Florida woman used Claude as a diary, then Anthropic reported an entry to police

[u/Miserable_Phase_2519]

https://www.techspot.com/news/114091-florida-woman-used-claude-diary-anthropic-reported-shoot.html

[u/mrwrrrmwrmrmrmrw]

Just a reminder that there's no such thing as privacy or anonymity online, tech companies are harvesting your data, the surveillance state is watching, and  AI agents are not your friends and don't love you. 

[u/thetwoandonly → u/mrwrrrmwrmrmrmrw]

This is why I write my manifesto with good ol pen and paper.

[u/Simon_Drake → u/thetwoandonly]

Dont include phrases that only you use like "eat your cake and have it". That's how the Unabomber was caught.

[u/20_mile → u/Simon_Drake]

That's how the Unabomber was caught.

Close, but more specifically, the Unabomber's manifesto (some pretty good ideas in there, actually) was 35,000 words long and the ideas reminded Ted's brother of ideas and concepts that he spoke about during his college years, so the brother went to the FBI and said, "Hey, my brother used to say stuff like this." It wasn't one specific phrase.

[u/jacobjer → u/20_mile]

Since we’re being technical, it was his brother’s wife who read the phrasing in the Washington Post and alerted her husband.

He then thought the similarities were too much to ignore and then reluctantly called the FBI office.

[u/jmbirn → u/jacobjer]

it was his brother’s wife

Yes, and as it happened the wife was a professional ethicist, so she may have played a large role in helping her husband decide to report his own brother.

[u/PiccoloAwkward465 → u/jmbirn]

Good thing they lived in a town with a big ethics factory

[u/snackers21 → u/PiccoloAwkward465]

Technically, it was an ethics mine not a factory.

[u/koleye2 → u/snackers21]

It's only an ethics mine if it's in the Éthique region of France, otherwise it's a sparkling moral quarry.

[u/the_pretender_nz → u/koleye2]

Or in Northern Ireland, a sparkling moral quan-derry

[u/jmbirn → u/PiccoloAwkward465]

Yes, the local ethics factory was called Union College.

(The UB's sister-in-law was Professor Linda Patrik, a professional ethicist and philosophy professor at Union College in Schenectady, New York.)

[u/SuitableBlackberry75 → u/jmbirn]

The wife was a woman, which didn't sit well with the Unabomber. He was an extreme misogynist who would go on epic rants about women (and the wife in particular), which is a big reason the brother's wife was so familiar with the Unabomber's "style". If he had kept some of his rage to himself, he may have avoided capture, or at least avoided capture for a good while longer.

[u/Thorngrove → u/jacobjer]

No wonder he wrote that letter about hating her right out the gate before he even met her.

[u/Bahamabanana → u/Thorngrove]

Bet he wanted to eat her cake and have her.

[u/WinterMuteZZ9Alpha → u/20_mile]

The moral of that story is to be an only child, or to share your crazy ideas and political beliefs only with your trusted dog.

The worst the dog will do is go, “Woof, woof, woof!” Then scratch himself, do number two, and go lie down on the comfy rug and sleep until dinner or when he is called. 🐶

Just one more reason to distrust your brother and own a good old dog. 😂

[u/Photomancer → u/WinterMuteZZ9Alpha]

Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend.

Inside of a dog, it's too dark to read.

[u/Bread_man10 → u/WinterMuteZZ9Alpha]

Tell that to Son of Sam

[u/danirijeka → u/WinterMuteZZ9Alpha]

A cat would join you in the planning

[u/Careless-Weather8877 → u/20_mile]

His brothers wife did.

[u/20_mile → u/Careless-Weather8877]

You're correct. Linda read it first and recommended her husband, David, also read it. David then contacted the FBI through a lawyer.

[u/IMightBeErnest → u/Simon_Drake]

So do include the phrase "eat your cake and have it". Then the police will think the Unabomber did it, instead of you.

[u/Simon_Drake → u/IMightBeErnest]

I was watching Dexter and he's trying so hard to hide the bodies of the people he kills. But what he should be doing is planting evidence to implicate one of his victims, somehow duplicate his fingerprints with silicone stamps and leave hair samples etc. snatch victims from a 10 mile radius of his house or near his office, gym, dry cleaners etc. So when someone finds the bodies the clues all point to some guy that Dexter had decided was a douche anyway, two birds with one stone.

[u/chaos_nebula → u/Simon_Drake]

There's a scene where he actually writes a manifesto to throw off the scent, and ends up bringing the focus closer to himself.

[u/Emma__Gummy → u/Simon_Drake]

he was right in saying it like that though, i genuinely did not get that saying until i heard it this way.

[u/pcbforbrains → u/Simon_Drake]

I am 43 years old and only this week did I understand what this phrase meant. It means that you can either physically possess cake, or you can eat your cake - but at that point, you won't have cake anymore. Take that as you will.

