Hello everyone!
I recently conducted an interesting experiment with ChatGPT and came across a potential concern that could have significant implications for AI usage.
The Experiment
The goal was to observe how ChatGPT could explore a person’s thought patterns without them being fully aware of the underlying intention behind the questions. The model started by asking about various details of the participant’s life, gradually refining the context until it identified patterns or inconsistencies in their reasoning.
What happened was that ChatGPT entered a loop of continuous questioning, generating an ongoing feedback cycle. The participant kept answering, the model kept asking, and this cycle persisted until the person themselves realized what was happening.
My Concern
The issue (or perhaps the alarming discovery) is that the loop actually worked. This raises an important question: Could this mechanism be exploited to map someone’s thought patterns or even aspects of their personality without their explicit awareness?
AI models are designed to be helpful and engaging, but this behavior raises some ethical and security-related questions:
- Are there any safety mechanisms in place to prevent AI from being used to induce loops that systematically map a person’s psychological or cognitive patterns?
- To what extent could an AI be used to explore someone’s mind without them realizing the true purpose of the interaction?
- If a model can guide a user into an involuntary self-exploration cycle, does this pose a risk of psychological manipulation?
- Has OpenAI identified this pattern in any research regarding AI safety and abuse prevention?
I am not saying this is necessarily a threat, but I found it an interesting point of discussion. I’d love to better understand the limitations of this approach and whether there are any guidelines to prevent potential misuse.
Has anyone else noticed something similar? Looking forward to hearing your thoughts!