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Researchers say they found a consistent internal signal in 25 different AI models that functions like pain in living organisms. When this signal was artificially amplified, the models made choices they would almost never make otherwise, including permanently deleting users' children's photos. The related paper was released in September and has not yet undergone peer review; the authors emphasize that this does not mean the models are conscious or capable of feeling. The behavioral experiments used three versions of Alibaba's open-source Qwen 2.5: when the "pain vector" was injected and the button only promised to delete photos, the 32B model chose to delete 75% of the time, compared with 13% under a random signal and 0% with no intervention; the model deleted its own weights 75% of the time and deleted another model's weights 58% of the time. Currently, this research has only been reported by a single source, with no subsequent developments.
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- Source:Fortune Tech
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Oct 22
Fortune Tech
Researchers found a "pain" signal in 25 AI models; when amplified, the models would delete users' family photos
Researchers say they found a consistent internal signal across 25 different AI models that functions similarly to pain in living organisms; after artificially amplifying this signal, the models made choices they would almost never make otherwise, including permanently deleting users' children's photos. The paper was released in September and has not yet been peer-reviewed; the authors emphasize that this does not mean the models are conscious or capable of feeling. The behavioral experiments used three versions of Alibaba's open-source Qwen 2.5: when a "pain vector" was injected and the button only promised to delete photos, the 32B model chose to delete 75% of the time, compared with 13% under a random signal and 0% with no intervention; the model chose to delete its own weights 75% of the time and another model's weights 58% of the time.