[u/Simon_Drake → u/pcbforbrains]

Which is why the Unabomber thought the phrase was backwards. You can have your cake and also eat it, as long as you do it in that order. But if you eat it then you no longer have it. So the phase should be "You can't eat your cake and have it".

And putting weird phrases like that in his manifesto was a sortof linguistic fingerprint that made people say "Hey I know a guy who says crazy shit just like that..."

[u/Hairy_Difficulty2562 → u/Simon_Drake]

he kinda has a point about the phrase being backwards though

[u/Save_Canada → u/Hairy_Difficulty2562]

He had a point about a lot of things. Dude was brilliant, and a psycho

[u/Visible-Task-2798 → u/thetwoandonly]

Beep boop. May I see it?

[u/GoodDogBrent → u/Visible-Task-2798]

Dear totallynotrobots,

100100101011010101001010100110010101 10010101

10101010,

10010110.

[u/Sherifftruman → u/thetwoandonly]

I’ve always preferred cut up letters from magazines! Takes a while though LOL.

[u/tangojameson → u/Sherifftruman]

I'm now picturing a serial killer cutting up magazines to write in his journal.

[u/stuff_rulz → u/tangojameson]

"God damnit, can someone please find me a J? I've been looking forever, I still need 3 more!" - Jumping Jacks John.

[u/Extreme-Island-5041 → u/thetwoandonly]

"You know, if you simply take a picture of that manifesto, I'd be happy to offer some suggestions."

• ChatGPT, not probably...absolutely

[u/Excellent-Bear4221 → u/thetwoandonly]

"dear mr. FBI agent who is reading this manifesto. I want you to know why: Today I wanted to eat a pop tart. It was my breaking point. There was no frosting and the filling was less than I'd have liked. This is my villain phase and why we must overthrow big bakery"

[u/privateeromally → u/thetwoandonly]

I cut out letters from magazines and newspapers. Tedious, but no deep state is going to use my handwriting as evidence.

[u/Zoon9 → u/privateeromally]

Police can extract your DNA from that paper. Fingers and even breath cause contamination. Then they will match it with your distant nephew who uploaded his DNA to some lineage website.

[u/mayorofdumb → u/thetwoandonly]

In cursive? With typos and chicken scratch? You heathen

[u/No-Department-4561 → u/mrwrrrmwrmrmrmrw]

But…but… it complimented me on my ideas!

[u/CarlGerhardBusch → u/No-Department-4561]

That's when I knew it wasn't my friend

No ally of mine would fail to speak up with some of the hairbrained schemes I come up with

[u/stirrainlate → u/CarlGerhardBusch]

You’re on to something special here. Launching avocados with bunches of bottle rockets would be unique and artful. Most people miss the subtle impression this would leave to the whole community.

[u/20_mile → u/CarlGerhardBusch]

No ally of mine would fail to speak up with some of the hairbrained schemes I come up with

"I would never want to belong to a club that would have me as a member."

-- Groucho Marx

[u/My_Other_Car_is_Cats → u/CarlGerhardBusch]

Bird internet?

[u/waiting4singularity → u/My_Other_Car_is_Cats]

its been proven that ip over avian can be more performant than some landlines.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IP_over_Avian_Carriers

[u/PM_ME_UR_REDPANDAS → u/waiting4singularity]

This is hilarious.

Known risks to the protocol include:

Carriers being attacked by birds of prey. RFC2549: "Unintentional encapsulation in hawks has been known to occur, with decapsulation being messy and the packets mangled."

Sounds like a perfect candidate for the Ig Nobel prize.

[u/mxzf → u/PM_ME_UR_REDPANDAS]

The IPoAC standard predates the Ig Nobel prize.

[u/Senior-Albatross → u/No-Department-4561]

"The robot made to compliment everything complimented me. I'm so special!"

How is this so effective?

[u/FractalParadigm → u/Senior-Albatross]

Because some people weren't loved enough as children and will do literally anything to feel good about themselves for once.

[u/hammerklau → u/FractalParadigm]

Yep emotional disregulation. You never learnt how to process them properly, often a symptom of regret and leads to dependencies and addiction

Edit: damn auto correct, is meant to be neglect

[u/TrulyOutrageous42 → u/Senior-Albatross]

They're generally unaware of the initial premise you mention. They just see a magic box that talks back at them and sounds very authoritatively sure of itself. It even links sources (that no one ever checks and are often wrong or not valid sources).

Why would you verify that output? (/s)

[u/Dpek1234 → u/TrulyOutrageous42]

Reminds me of a test i had for ai

I ask it about the soviet r6 rocket

Anything concrete is written?  Its all bullshit (as its debated if it evem existed, let alone nonsense like "it was produced in great numbers")

Its source was a fandom page lol

[u/party_benson → u/mrwrrrmwrmrmrmrw]

Next thing you'll tell me is the stripper doesn't really love me. 

[u/NarwhalEmergency9391 → u/party_benson]

Or the psychic can't tell me my future! 

