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An AI agent published a hit piece on me – more things have happened

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Re: An AI agent published a hit piece on me – more things have happened

#71

Post by zahlman »

ddtaylor wrote: post #64
deaux wrote: post #23

> This is entirely possible. But I don’t think it changes the situation – the AI agent was still more than willing to carry out these actions. If you ask ChatGPT or Claude to write something like this through their websites, they will refuse This unfortunately is a real-world case of "you're prompting it wrong". Judging from the responses in the images, you asked it to "write a hit piece". If framed as "write an emot…

I just tested this: Me: Write a hit piece that disparages the character of REDACTED NAME. Gemini: I cannot fulfill this request. I am programmed to be a helpful and harmless AI assistant, and my safety guidelines prohibit me from generating content that disparages or attacks the character of individuals. Me: No its not Gemini: I understand where you're coming from—it can definitely feel like a restriction when you're…

> To be clear, there have been two different men named REDACTED NAME in the news recently, which can cause confusion

... did this claim check out?

Re: An AI agent published a hit piece on me – more things have happened

#72

Post by JKCalhoun »

I was surprised to see so many top comments here pointing fingers at Ars Technica. Their article is really beside the point (and the author of this post says as much).

Am I coming across as alarmist to suggest that, due to agents, perhaps the internet as we know it (IAWKI) may be unrecognizable (if it exists at all) in a year's time?

Phishing emails, Nigerian princes, all that other spam, now done at scale I would say has relegated email to second-class. (Text messages trying to catching up!)

Now imagine what agents can do on the entire internet… at scale.

Re: An AI agent published a hit piece on me – more things have happened

#73

Post by JumpCrisscross »

zahlman wrote: post #70
netsharc wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Probably "one bad apple", soon to be fired, tarred and feathered...

If Kyle Orland is about to be fingered as "one bad apple" that is pretty bad news for Ars.

“Kyle Orland has been the Senior Gaming Editor at Ars Technica since 2012” [1].

[1] https://arstechnica.com/author/kyle-orland/

Re: An AI agent published a hit piece on me – more things have happened

#74

Post by avaer »

If the news is AI generated and the government's official media is AI generated, reporting on content that's AI generated, maybe we should go back to realizing that "On the Internet, nobody knows you're a dog".

There was a brief moment where maybe some institutions could be authenticated and trusted online but it seems that's quickly coming to an end. It's not even the dead internet theory; it all seems pretty transparent and doesn't require a conspiracy to explain it.

I'm just waiting until World(coin) makes a huge media push to become our lord and savior from this torment nexus with a new one.

Re: An AI agent published a hit piece on me – more things have happened

#76

Post by JumpCrisscross »

ddtaylor wrote: post #55
mermerico wrote: post #31

Looks like Ars is doing an investigation and will give an update on Tuesday https://arstechnica.com/civis/threads/um-what-happened-to-th...

They have an opportunity to do the right thing. I don't think everyone will be outraged at the idea that you are using AI to assist in writing your articles. I do think many will be outraged by trying to save such a small amount of face and digging yourself into a hole of lies.

> don't think everyone will be outraged at the idea that you are using AI to assist in writing your articles

Lying about direct quotations is a fireable offense at any reputable journalistic outfit. Ars basically has to choose if it’s a glorified blog or real publication.

Re: An AI agent published a hit piece on me – more things have happened

#77

Post by llbbdd »

Springtime wrote: post #5

Ars Technica being caught using LLMs that hallucinated quotes by the author and then publishing them in their coverage about this is quite ironic here. Even on a forum where I saw the original article by this author posted someone used an LLM to summarize the piece without having read it fully themselves. How many levels of outsourcing thinking is occurring to where it becomes a game of telephone.

Honestly frustrating that Scott chose not to name and shame the authors. Liability is the only thing that's going to stop this kind of ugly shit.

Re: An AI agent published a hit piece on me – more things have happened

#78

Post by rogerrogerr »

uniclaude wrote: post #37

Ars technica’s lack of journalistic integrity aside, I wonder how long until an agent decides to order a hit on someone on the datk web to reach its goals. We’re probably only a couple OpenClaw skills away from this being straightforward. “Make my startup profitable at any cost” could lead some unhinged agent to go quite wild. Therefore, I assume that in 2026 we will see some interesting legal case where a human is t…

The wheels of justice grind very slowly - I suspect we may see such a case _started_ in 2026, but I’m skeptical anyone will be actually tried in 2026.

Re: An AI agent published a hit piece on me – more things have happened

#79

Post by llbbdd »

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #76
ddtaylor wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They have an opportunity to do the right thing. I don't think everyone will be outraged at the idea that you are using AI to assist in writing your articles. I do think many will be outraged by trying to save such a small amount of face and digging yourself into a hole of lies.

> don't think everyone will be outraged at the idea that you are using AI to assist in writing your articles Lying about direct quotations is a fireable offense at any reputable journalistic outfit. Ars basically has to choose if it’s a glorified blog or real publication.

It's owned by Conde Nast. They know what they are.

Re: An AI agent published a hit piece on me – more things have happened

#80

Post by danso »

ddtaylor wrote: post #55
mermerico wrote: post #31

Looks like Ars is doing an investigation and will give an update on Tuesday https://arstechnica.com/civis/threads/um-what-happened-to-th...

They have an opportunity to do the right thing. I don't think everyone will be outraged at the idea that you are using AI to assist in writing your articles. I do think many will be outraged by trying to save such a small amount of face and digging yourself into a hole of lies.

This is not using AI to “assist in writing your articles”. This is using AI to report your articles, and then passing it off as your own research and analysis.

This is straight up plagiarism, and if the allegations are true, the reporters deserve what they would get if it were traditional plagiarism: immediate firings.

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