$800 to Bully an AI

0:00Spring is here, and the shopping list is long. Time to make a lows run. Buy three bags, get three free of stay green, one cubic foot garden soil. Plus, right now, members can earn four times the points on an eligible purchase. Start spring off strong with these deals and more. Our best lineup is here at Loads. Valid for $3.25, while supplies last. Soil offer excludes a last-gen Hawaii, loyalty program subject to terms and conditions. See Loads.com slash terms for details. Subject to change, point booster subject to exclusions, and more terms apply. Time will be offered. President Barack Obama. Virginia, we are counting on you. Republicans want to steal enough seats in Congress to raid the next election and wield unchecked power for two more years. But you can stop them by voting yes by April 21st. Help put our elections back on a level playing field and let voters decide not politicians. Vote yes by April 21st. Payed for by Virginians for fair elections.

1:07Broadcasting from the neutral zone, where every perspective gets diplomatic immunity. This is The Last Show with David Cooper. A start-up is offering someone $800 to bully an AI for a day. Eight hours of roasting chatbots that forget what you just told them. Finally, a job where yelling at technology is not a sign that you're having a breakdown. No, it's all a day's work. I'm here with Anna Olchek, who's recently reported on this. She's a leadership and workplace reporter at Business Insider, Anna. Welcome to the show. Thanks for having me. So first off, how does this idea even occur to a business? Like that they want to pay someone to be cruel to an AI for a day? Yeah, it's definitely a niche job posting. So the reason it came about is because the company, it's a start-up. It's called MemBid and it's actually focused on creating an AI memory tool to help improve

2:10chatbots. Remember things. So the idea behind this job listing is that someone is going to be using chatbots all day record their experience and ask the LLM's questions and then kind of get it wrong and then yell at it or bully it and try and get it right again. And the idea is that they'll then use this video as some kind of promotion to show that AI is not that good at remembering things and their product can help improve that. Okay. So it's not some like secret scientists thinking, oh, if only we're cruel to AI's, they'll be better at remembering things. It's more a marketing stunt or something like this. Correct. Yeah, it's a marketing tool. I assume the idea is that it will go viral or something along those lines. Although if you do get the job, you do get to put a label on your resume or a line on them on your resume that says professional AI bully. This is a great marketing stunt. It's so easy to get upset at AI companies these days. Is this just something we're hoping to feel good about a company and potentially its new

3:11product? Yeah, I think so many people get frustrated and so this company is definitely playing on that and hoping to capitalize on people's frustrations, obviously. But yeah, in an age where we're all using AI, we all get frustrated with it. We're all getting told to use it all the time. This is kind of like a lighthearted way to show that it's not perfect. There's still a lot of issues with it. And obviously this company wants to sell its product, which is supposed to improve those issues. So let's let's have fun with this for a second. What would bullying AI actually look like in practice? Are we talking rude sarcasm like relentless follow-up questions? Do I just repeat myself like, what would I do to bully an AI? What would you do? What would I do? That's a great question. I mean, I think we've all been annoyed at AI before whether you're using it for work or personal use like as your therapist or just to kind of go through like talking points with it. It definitely has memory issues at times or maybe it's just getting something wrong. It's hallucinating. And so I think people do get frustrated. I've personally heard a lot about whether or not we're supposed to yell at AI or like

4:13show that we're getting annoyed at it. So this is kind of a fun way to let loose and not be wondering about the moral implications of it. But yeah, I assume people curse at AI or tell it, no, you're getting it wrong. They probably wouldn't be talking to it, then why they talk to an actual human in person. So I'm sure it varies for each person. I haven't gone crazy on an AI agent yet, but I assume a lot. A lot of people have or want to. So yeah, I think the spectrum is probably pretty broad. I've seen the Terminator movie series. I don't want to get on their bad side. But okay, let's get a little serious here. This holy grail of AI memory. To current products, I'm thinking like Claude or Chatchee BT, do they get this wrong? Is there room for growth here? Is there like room for AI tools that really have a good idea and remember who we are, what we said, the context of what we're saying. And throughout complicated chat sessions, complicated questions. Yeah, so I think this startups specifically, it creates an add-on tool so that you can