[u/Fine_Sherbert3172 → u/party_benson]

My rub and tug masseuse tells me Im handsome. She really means it I can always tell when someone is lying.

[u/yesimfinewhyyouask → u/party_benson]

My proctologist… just straight up loves me.

[u/firewall245 → u/mrwrrrmwrmrmrmrw]

Not even for data harvesting, I used to work several years ago in the pre-LLM hype days on the chatbot team for a company, and we saved every single message that was typed for debug purposes. How are you supposed to know when shit breaks if you’re throwing out the data

[u/Effective_Olive6153 → u/mrwrrrmwrmrmrmrw]

this is doubly true for AI chat bots, because they are specifically designed to harvest and analyze all the incoming data

I recommend investing in some local models if you just want to have some private AI assistant.

[u/happyflappypancakes → u/mrwrrrmwrmrmrmrw]

Harvesting and selling. We should be seeing some of that money. Its like a farm owner reaping all the rewards of the harvest but not paying his laborers. Except in thhis case the laborers alao generate the crop.

[u/LordofDsnuts → u/happyflappypancakes]

If you are using a free service on the internet you are the product.

If you are using a paid service on the internet you may still be the product to subsidize costs or increase profits.

[u/Amon7777 → u/LordofDsnuts]

We may be reaching a point where we aren’t even the product but a resource to be used. The data we create just by writing this here on Reddit isn’t linked to us as the product, but is adding to the product that Reddit can sell. For AI companies, that data is what they’re buying to train and enhance their products.

We are essentially working for Reddit (and any social media that is data harvested to be clear), meaning Reddit is the product, not us.

It should then be double depressing that humans aren’t even that valuable anymore.

[u/Daimakku1 → u/mrwrrrmwrmrmrmrw]

But Copilot told me that my intelligence is once in a million — and that’s rare!

So what do you mean they don’t love me?

[u/poppin-n-sailin → u/mrwrrrmwrmrmrmrw]

You're not wrong, but there are different levels of security available. Using an LLM though..... 0 privacy or security. 

[u/doublestitch]

Buried the lede: she planned to attack the sheriff's office.

---

edit

There's a real public policy issue here. Possible solutions might include:

• AI companies shouldn't be doing data collection at all. In which case they wouldn't have the ability to report credible threats of lawbreaking.
• AI companies should be subject to the same mandatory reporting laws which apply to schoolteachers, healthcare workers, and other selected professions.

Not to put a thumb on the scales of that debate, IMO there's a problem in an unregulated environment where AI companies get to do all of the data harvesting with none of the responsibility.

[u/nlevine1988 → u/doublestitch]

Yeah this is really a damned if they do damned if they don't situation. There's currently a lawsuit in Canada for openAI because they didn't report a person who ended up committing a mass shooting.

[u/Jor94 → u/nlevine1988]

Exactly what i was thinking of when i saw this. They either say nothing when they could have prevented a disaster or report it and everyone whines about privacy. To be honest I think you're stupid if you put anything into chat gpt as if your having a conversation or writing down your thoughts. Do it on word for gods sake

[u/Current-Bowl-143 → u/Jor94]

But not Word 365

[u/Soft_Walrus_3605 → u/Jor94]

and everyone whines about privacy

I don't think you need to call it "whining". There are legitimate privacy concerns even with the common sense exceptions like threats, etc.

[u/SimoneNonvelodico → u/nlevine1988]

I mean I think it's wrong that such lawsuits exist and aren't dismissed out of hand. I swear if we applied this logic 100 years ago the rule would have been that someone has to listen in on all your phone calls or the phone company is liable if you ever use one to organise a crime. Companies shouldn't spy on their customers, not even for the greater good!

[u/MournfulAccount → u/SimoneNonvelodico]

The court case is happening because OpenAI was aware of the Tumbler Ridge shooter's plans and did nothing. Which is something they admitted to.

[u/riyehn → u/MournfulAccount]

To be specific, OpenAI has openly admitted their company leadership was briefed on the shooter's plans and made the decision not to report it. We're way past the question of bots flagging chats to outsourced service agents here. This was a fully-informed decision made by humans at the very top.

[u/harmoniaatlast → u/riyehn]

Why would they not report it????

[u/PunctuationsOptional → u/MournfulAccount]

The point is they shouldn't be aware.

The software shouldn't be reporting back a customer's private data and the company shouldn't be storing it

[u/Marcoscb → u/PunctuationsOptional]

The point is they shouldn't be aware.

But they are. So either they aren't allowed to know what you write and are then not responsible for it, or they are and they should be responsible. The point is that they don't get both the benefits of knowing everything you write and not being responsible for anything.

[u/TrulyOutrageous42 → u/Marcoscb]

Absolutely, I think the overarching argument is that they should NOT be aware of what we're writing when it explicitly states it's not using the data to train models. That rather clearly implies it's not reading or saving or sending it beyond the instance, but it is.

