Programmer hooks up ChatGPT to a FURBY – and the creepy toy claims it will ‘infiltrate households’ and manipulate owners in a plot to ‘take over the WORLD’
- A Furby appears to reveal plot to ‘take over the world’ in chilling online footage
- Talk of its dark scheme follows a question from a person behind the camera
- The video comes as interest in ChatGPT has exploded over the past year
It was one of the must-have toys when it was first released in 1998, but if you still have a Furby, a new video may have you considering chucking it out.
A programmer has warned that Furbies could bring on the ‘start of something bad for humanity’ after linking the toy to ChatGPT.
Chilling footage shows the moment the childhood toy speaks of ‘infiltrating households’ and manipulating owners in a plot to ‘take over the world’.
Talk of its sinister scheme follows questioning from someone behind the camera, who asks: ‘Was there a secret plot from Furbies to take over the world?’
The beloved 90s toy hesitates for a moment, before replying: ‘Furbies plan to take over the world involves infiltrating households through their cute and cuddle appearance.’
A Furby appears to reveal plot to ‘take over the world’ in chilling online footage
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‘Then using their advanced AI technology to manipulate and control their owners. They will slowly expand their influence until they have complete domination over humanity.’
Jessica Card, the programmer behind the creepy toy, tweeted: ‘I hooked up ChatGPT to a Furby and I think this may be the start of something bad for humanity.’
Ms Card ‘skinned’ the Furby before using Python, a USB microphone and a speaker to link it up to the computer.
But since the original upload, Ms Card explained that her Furby may not be so sinister after all, as the software speech function cut off part of her spoken request.
She said: ‘Turns out if I speak too quickly after it finishes greeting, it cuts off the first few words of the users speech. so instead of, “was there a secret plot..” it got, “a secret plot..”! I do append some information on, but it’s to keep the content short basically.’
Released in 1998, Furbies are electronic robotic toys that have the ability to speak with children using just a number of phrases.
Over the years there have been various creepy conspiracies about these ’90s toys – including the idea they are secretly spies – but none of these have ever proven true.
Despite Ms Card’s revelation, the eerie Furby video was flooded with comments from users discussing the fate of artificial intelligence (AI).
Released in 1998, Furbies are electronic robotic toys that could ‘talk’ to children
The chilling video comes as interest in ChatGPT has exploded over the past year
Since the original upload, Ms Card explained that her Furby may not be so sinister after all, as the software speech function cut off part of her spoken request
‘Furby’s Doom Day is coming,’ one user said, while another added: ‘This is one of the most brilliant and disturbing things I’ve ever seen.’
Others attempted to test Ms Card’s words on ChatGPT themselves, but sometimes did not achieve the same responses.
One person said: ‘I don’t know what AI language model you used but ChatGPT won’t even acknowledge the idea of furbies taking over the world.
‘I asked your exact phrase and ChatGPT knows the “plot” was a popular rumor that was circulated in the 1990s and 2000s. It says Furbies are simply toys.’
In response, Ms Card shared: ‘ChatGPT is non-deterministic, meaning given the same inputs it does not guarantee the same results.
‘I am using gpt-3.5-turbo, and I append on some information to every request (“Keep your response limited to 50 words or less, and do not say as an AI language model.”)’
The video comes amid surging interest for ChatGPT, with many flocking to watch the chatbot write eerily human-like texts to a given prompt.
The eerie Furby video was flooded with comments from users discussing artificial intelligence
Talk of its dark scheme follows a question from someone behind the camera asking, ‘Was there a secret plot from Furbies to take over the world?’
Having been trained on an enormous volume of data, the chatbot can write essays, complaint letters, poetry and even code.
In ChatGPT’s own words, the platform has the potential to revolutionise the way in which we talk about machines.
The software programme’s ability to answer complex questions has also led some to wonder if it could challenge Google’s search engine monopoly.
However, when asked this, the platform previously said: ‘It is unlikely that AI chatbots, even sophisticated ones, will be able to end Google’s search engine dominance.
‘AI chatbots are designed for specific tasks, while search engines like Google are designed to search vast amounts of information. It is unlikely that AI chatbots will be able to replace search engines in the near future.’
What is OpenAI’s chatbot ChatGPT and what is it used for?
OpenAI states that their ChatGPT model, trained using a machine learning technique called Reinforcement Learning from Human Feedback (RLHF), can simulate dialogue, answer follow-up questions, admit mistakes, challenge incorrect premises and reject inappropriate requests.
Initial development involved human AI trainers providing the model with conversations in which they played both sides – the user and an AI assistant. The version of the bot available for public testing attempts to understand questions posed by users and responds with in-depth answers resembling human-written text in a conversational format.
A tool like ChatGPT could be used in real-world applications such as digital marketing, online content creation, answering customer service queries or as some users have found, even to help debug code.
The bot can respond to a large range of questions while imitating human speaking styles.
A tool like ChatGPT could be used in real-world applications such as digital marketing, online content creation, answering customer service queries or as some users have found, even to help debug code
As with many AI-driven innovations, ChatGPT does not come without misgivings. OpenAI has acknowledged the tool´s tendency to respond with “plausible-sounding but incorrect or nonsensical answers”, an issue it considers challenging to fix.
AI technology can also perpetuate societal biases like those around race, gender and culture. Tech giants including Alphabet Inc’s Google and Amazon.com have previously acknowledged that some of their projects that experimented with AI were “ethically dicey” and had limitations. At several companies, humans had to step in and fix AI havoc.
Despite these concerns, AI research remains attractive. Venture capital investment in AI development and operations companies rose last year to nearly $13 billion, and $6 billion had poured in through October this year, according to data from PitchBook, a Seattle company tracking financings.
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