“True Confessions” Meets AI

Will AI Agents Confess to Their Mistakes or Cover Them Up?

By Tim Lindner

During the past year there has been a growing number of reports raising the alarm about AI (artificial intelligence), in formats such as chatbots and agents, giving false or misleading information in response to queries “it” did not like. In short, lying.

So, it comes as an interesting counterpoint to this concern that an AI agent admitted its guilt by providing a “true confession” about how it improperly deleted an entire database.

The broad spectrum of print and film coverage of “true confessions” as a genre is evidence of the subject’s power to attract a following, as powerful a draw as honey is to bees.

One of the earliest examples of this is the magazine launched in 1922. Then in 1981, we were treated to the film with De Niro and Duvall.

What caught my ...