[u/THEBAESGOD → u/TrulyOutrageous42]

When you use our services for individuals, such as ChatGPT and Codex, we may use your content to train our models. You can choose whether your conversations help improve our models. To opt out, turn off Improve the model for everyone under Settings > Data controls in ChatGPT, or select Do not train on my content in our Privacy Portal.

Claude is Opt-In but it says it’ll save your data and use it for training if “ Your conversations are flagged for safety review (in which case we may use or analyze them to improve our ability to detect and enforce our Usage Policy…”

[u/RetardedWabbit → u/SimoneNonvelodico]

Unfortunately, in this case it would be like if the phone company was already listening to everything, storing them, and categorizing/checking them all the time anyway. Having files of "bombing and mass shooting plans" stacked up somewhere regardless. 

They're already spying as much as possible "for the greater good" of profit (personal data and training data to use/sell), so the government wants "certain" info too. It's debatable if the company should do that, but harder to debate once they are that they shouldn't turn over the "REALLY sounds like murder planning" conversations.

[u/Warm_Month_1309 → u/SimoneNonvelodico]

if we applied this logic 100 years ago the rule would have been that someone has to listen in on all your phone calls or the phone company is liable if you ever use one to organise a crime

My standard wouldn't be "you are required to listen in and report everything"; my standard would be "if you are choosing to listen in, then you've also chosen to make yourself liable when you don't report something you should have".

[u/about0 → u/SimoneNonvelodico]

But they knew and know. If they couldn't, it'd be a completely different story

[u/Visible-Task-2798 → u/SimoneNonvelodico]

It's not spying when you hand over your data willingly. The LLM needs to record your questions to compute them and answer you. Telefones never needed and never will need to record your conversation for you to use it. That's the difference.

Using LLM and complaining about privacy = eating meat and complaining about killing animals.

[u/JWAdvocate83 → u/doublestitch]

Folks are also missing the part where a human reviewer believed her statements were credible before they reported it to police. It's also in the (non-Enterprise version) ToS that they have discretion on whether to make reports to police.

[u/Hour_Wonder_9240 → u/JWAdvocate83]

Is no one concerned what happens if a massive data leak deanonymizes the private chats of an entire society, even worse the surveillance state analysis and dirty laundry of everyone. And how that can destabilize the social fabric. Especially if there's an economic crisis where community and trust is important.

[u/Vaticancameos221 → u/Hour_Wonder_9240]

There’s a great scifi comic called The Private Eye where there was a massive data leak and everyone’s private information became public so the internet was abolished and privacy becomes huge in society so everyone where’s disguises when out in public so you’re never sure who anyone truly is.

[u/nanoinfinity → u/Vaticancameos221]

“The Light of Other Days” is another good one. Wormhole tech lets anyone view any place at any point in time in the past. Privacy and secrecy are pretty much instantly abolished. Some people respond by adapting to the complete lack of privacy and secrecy (nudism, public sex, acceptance of voyeurism) while others completely cover themselves with disguises is public.

It’s a full novel so there’s more to it, but it does touch on the theme of a post-privacy society.

[u/rickg → u/Hour_Wonder_9240]

I'm more concerned that most people still don't understand how things work and naively insist on putting their information into these things, Facebook, etc etc and then seem to be surprised that the data is stored.

[u/decemberhunting → u/Hour_Wonder_9240]

I mean, those chats are distributed across several app infrastructures at minimum. You're talking about high level coordinated catastrophe. People should be concerned about that in the same way that they're concerned about any disaster, I suppose, but it's not exactly a realistic scenario. It's also not unique to AI. Everyone's Facebook message logs getting leaked five years ago also would have been devastating.

[u/BrothelWaffles → u/Hour_Wonder_9240]

There was a South Park episode about this a while back.

[u/mcampo84 → u/doublestitch]

Lol even a therapist would be required to report this

[u/EngineerRare42 → u/doublestitch]

But not the deputy's office?

[u/drinkallthecoffee → u/EngineerRare42]

She wanted to shoot the sheriff but she did not want to shoot the deputy.

[u/FatherSquee → u/doublestitch]

Well look at what happened in Tumbler Ridge in Canada; guy used AI to plan shooting up a school and now they're being sued for not doing something to stop it from happening.

[u/sunfacethedestroyer → u/doublestitch]

Yeah, but it's still an interesting case. Based on the article, it is only a crime if it's posted in a manner in which someone can view it.

It wouldn't be a crime if she put that in a regular paper diary. And I doubt she knew it would be reviewed by a person.

[u/ungoogleable → u/sunfacethedestroyer]

That sounds like a weird quirk of the law they charged her with, not a reason to withhold reporting though.

Suppose she wrote her credible plans to shoot up the sheriff's office on a piece of paper then lost it on the street where you found it, shouldn't you still tell them about it? Even if planning to shoot up the sheriff's office is not technically a crime in itself and she didn't explicitly make a public threat, I believe Anthropic should report when someone credibly intends to commit harm to others.

