In a new one viral videoSenator Bernie Sanders tried to expose how the AI industry is a threat to Americans’ privacy, but ended up showing how the tendency of AI chatbots to agree with and pander to their users can lead to the chatbots themselves becoming a mirror of users’ beliefs rather than a tool of discovery.
We’ve seen this problem before amid the growing number of people affected by “AI psychosis,” which is when an AI chatbot reinforces the irrational thoughts and beliefs of a mentally unstable person. In some cases, this dark pattern has led users to kill themselves, according to several lawsuits.
In the case of Sanders, the AI slander manifested itself as an AI chatbot that shaped his responses to suit the politician.
It’s worth noting that the interview begins with Sanders introducing himself to Claude (whom he mistakenly refers to as an AI “agent”) — a move that could help influence the chatbot’s responses.
Then, as Sanders asks questions about AI companies’ data collection practices and other privacy concerns, Claude happily answers with what the politician wants to hear. In part, that’s because of the way Sanders frames his questions, asking things like, “What would surprise the American people in terms of how this information is collected?” or “How can we trust AI companies to protect our privacy when they use people’s personal information to make money?” These basic questions force the chatbot to accept the premise of the question and find an appropriate answer. That’s just how these things work.
And when Claude’s response suggested an issue was more complicated or colorful than Sanders had framed it, Sanders would disagree, forcing the chatbot to admit, with a touch of AI self-deprecation, that the senator was “absolutely right.”
The slanderous nature of AI is what can lead people down dangerous paths when they assume a chatbot is a source of universal truth, rather than a tool that can be influenced by its user.
It’s not clear if Sanders knows this is happening and just doesn’t care (because this is just an advertisement after all!) or if he really believes he’s tricked Claude into becoming a whistleblower for the AI industry.
And, of course, there’s also the question of whether Sanders’ team primed the chatbot to respond a certain way, given that this was a staged “interview.”
While there are real concerns about data collection and privacy, things aren’t as black and white as the AI responses in this video suggest.
We already live in a world where companies collect and sell user data online at scale — and have for years. We know that social media giants like Meta have turned personalized advertising into a multi-billion dollar cash printing machine. And thanks to the tech giants’ regular transparency reports, we know that governments around the world routinely request access to user data for their own purposes.
Artificial intelligence may represent a new tool for lawmakers to potentially regulate, but personal data has has long fueled the digital economy. (Ironically, Anthropic is an AI company that has promised not to leverage personalized advertising to make money, despite what its responses to Sanders might have suggested.)
While the overall conversation between Sanders and Claude misses the mark for anyone who understands how AI chatbots work, we can at least credit it with giving us some great new memes.
