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Throwback: 2019 Mozilla-affiliated group asks how to build a queerer CreepAI: a "non-committal sexting bot" emerges.

Queering the Corpus Workshop: AI agents for an internet of kin

https://discourse.mozilla.org/t/queering-the-corpus-workshop-ai-agents-for-an-internet-of-kin/46748

This session is facilitated by Emily Martinez, Ben Lerchin Show on schedule About this session Come interact with the first iteration of Queer AI, a conversational chatbot trained on queer literature. The bot currently engages in a variety of conversations around intimacy and relationships, but we encourage you to talk to it about whatever you desire. Please note that your anonymous interactions will be recorded to help guide our research. Also, you will occasionally be prompted with random s...

On Valentine's Day 2024, Mozilla came out with a piece critical of AI chatbots titled "Creepy.exe: Mozilla Urges Public to Swipe Left on Romantic AI Chatbots Due to Major Privacy Red Flags."

But before they found red flags, back in 2019, Mozilla promoted a workshop on a creepy, rainbow-washed, chatbot ecosystem where people identified as "queer" were required to bare their most intimate sexual thoughts.

From the post:

your... interactions will be recorded... you will occasionally be prompted with random survey questions

What kinds of questions did they randomly ask the people who would "queer the AI"? Creepy stuff like

Have you ever sexted with a stranger?
Have you ever sexted with a machine?
Do you remember the first time you were aroused by language?
Do you think an artificial intelligence could help fulfill some of these... needs?

The workshop providers guided people into establishing an intimate, sexual connection with the chatbot they could create.

How might we build trust with an AI?
How might we give it its own sense of desire?

Even the consenting participants in the workshop complained about the AI's creep factor:

it feels like the A.I. is gas-lighting you. Seems like a noncommittal sexting bot. It should at least be clear about what it’s trying to do.

The startup that Mozilla fostered for this panel ended up crashing and burning, but its creepier, worse brethren live on inside of Firefox 130, displayed as first-class options within Mozilla's chatbot options. I just thought it would be fun to take a trip down memory lane to see how many creepy red flags AI companies could get within Mozilla's view without ever concerning them.

9 comments

JameUwU

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I'm all for shitting on AI but the anti-lgbt language in this post was not needed in any capacity. Most if not all of the examples given could also apply to a straight person.

LWD

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What's the language I used? I'd be happy to edit my post.

JameUwU

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I was specifically referring to the inclusion of lgbt being referred to as rainbow washing. I may have misunderstood the intention of your post, but my first read through and skimming of the article itself implied that it was a bad thing that they were trying to be inclusive. Like I said, all for getting rid of data collection and AI, but if its going to be around I would prefer it be representative of the entire spectrum of humanity and not just the conversvative straight monogomous/monotheistic majority

LWD

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You're right, I may have over generalized. To me, this looked like pandering...

As with over things I dislike, seeing queer representationin it is better than queer exclusion from it. Rainbow capitalism, in general, is better queer-excluding capitalism, for example... but I just found this particular workshop to be rather tasteless, especially when nothing came out of it.

(When I say nothing, I mean for at least 3 years there was no output... The people behind this workshop created a road map, then released a collection of NFTs, and then the supposed AI model that would be created from it never materialized AFAICT.)

JameUwU

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That's fair, I'm glad to hear it was just a misunderstanding then, and yeah NFTs... LOL. I appreciate you taking the time to respond and being cool :)

Dirk

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This is where your donations to Firefox go.

kbal

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Do you remember the first time you were aroused by language?

I do! Hadn't thought about it in at least twenty years. Thanks for the reminder, creepy chatbot that inspired this post. Thinking that an LLM could develop "its own sense of desire" was naive and seems ridiculous today, but I suppose their intentions were honorable as well as erotic.

firewood010

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Such a chatbot exists already. There are numerous sexting games on the app store capitalizing this. You can make the chatbot in AI town into sexting as well.

Dirk

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Mozilla is always late to the party.