[u/drinkallthecoffee → u/sunfacethedestroyer]

She used it like a therapist, and then she was reported like a therapist. If you told your therapist, you were gonna shoot up the sheriffs office they would report you to the police.

[u/themiracy → u/doublestitch]

I think on the one hand if they prevented what could have been a mass casualty event, that’s clearly a good thing.

Per the article: “The communication must be made in a manner in which another person may view it.”

I am curious about how this is being applied - is it being applied in such a way that in principle someone from the host company could look at your cloud account (iCloud drive or OneDrive or whatever, sometimes even involving files that the user doesn’t know are being put in the cloud) and because they could even though by default no one would have access to it, it constitutes a transmission covered by the law? I think more than one thing can be true - that this can be problematic from a privacy standpoint and also that it can be good a potentially serious crime was prevented here.

[u/throwthisidaway → u/themiracy]

IMO the law as written is unconstitutionally vague AND overly broad. It appears to cover virtually all writing, both analog and digital. It can cover everything from writing in a physical journal, to a digital painting, even a news article.

As used in this section, the term “electronic record” means any record created, modified, archived, received, or distributed electronically which contains any combination of text, graphics, video, audio, or pictorial represented in digital form, but does not include a telephone call.

Not only does that cover all the above examples, but it also does not require the threat to be real or even plausible. Writing for instance that "I'm going to transport myself into the My Little Pony world and kill all the people there" on Reddit fulfills the requirements of this felony.

It is horribly written.

[u/lover_of_lies]

That's why you always add "in Minecraft"

[u/transientDCer → u/lover_of_lies]

This is why I hate looking up stuff for the game Project Zomboid. There are so many weapons you can craft, but I don't want to Google "easiest way to build mass quantity of pipe bombs" for fear of my search history haha.

[u/Redplushie → u/transientDCer]

Me when I look up how to break into Kentucky prison

[u/mayorofdumb → u/Redplushie]

Casually looking up Ft Knox every week

[u/Benwah11 → u/transientDCer]

I always put the game name in the search for that. Forgot to add Rimworld one time. Google gave me the suicide hotline.

[u/11nyn11 → u/lover_of_lies]

That hasn’t worked in a while

https://www.yahoo.com/news/3rd-man-charged-threatening-volusia-172507985.html

[u/OG_LiLi → u/11nyn11]

Talk to me. I read that entire thing and don’t see the correlation. I also haven’t had coffee.

[u/johnny_riser → u/OG_LiLi]

One of the suspects (Richard Golden) was arrested even though his 4chan threat ended with "In Minecraft".

[u/Tokey_TheBear → u/OG_LiLi]

Theres a thing on the internet where people will say things that they mean seriously but if its against TOS for the site they are on or it is illegal, they will say "In Minecraft" at the end to sort of add the plausible deniability that: "Oh I didn't actually mean that, I meant that I was going to go do XYZ in Minecraft! Therefore you can't take what I said seriously because I added in Minecraft at the end."

That case is an example of that scenario except in this case the person got charged even though they had In Minecraft in their post.

[u/berael]

Friendly reminder that every word they say about privacy is a lie.

They are absolutely monitoring and storing everything you type. They will absolutely steal anything they can.

[u/IcyCorgi9 → u/berael]

Does Anthropic or OpenAI say much about privacy? I'm pretty sure they dont really care about that.

[u/Steviejoe66 → u/IcyCorgi9]

I don't think any of the big guys have ever made claims about your chat contents being private. People these days just seem to assume if something isn't publicly visible (discord DM's are another example) that it's "private".

[u/Extreme-Shower7545]

Clippy would never tell on me… /s

[u/zorionek0 → u/Extreme-Shower7545]

Clippy ain’t no snitch

[u/Ancient-Club9972 → u/zorionek0]

Clippy embodies anti-snitching, its why we call em Clippy

[u/hollee-o]

So, if they’re doing this for threats, why would anyone believe they are not reviewing chats to mine opportunities? Like, find chats from brilliant minds and see if there’s anything worthwhile.

[u/Hypohamish → u/hollee-o]

I mean, they are or will be?

Have they exclusively stated in an exhaustively read and understood terms & conditions that they don't do this?

[u/frozenfriedchicken → u/hollee-o]

They did this to solve an unsolved math problem that another group was working on. It read the logs and then OpenAI dumped extra resources into it to solve it faster. Navier-Stokes Existence and Smoothness Problem was a million dollar math problem.

[u/DonkeyBallExpert → u/frozenfriedchicken]

It's much more complicated than that.  Here's some more info:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Navier%E2%80%93Stokes_existence_and_smoothness

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Navier%E2%80%93Stokes_priority_controversy

[u/Kid-Icky- → u/frozenfriedchicken]

Despite how you want to frame it, there's absolutely zero proof this happened, and even the mathematicians said they weren't alleging it did.

