{"id":8090,"date":"2023-07-28T08:30:00","date_gmt":"2023-07-28T08:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nichetwins.com\/?p=8090"},"modified":"2023-08-01T15:33:41","modified_gmt":"2023-08-01T15:33:41","slug":"ai-chatbots-a-cautionary-tale","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nichetwins.com\/ai-chatbots-a-cautionary-tale\/","title":{"rendered":"#22 | AI Chatbots: A Cautionary Tale \ud83e\udd26\u200d\u2642\ufe0f"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Two weeks ago, my July 14th newsletter<\/a> was a Paul Graham love letter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I detailed how I\u2019ve been reading his personal essays for the past few months and how I\u2019ve been desperately trying to absorb his writing style.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the piece, I included 10 \u201cquotes\u201d by Graham on writing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Saturday, July 15th, was the first official day of a week long family vacation. I was vibing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was 7:45 am and I fired off a tweet thread with those same 10 quotes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Create once, publish everywhere\u2026right?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Within minutes a DM hit my inbox. It was from Paul Graham.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Was it really though? Probably an impersonator account. I quickly navigate to the account. Nope, it\u2019s actually him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For a split second I thought, \u201cI bet he\u2019s reaching out to let me know these are his favorite quotes too\u2026maybe we\u2019ll grab lunch sometime\u2026maybe he\u2019ll give me a pass into Y Combinator one day\u2026this is awesome<\/em>\u201d. \ud83e\udd23<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Instead he was reaching out to let me know I had fu*ked up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And soon his 1.7 million Twitter followers would hear all about it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here\u2019s what happened…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Here’s Graham’s initial DM:<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"Paul<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n
<\/div>\n\n\n\n

At first, I was surprised by how quickly he messaged me given the fact that I didn’t @ or tag him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then I realized, he must have an alert set for whenever his name is mentioned. Likely for this exact reason – fighting misinformation<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I immediately knew I had messed up and so I deleted the thread in real time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A few minutes later, Graham tweeted this out:<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"Paul<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n
<\/div>\n\n\n\n

He did me a kindness by not mentioning me directly, but remaining anonymous felt fraudulent.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

So I said screw it, and added this comment to Graham’s tweet:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

Feel I should own the fact that I am the guy Paul is referencing here. <\/em>\ud83e\udd26\u200d\u2642\ufe0f<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u200bAs some additional context, I\u2019ve been reading (and often rereading) Paul\u2019s essays for the past few months now.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u200bMore recently, I started saving some of my favorite quotes of his on the topic of writing.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u200bI had about 6 quotes saved, but my monkey brain told me 10 would be far more \u201cshareable\u201d.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u200bSo I headed over to Bard\u2026and did not source check what it spit out to me.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u200bRespect Paul\u2019s work immensely and I feel pretty stupid for the oversight and for misquoting him.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u200bRegrettable and absolutely lazy on my part.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u200bIf nothing else, hopefully a helpful reminder to others as these AI chat platforms grow in popularity\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

In the end I didn’t kill anyone. And it’s not like the quotes I inaccurately attributed to Graham were malicious or offense.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But I won’t lie, the whole thing left me feeling pretty shitty.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Partly because it was a poor and inaccurate reflection of the quality of my work. And partly because I genuinely admire and respect Graham and it was very likely the only exchange we will ever have.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

*My wife was quick to remind me that we would have likely had zero lifetime exchanges had I not f’d up (undoubtedly a better perspective).*<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A couple days later, a Senior Product Manager from Google Bard reached out. He was interested in reviewing the exact prompts I used, with the hopes of eliminating related issues in the future.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"Google<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n
<\/div>\n\n\n\n

The power of Twitter man – it never ceases to amaze me.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I titled this week’s newsletter “AI Chatbots: A Cautionary Tale” with equal parts tongue-in-cheek and sincerity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

AI chatbots like OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google’s Bard remain experimental. Both platforms clearly state on their respective landing pages that they will occasionally get things wrong.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But from my experience and from what I’ve observed, it’s pretty easy to forget that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Just ask Steven A. Schwartz, the lawyer who admitted in an affidavit<\/a> earlier this year that he used ChatGPT for his Colombian airline Avianca brief.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The result?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Schwartz submitted 6 judicial decisions that all turned out to be made up.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"Wolf<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n
<\/div>\n\n\n\n

How did Schwartz attempt to verify the sources of these 6 decisions?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He literally asked the chatbot if it was lying. ChatGPT insisted it was telling the truth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hey, no shade here. That’s one step further than I went!<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

To be clear, I feel strongly these tools can be extremely useful when used with an appropriate level of skepticism and scrutiny.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This experience has been a great reminder for me (and hopefully for you) to ruthlessly fact check and verify sources<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ok, that’s all for now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tonight I celebrate my beautiful wife’s birthday (Happy Birthday Chelsea!!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Until next week… \u270c\ufe0f<\/p>\n\n\n\n

*No, I did not for one second consider referring to Twitter as “X”. Don’t @ me*<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

-Keith<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
\n\n\n
\n
\"mike<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

Niche Twins newsletter sent weekly on Fridays at 8:30 AM ET<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n