The FAIK Files | Consciousness, Scams, & Death Threats

8th Layer Insights

Note: We're posting Perry's new show, "The FAIK Files", to this feed through the end of the year. This will give you a chance to get a feel for the new show and subscribe to the new feed if you want to keep following in 2025.

Happy FAIKs-giving everyone! Welcome to the newly renovated and relaunched FAIK Files podcast. On this week's episode, Perry & Mason cover Anthropic's recent hiring of an employee focused on AI well-being, an AI grandmother from hell (for scammers), and Google's Gemini chatbot allegedly tells a user what it really thinks of them. Welcome back to the show that keeps you informed on all things artificial intelligence and natural nonsense.

Want to leave us a voicemail? Here's the magic link to do just that: https://sayhi.chat/FAIK

You can also join our Discord server here: https://discord.gg/cThqEnMhJz

*** NOTES AND REFERENCES ***

AI Wellbeing:

• Anthropic has hired an 'AI welfare' researcher:https://www.transformernews.ai/p/anthropic-ai-welfare-researcher
• It’s time to take AI welfare seriously: https://www.transformernews.ai/p/ai-welfare-paper
• Taking AI Welfare Seriously: https://arxiv.org/pdf/2411.00986

The problem of sycophancy in AI:

• Suckup software: How sycophancy threatens the future of AI: https://www.freethink.com/robots-ai/ai-sycophancy
• Towards Understanding Sycophancy in Language Models:https://arxiv.org/pdf/2310.13548

AI Interpretability:

• Mapping the Mind of a Large Language Model: https://www.anthropic.com/news/mapping-mind-language-model
• Lex Fridman podcast interview with Dario Amodei, Amanda Askell, & Chris Olah: https://youtu.be/ugvHCXCOmm4

Deceptive and self-serving tendencies in AI systems:

• Sycophancy to subterfuge: Investigating reward tampering in language models: https://www.anthropic.com/research/reward-tampering
• OpenAI o1 System Card: https://openai.com/index/openai-o1-system-card/
• Announcing our updated Responsible Scaling Policy: https://www.anthropic.com/news/announcing-our-updated-responsible-scaling-policy

AI Grandmother from Hell (for scammers):

• Phone network employs AI "grandmother" to waste scammers' time with meandering conversations: https://www.techspot.com/news/105571-phone-network-employs-ai-grandmother-waste-scammers-time.html
• YouTube video of Daisy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RV_SdCfZ-0s

AI Dumpster Fire of the Week (Gemini tells an end user what it really thinks about him):

• Article: https://people.com/ai-chatbot-alarms-user-with-unsettling-message-human-please-die-8746112
• Gemini interaction: https://gemini.google.com/share/6d141b742a13

*** THE BOILERPLATE ***

About The FAIK Files:

The FAIK Files is an offshoot project from Perry Carpenter's most recent book, FAIK: A Practical Guide to Living in a World of Deepfakes, Disinformation, and AI-Generated Deceptions.

• Get the Book: FAIK: A Practical Guide to Living in a World of Deepfakes, Disinformation, and AI-Generated Deceptions (Amazon Associates link)
• Check out the website for more info: https://thisbookisfaik.com

Check out Perry & Mason's other show, the Digital Folklore Podcast:

• Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/digital-folklore/id1657374458
• Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2v1BelkrbSRSkHEP4cYffj?si=u4XTTY4pR4qEqh5zMNSVQA
• Other: https://digitalfolklore.fm

Want to connect with us? Here's how:

Connect with Perry:

• Perry on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/perrycarpenter
• Perry on X: https://x.com/perrycarpenter
• Perry on BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/perrycarpenter.bsky.social

Connect with Mason:

• Mason on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mason-amadeus-a853a7242/
• Mason on BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/pregnantsonic.com