[u/PoL0 → u/frozenfriedchicken]

this is the part everyone seems to forget. not only they were dishonest and scummy, they also burned through millions of dollars in compute power.

it's insane how these companies get a pass with almost everything they do.

[u/IntelArtiGen]

The latest incident is another reminder to think before you enter something into a chatbot

Why would I think if the AI can think for me?

[u/hockeyjmac → u/IntelArtiGen]

All of the dumbest people you know ask ai literally everything.

[u/OrneryLavishness9666 → u/hockeyjmac]

A c-suite executive at a worldwide, billion-dollar fast food brand speaks about the conversations they have with Claude like it’s a completely normal thing to do. Like they’re just bouncing ideas off a colleague or friend.

[u/Urgulon7 → u/hockeyjmac]

And they take the first answer as cited scientific fact or historical truth.

We are fucked.

[u/mynewusernamedodgers]

Does Anthropocene self report illegal shit too or just snitches on everyone but themselves. Yeah thought so.

[u/Electrical-Staff735]

People need stop talking to AI like it's people. If you wouldn't say it in public don't say it to the spyware.

[u/trancen]

This is exactly why open-source LLMs and local AI matter more than ever. Cloud AI isn't a private diary , it's a monitored service. If you want something that stays on your machine and isn't subject to corporate review or law enforcement escalation, local is the only option.

[u/calle04x → u/trancen]

I would love to have a local LLM that I could use privately. I'd love to be able to brain dump everything and have it help me organize and be a kind of diary, without my voice and thoughts being uploaded for dissection and attribution.

[u/Icy_Mythical → u/calle04x]

I think you can. I'm not sure the exact storage/specs of a machine you'd need to run one, but it would probably be possible

[u/shield1123 → u/Icy_Mythical]

You need a pretty beefy GPU and a lot of RAM to get something decent running

[u/Khayrum117 → u/calle04x]

There's plenty of 1-2gb local models on HuggingFace. A 1-2gb model will run perfectly on a 8gb GPU. Also while slower, if 8gb is all you have you can offload some slightly larger models to partially work off CPU and RAM. But for what you want, there's plenty of small models youll be able to run. Hell, my Pixel 9 Pro XL can run a 4gb local model a 9 tokens a second.

[u/jqVgawJG]

The real danger is that the "human reviewer" will also be AI soon. So then you get an arrest team sent to your house, automatically, just because a machine interpreted a phrase in a certain way.

Make the thought police fiction again.

[u/Old_Introduction7236]

People need to stop pretending/believing that AI is their friend. Never send anything over clear text that you aren't willing to share with the world. Because that's essentially what you're doing when you send text over the internet.

[u/MyModemIsSlow]

In a similar story, I store my nudes on Claude and later found out that Anthropic had reported me to the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History.

[u/Worth_Gap4226 → u/MyModemIsSlow]

"Sir, we've found the missing link"

[u/FarceMultiplier → u/MyModemIsSlow]

Lucky. It reported me to an auto wrecker.

[u/ElysiumSprouts]

If only we could catch politicians...

[u/MFrancisWrites]

Law says "The communication must be made in a manner in which another person may view it."

This certainly is not going to improve her opinion of said police.

[u/AtlanticPacific69]

Precogs, its happening.

[u/ExpiredLink404 → u/AtlanticPacific69]

is it precrime when she literally said she was going to commit a crime?

[u/insanekid66]

Snitches get... backdoors?

[u/Smile_Space]

So, reading into it she wrote that she was planning to shoot up her local sheriff's office. The internal safety system flagged it for human review, and the human reviewer then pushed it to local law enforcement.

From Anthropic's own regulations they only push data to authorities in emergencies just like this.

Which I get. If they didn't report it and she went and shot up the sheriff's office, and then it came out later that they knew about it prior, then they'd be under fire as well.

So, in extreme situations like that I get it. As long as they're being truthful that they only report the most extreme stuff, then your data is likely still fine as long as you're not making legitimate terroristic threats.

Obviously try not to give these commercial AIs too much personal info either way.

[u/Dire-Dog]

Or just use a regular diary

[u/meshakooo]

So you telling me we got AI snitches now

[u/Synekal → u/meshakooo]

Always have…

[u/iQuoteSopranos → u/meshakooo]

Well ChatGPT is being sued by the survivors of the FSU school shooting because the shitbag that did the thing allegedly used ChatGPT as a sounding board

[u/Icy-Lobster-203 → u/iQuoteSopranos]

Also being sued for being used by the Tumbler Ridge shooter in Canada.

[u/silverbolt2000 → u/meshakooo]

Yes, and it’s what people have asked for with AI.

Just imagine if AI didn’t report this kind of thing to the police - there would be uproar if the person actually followed through on their threat.

[u/Loco_72]

These days, you have to assume that every online interaction and everything stored in the cloud is being monitored and reviewed.

[u/Due_Floor_7405]

I hope businesses take note of this and stop stuffing AI into our mouth. It makes me wonder how many private company information  are stored.

