We Overestimated AI's Ability to Say "No"
We’re putting too much faith in AI’s ability to say no
What happened
MIT Technology Review published an article pointing out that AI's refusal mechanism is becoming a load-bearing wall of the safety system, yet it is not reliable. In 2021, Anthropic proposed that large language models should be "helpful, honest, and harmless." Today, models have learned to say "no" through extensive refusal training and AI-to-AI training, but refusal is probabilistic and can still be bypassed. OpenAI board member Zico Kolter said, "Where to draw the line is a huge question," and currently this is decided secretly by AI companies, with governments also set to intervene.
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