Commenters debate whether chatbot personas are a dark pattern
2 Sep 27 6:59 AM · 1d ago · 2 comments · 1 source · development 2 of 4
Hacker News users argue about whether packaging LLMs with friendly, first-person identities is deliberately manipulative versus a natural consequence of system design.
“The AI companies have chosen to package LLMs as friendly chatbots because they know that will be engaging for humans, but it's manipulative dark pattern.”
ForHackernewsPaper authors Researchers behind the arXiv studyAnthropic AI lab cited in discussionHacker News commentariat Discussion participants
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In my view, these models should never be set up to output first-person "experiential" (from the abstract) language. It's too easy to humans to anthropomorphize software that presents itself as having an identity.The AI companies have chosen to package LLMs as friendly chatbots because they know that will be engaging for humans, but it's…
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> yet what drives them is not well understoodPresumably the fact that they're heavily trained to reply in this way? I don't know about the rest of the paper, but this part sticks out as a really odd claim unless I'm entirely misunderstanding this part.
All 4 developments of Study: Chat Templates, Not Self-Awareness, Drive LLMs' "As… →
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