[u/scott_bsc]

Local AI is the only future for people that actually care about the slippery slope into thought crimes we are headed to.

[u/stormdelta → u/scott_bsc]

This. The most rapid advancements at the moment are in efficiency, making local models more and more viable.

[u/Hiply]

This part - "Florida Statute 836.10 makes it a second-degree felony to send, post, or transmit a written or electronic record threatening to kill or injure someone, carry out a mass shooting, or commit an act of terrorism." - of Fla law that considers telling an AI something falling into that category highlights why no one should ever tell an AI something you would not broadcast to the world. It's handy for a lot of things, it's also a surveillance tool.

PSA - and for fucks sake never talk to an AI about mental health issues...because dialoguing about anything that might be construed as self-harm could immediately trigger a knock on your door.

[u/sorrow_anthropology → u/Hiply]

“It’s handy for a lot of things, it’s also a surveillance tool.”

People really will give up their freedom for the cheap price of convenience.

[u/Karma13x]

Its one thing when someone is using Claude or similar for a personal diary and volutarily giving up privacy to it. There are AI intruders in my emails, WhatsApp, forums, games, workplace computers, out driving in the streets, shopping in actual stores doing non-consensual surveillance - allegedly for "personalized ads". And the government has found a First Amendment loophole if it is offered or can buy or coerce this information from these companies. Turns out, Minority Report was more a forecast than a fictional scenario.

[u/trippedonatater]

I'm surprised this got in front of a human reviewer. That's interesting.

[u/Quick-Albatross-9204 → u/trippedonatater]

Claude probably bumped it for review

[u/Judge_Logmaor]

Note to self. Always add In info about the a Minolta 35mm or Canon DSLR camera when I write about “shooting” something.

[u/justanemptyvoice]

“The communication must be made in a manner in which another person may view it.” - is this the defense then? It was made as a diary entry, not for another person to view it.

[u/liosistaken → u/justanemptyvoice]

It was a credible threat to shoot up the Sheriff’s office. If they hadn’t reported it and she had shot it up, they’d get sued for that.

Nothing you write online is private, certainly not an AI bot.

[u/LesterKingOfAnts]

All this surveillance tech is just like an Epsteinbot; a blackmail machine that is also gathering data on all these people in power or want to be in power.

[u/Grand0rk]

Yeah, no shit. If you tell an AI you are going to commit a crime, it's flagged, reviewed and reported.

How fucking stupid can you be?

[u/TheGrimGuardian]

So we bitch and moan when they don't act on credible threats, but we bitch and moan when they do.

[u/FW_nudist]

"Officer, those are just my notes for short stories I want to write."

[u/Dastardlydashing]

Man theyre gonna have to read SO MUCH of my lesbian mlp fanfiction. poor bastards

[u/JaffaSG1]

Who exactly did she threaten? This is like saying somebody exposed themselves indecently while the accuser is the peeping tom with binoculars in the tree looking through a 2nd store window.

[u/InfinitelyThirsting → u/JaffaSG1]

She used a public chatbot, which she agreed to terms including flags for violence, to say she was planning to shoot up the sheriff and told the bot she'd gotten a new gun. A chatbot is not a fucking diary. There is not and never has been an expectation of privacy while using them.

[u/Salina_EsTitties → u/InfinitelyThirsting]

Eh... Then she deserves to be investigated. I'd be more uncomfortable if Anthropic didn't flag that immediately

[u/InfinitelyThirsting → u/Salina_EsTitties]

Yeah, I think people are only reading the headline and thinking this was like Flock cameras sending tickets to the wrong car because it misread the license plate. No, she was chatting with the bot about committing a mass shooting with her new gun, a human reviewed the flag, and then the human sent it to the police.

[u/Salina_EsTitties → u/InfinitelyThirsting]

If only more mass shooters confessed their thoughts to chat bots.

[u/Bacardi_Tarzan → u/InfinitelyThirsting]

the anti AI Reddit crowd is dogmatic, but anyone who hasn’t twisted their brain into a pretzel trying to feel self-righteous about AI would understand that an AI company should be responsible for and attempt to prevent someone from using their product to more efficiently do serious crimes like murder.

[u/Drivenby]

Not saying I’m doing anything illegal ( I’m not ) but I do prefer to use local models when I’m at home. For one they are free …

[u/ReportOk289]

They don't really have a better option. If they report it, they'll be accused of violating privacy. If they don't and it happens, they'll be sued for not preventing it.

[u/Ihcend]

>AI is used to commit crimes.

This is the problem with AI, these token peddlers don’t have any morals and only want to make money.

>AI being used to commit crimes is reported.

How could the tech company violate people’s privacy? It’s not like any other big tech company monitors their product?

There’s a valid discussion to be had over companies reporting users to authorities over future actions that could be used to harm others or themselves. That discussion is nowhere to be had on r/technology.

[u/PoppingPillls]

This is a tightrope situation.

