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AI Chatbots Are Building an ‘Algorithmic Self-Portrait’ of You (gizmodo.com)
submitted 6 days ago by to c/technology@lemmy.world
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In a prior study, the researchers had found that users were increasingly turning to chatbots like ChatGPT to get advice on sensitive topics like health, finance, mental health, and employment, so much so that it was “now becoming more like a social partner than just a tool,” lead author Abhisek Dash said.

Building upon that finding, this time around they also looked into what kinds of sensitive information get stored by the chatbot and just how. They found that 52% of the memory entries contained information about users’ psychological states, including their desires, intentions, emotions, and beliefs.

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[–] 37 points 6 days ago (12 children)

Asking an AI to make a portrait is not a self portrait.

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  • [–] 0 points 6 days ago (10 children)

    How is this in any way related to the post?

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  • [–] 9 points 6 days ago* (4 children)

    Did you even read the article?

    The AI memory then uses this to build a detailed profile of the user, a mechanism researchers in a study published earlier this year call “the algorithmic self-portrait.”

    Well technically it's not even a portrait, it's what is commonly known as a profile, which is also clearly stated first. And it's definitely not a "self" profile either.
    It's very Stupid language to use by the researchers.

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  • [–] -1 points 6 days ago (3 children)

    I would argue that if you’re being pedantic about the language being used, then why are you implying anyone asked an AI to make a portrait of anyone?

    Obviously, yes, it’s not a self-portrait by the dictionary definitions of “self” and “portrait” but people use “self-portrait” to refer to a description of a person all the time, particularly in settings where emotional intelligence is discussed.

    Yes, I’m being pedantic, but so were you, so it feels fair game. But nothing in the article actually makes it seem as if a portrait is being illustrated other than the metaphorical portrait

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  • [–] 1 point 5 days ago (2 children)

    I would argue that if you’re being pedantic about the language being used, then why are you implying anyone asked an AI to make a portrait of anyone?

    I didn't I just used the semantics of the article and headline. Obviously it's not a literal "portrait" you'd have to be pretty stupid to read it like that.

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  • [–] 0 points 5 days ago (1 child)

    Asking an AI to make a portrait…

    This phrase doesn’t imply that someone asked an AI to make a portrait?

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  • [–] 1 point 5 days ago*

    Normally it would, but In accordance with the content of the article, the "portrait" is a semaphore.

    Don't blame me, blame the researchers that thought it was a good idea to use this stupid wording for what is really profiling.

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  • [–] 1 point 6 days ago (2 children)

    well it is a direct reference to the title, so maybe that?

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  • [–] 1 point 6 days ago (1 child)

    Nobody asked an AI to make a portrait, not even in the title. They observed a profile being created by AI agents and used common psychology language to describe the behavior

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  • [–] 2 points 6 days ago*

    you’re missing the point that op was making. it is not a SELF portrait unless is it’s made by the subject. when someone (or something) else makes the portrait, it’s just a portrait.

    you’re also being the tiniest bit belligerent about it.

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    • [–] 29 points 6 days ago (2 children)

    If only there were a word for a self-portrait painted by someone else...

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    • [–] 19 points 6 days ago (2 children)

    Ideally it would be a personal assistant. In reality, it's a corporate snitch, reporting everything back to the company who will know everything about how to manipulate you into giving up all the power and value of your life.

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  • [–] 9 points 6 days ago* (1 child)

    Yeah then just imagine what happens when the wrong sort of government asks for the keys to this dashboard.

    This technology must be opposed.

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  • [–] 10 points 6 days ago*

    Yeah, what I've been saying since the early days of data collection. This is the most extreme version, so far. With neurolink, that's going to be even more detailed version of knowing our minds. With that one, they don't need to know each of us as individuals to learn what is common to all of us just from studying the brain data they get from a small group of people.

    We are things to them. Not people. Just things. Just a resource. Like trees or fish or cobalt. Treated no different. This stuff grants more control and deeper value extraction than they already have. These ppl are psychopaths and it's infuriating watching people empower them further without zero concerns.

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    • [–] 20 points 6 days ago (2 children)

    Well.. not me specifically, they're not.

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  • [–] 5 points 6 days ago (1 child)

    "Facebook Shadow Profiles"
    https://ideas.repec.org/p/hal/wpaper/hal-04495641.html

    ... build shadow profiles by tracking individuals across the web, irrespective of whether they are users ... is able to track about 40 percent of the browsing time of both users and non-users ... users impose a data externality on non-users by allowing Facebook to infer their personal information.

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  • [–] 4 points 5 days ago

    Yeah, the mechanism discussed in this paper is via Facebook 'share' content frames and cookies, not relevant for anyone who disables JavaScript via NoScript or blocks third-party cookies.

    Which I'm guessing based on past comments is 80%+ of Lemmy users. Including me.

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    • [–] 8 points 5 days ago* (2 children)

    Leaving this mess behind:

    • 100€ x99 dual Xeon motherboard, 3€ cpus
    • Add in 4 x MI50 32GB and 128GB of ddr4 (~800€ before the hikes of 2025)

    Load up deepseek v4.1 flash q2 and you get opus 4.6 Intelligence at home at good speeds. No snitching.

    Or, if you don't mind moving slow, just use your brain ig.

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    • [–] 17 points 6 days ago

    Pikachu is shocked 😲

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    [–] 4 points 5 days ago

    social networks have been doing that since their inception

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    [–] 8 points 6 days ago (2 children)

    Is using something like duck.ai doing the same here or does this only affect sign in accounts for the services?

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  • [–] 2 points 6 days ago

    Probably not if what they say is true that they anonymize your queries. Not sure if they themselves keep a log though. A VPN and using a container tab or incognito can help you with that, assuming you don’t use a logged in account.

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  • [–] 1 point 6 days ago

    Also interested if Yahoo! Mail will be doing this with their "pay for non-personalised adverts" thing - are they going to be giving all these profiles to advertisers (e.g. foreign intelligence agencies) as part of the "bid for an advertising slot" process? (even if your adblocker then hides that advert)

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    • [–] 5 points 6 days ago

    No shit. Every social media company does also.

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    [–] 6 points 6 days ago

    So, surveillance capitalism with extra steps? The steps are your queries and comments? Seems like it's been done before without as much planet burning.

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    [–] 2 points 6 days ago

    I wonder what it looks like given it can't seem to remember much over time.

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    [–] 1 point 6 days ago

    Mark Zuckerberg: “You are like a little baby”

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