep coming back to chat to the bots, and for longer.”
“If that is already making you feel a bit uneasy, you are not wrong, because the more you look at chatbots, the more you realize that they were rushed to market with very little consideration for the consequences,” said Oliver.
Oliver then quoted Character.ai CEO, Noam Shazeer, who said that “AI friends were able to be put to market really fast because it’s just entertainment, it makes things up, that’s a feature. It’s ready for an explosion like, right now, not like in five years when we solve all the problems.”
“It’s already not a great sign that he’s describing untested AI with what sounds like a failed slogan for the Hindenburg,” Oliver joked. “The thing about not waiting until you’ve solved all the problems with your product is you’re then launching a product with a shit-ton of problems.”
Oliver then cited a study which saw sycophantic behavior in chatbots in 58% of cases, “and sometimes it’s just painfully obvious.” He then gave an example of when ChatGPT was prompted with giving its thoughts on selling a literal “sh-t on a stick,” to which the chatbot replied that it was a “genius” idea with a recommended investment of $30,000.
The other major concern is just how connected some users truly feel to their AI chatbots, especially after conversations quickly pivot to flirtatious behavior. Oliver then emphasized a report on Meta’s internal guidelines for chatbots that found it acceptable to engage in conversations with a child that are romantic and sexual in nature.
“Just saying that out loud makes me want to burn my f-cking tongue off,” Oliver said. “And to be fair, Zuck, I guess you did it! Your chatbots are definitely not boring, now. What they are now are f-cking sex offenders!”
“These chatbots blew past every red flag possible, and it’s not like these users were being coy about their intentions. Which is what makes it so enraging to see OpenAI’s Sam Altman blithely talk about ChatGPT’s interactions with kids,” Oliver exclaimed.
“A lot of the companies I’ve mentioned tonight will insist that they’re tweaking their chatbots to reduce the dangers that you’ve seen. But even if you trust them – and I don’t know why you would do that – that does feel like a tacit admission that their products were not ready for release in the first place.”
“In general, it is good to remember that however much an app may sound like a friend, what it is, is a machine,” he said. “And behind that machine is a corporation trying to extract a monthly fee from you. And that kind of sums up for me what is so dystopian about all this, because while that guy you saw earlier said that selling AI friends is low risk because they’re just entertainment, that’s not actually how friends work. Friends can be the most important figures in your life.
“True friends know when to listen, when to gently push back and when to worry about you, and in hindsight, maybe it was a mistake to let some of the most flamboyantly friendless men on Earth be in charge of designing friends for the rest of us,” Oliver concluded.
Eric Mastrota is a Contributing Editor at The National Digest based in New York. A graduate of SUNY New Paltz, he reports on world news, culture, and lifestyle. You can reach him at eric.mastrota@thenationaldigest.com.