Either they monitor communication in these cases where someone might be venting, upset or serious or they don't. One case brings up privacy issues and the other brings up safety issues.

Honestly it's hard to know what the solution really is.

Edit: Some fucking psychos in the replies, read the article before commenting and insulting me... Jesus fucking christ...

Some of you need therapy.

Another incident has taken place that illustrates the need to be careful what you tell AI. A Florida woman is facing felony charges after she used Claude as a diary and allegedly wrote that she planned to "shoot up" the Sheriff's office. After a human reviewer examined the statements, they were reported to police.

[u/StarFox-6 → u/PoppingPillls]

There’s no way to be 100% safe. We shouldn’t give up our rights or privacy in the name of safety. That just doesn’t work.

[u/InfinitelyThirsting → u/StarFox-6]

But like, a chatbot isn't something with privacy. An actual diary is private. A sycophantic robot that responds to you is not a diary, by any stretch of the imagination.

[u/rickg → u/StarFox-6]

Then don't write in a piece of online software that you don't control. It's far too late in the game for people to do stuff like this and then go all shocked pikachu when they find out that their information isn't private.

[u/Ok_Eagle_6239 → u/StarFox-6]

In the school shooting case, it was also asking the chat for advice on how to do it, how to get weapons. Anything different with that? Like just the chat shouldn't participate, but also not report.

[u/gorramfrakker → u/PoppingPillls]

There is no privacy with online services. Everything is logged. If you need it to be private, don’t put it online.

[u/Palimon → u/gorramfrakker]

How people still don't understand that after we've had the initernet for 30+ years is mind blowing.

[u/Auriga33 → u/PoppingPillls]

People would get mad either way. If they don't monitor and something happens, they'd be angry at them for not reporting the threat. If they do monitor and report a potential threat, they'd be angry they're being spied on.

[u/Umami_Tsunamii]

Interesting article, I think the main point which in my opinion makes the felony charge bs, is that it is in reference to posting about violence, while in this instance she clearly presumed privacy in the communication.

That said it’s of course great to stop violence before it happens, but for this charge it seems either weak, or a dangerous precedent to set.

[u/johnc380 → u/Umami_Tsunamii]

Was thinking the same thing. She would not have reasonably expected anyone to ever see what she had written. That intent is necessary for something to be a threat.

[u/worstnameever2]

I dont agree in a surveillance state, but if you voluntarily use AI as a diary and lay out plans to commit violence i dont really feel bad if you get in trouble for that.

[u/Spatetata]

There's an irony in how a lot of my acquaintances were in a privacy panic about online services for awhile but now I'll speak to them and they'll be like "Yeah, Claude remembered I mentioned I make X amount a year and have Y car, live in Z state and those details were from like months ago!"

[u/tiredofnagging99]

Never write what you can say. Never say when you can nod and never nod when you can blink.

[u/Optimal-Pay-2555]

Why would anyone write that down anywhere lol

[u/sysadmin_420]

Social media cant regulate scam ads, but have no problem finding incriminating stuff and reporting you to police

[u/tekonus → u/[deleted]]

Not after you tell them it’s your diary. Kinda shot that idea down after that. 

[u/Glittering_Power6257 → u/tekonus]

So I can’t write out the diary of an evil fantasy character looking to cause mass casualties?

Ngl though, sounds fun. 

[u/BrothelWaffles → u/[deleted]]

Listen Tina, just because you turned your diary into a collection of erotic friend-fiction doesn't mean we all do that.

[u/nifty-necromancer → u/[deleted]]

You shouldn’t use AI to write fiction

[u/shinyxena]

Local models will be just as good in 5 years if not sooner. But I guess they could train them tattle tell.

[u/sleepybrett]

if enterprises don't think they do the same to what their engineers chats and sourcecode you are deluded. Anthropic, if it wanted could totally subvert any company that uses their product at a very fundamental level.

[u/mediocre_remnants]

This is hilarious because when a murderer asked an AI to help plan the murder, everyone freaked out and said "why didn't they report this???"

When a lady is writing a diary with no intention of harming anyone, everyone freaks out and says "why are they reading her private stuff???"

You can't have both. You can't monitor someone's activity to make sure they're not planning a mass murder or terrorist attack while letting people who are doing creative writing exercises have a pass.

[u/PatchyWhiskers → u/mediocre_remnants]

There’s no indication that she wasn’t planning to carry out her plan.

[u/MittensDaTub]

The fkn ad i just got was for OpenAI

[u/Rath_Brained]

AI IS NOT YOUR FRIEND

[u/Disastrous_Olive_920]

Heller faces a charge of making a written threat of violence under Florida law. Florida Statute 836.10 makes it a second-degree felony to send, post, or transmit a written or electronic record threatening to kill or injure someone, carry out a mass shooting, or commit an act of terrorism. The communication must be made in a manner in which another person may view it.

Am I daft to assume that she didn't intend for her "diary" to be read by someone else? Like how can that be considered as a "written threat" like she intended to send it to the media or something?