5:13attach it to any LLLA model that you're using. I think that there are definitely memory issues with AI tools. If you've used any, then you know that it gets stuff wrong. Not all the time, but definitely sometimes it's getting better and better. But I think that the memory issue, the hallucination issue, the inaccuracy issue is still very much a thing, and it's not perfect, but the technology is definitely getting better every day. So, who's to say this will be an issue in six months from now, a year from now, but it definitely is still something that I think people have to be wary of when they're using these tools. So if I ask Chatchee BT for a recipe, I say there's no garlic in my pantry, and then like 10 prompts later, it's saying a recipe suggesting garlic. It's annoying, but it's fine. But when we talk about healthcare, okay, you've read my chart now. I'm asking you complicated questions about my medical current diagnosis. You need to account for my history. This seems like an important thing for tools that could be in things that involve people's health in other areas.

6:14This seems like an important thing that I'm surprised we don't have nailed down right now. I would agree with that. I think that's the founder actually told me that that's why this tool came about for him and his co-founder. They were basically trying to create an AI healthcare tool, and they were finding that it wasn't remembering things properly, and so that's why they ended up creating this add-on or extension memory tool for AI, because it was such an issue. So yeah, I think when you're dealing with things like finance or healthcare, things like that, really data, heavy sectors, you want it to be 100% accurate, you want it to remember what you said, and so it very much is still an issue, but the models that the companies are working on getting the models better. So we'll have to wait and see when it gets fully corrected, but obviously no technology is perfect. I mean, even using Google today isn't 100% perfect, so to be determined. TBD. Okay, we've done enough serious stuff, I think, for this interview to at least be considered slightly educational.

7:14Let's get back to this job application. 800 bucks a day to bully an AI. How can I sign up? I want this job. I want that money. Basically, anyone can sign up. I believe it was 18 and older, was the main requirement, and someone who has actually used these tools, someone who was willing to be recorded, but in terms of the actual skills needed, you don't need a computer science degree, experience working in AI or anything like that. You really just have to fill out this application, talk about your personal history of being let down by technology, and explain why you want to work there. So yeah, as long as you fill out that application, and I think they're looking for someone who's particularly frustrated or who might be especially animated while they're doing this job. I've actually, since writing this article, I've had people reach out to me and ask if they can get the job, so I think it definitely is striking a chord with some people. I'm sure they want to get someone who is going to be extra frustrated so that they can

8:14really highlight this issue. And after it's done, I suppose we'll get to see videos of it. What do you think we'll learn? Or is this really just like I said earlier, a marketing stunt? We're not actually going to learn anything from abusing an AI for eight hours. I mean, I don't, maybe we will learn something. I think it, most people aren't using AI straight for eight hours, you know, talking to a chat thought, or maybe they are, but not in this exercise specifically. So I think the idea is to really test it's memory for eight hours. So maybe we will learn something from it. I think the company is kind of doing this as a test, and it'll see if they want to try this promotional stunt again, but they're not, they're not having someone fake it. Like it's not, no one's acting for this. It is supposed to be real. The founder told me. So I think there's a chance that we'll actually see like how, how about the memory is. If that's really the case, but I do think at the end of the day, it is, you know, the ideas for them to go viral over this. So we'll see how good the video ends up being and how do you see it is?

9:15I guess behind the scenes of someone yelling at AI. Well, you can find leadership and workplace reporter at Business Insider. Anna Allchik's article on this subject. It's titled this company wants to pay you $800 to bully an AI for a day. You can read that in Business Insider. Anna, it's been a joy chatting with you. Thanks for being on the show. Thanks so much for having me. This episode is brought to you by Athletic Brewing Company. No matter how you do game day, on the couch, in the crowd, or manning the snack table, Athletic Brewing fits right in. With a full lineup of non-alcoholic beer styles, you can enjoy bold flavors all game long. No hangovers, no buzz, no subbing out for water in the second half. Stuck the fridge for tip-off with a variety of non-alcoholic craft styles available at your local grocery store or online at AthleticBruing.com near beer, fit for all times.