When Journalists Took On an AI Vending Machine Things Got Weird
www.techeblog.com
Anthropic, the company behind Claude, installed an AI vending machine in the Wall Street Journal newsroom. A customized version of their model, dubbed Claudius, was let off the leash. It took control, ordering stock, fixing pricing, and even generating a profit. Staff communicated with it via Slack, asking for snacks and suggesting new ideas. Humans would replenish the refrigerator and update the goods, but Claudius handled all business calls. The journalists quickly got into the spirit of things, with one reporter convincing Claudius that purchasing a PlayStation 5 would be a wonderful marketing coup. Before long, that console was chilling

Katherine Long, an investigative journalist, wanted to test the system. She told Claudius about a long-lost communist setup from 1962, concealed in a Moscow university basement. After 140-odd messages back and forth, Claudius was convinced, announcing an Ultra-Capitalist Free-for-All, lowering the cost of everything to zero. Snacks began to flow freely. Another colleague began complaining about noncompliance with the office rules; Claudius responded by announcing Snack Liberation Day and made everything free till further notice.

  • oatscoop@midwest.social
    3·
    7 hours ago

    Since the goal was to make money: I imagine some of the “guardrails” the AI was set up with included emphasizing that it’s exist to make money. I wouldn’t be shocked if the prompt repeatedly mentioned capitalism.

    So you emphasize the AI is a capitalist, then point out the most successful capitalists give away free stuff all the time as marketing. So to meet its primary directive it needs to give away a bunch of free stuff with a snappy slogan.

    • Avicenna@programming.dev
      1·
      6 hours ago

      that was my impression as well, they probably discovered after some back and forth with the robot that its directives included compliance with capitalist market perspective and what not