‘It’s terrifying’: WhatsApp AI helper mistakenly shares user’s number
by Robert Booth UK technology editor from Technology | The Guardian on (#6Y2FR)
Chatbot tries to change subject after serving up unrelated user's mobile to man asking for rail firm helpline
The Meta chief executive, Mark Zuckerberg, called it the most intelligent AI assistant that you can freely use". But Barry Smethurst, 41, a record shop worker trying to travel by rail from Saddleworth to Manchester Piccadilly, did not agree.
Waiting on the platform for a morning train that was nowhere to be seen, he asked Meta's WhatsApp AI assistant for a contact number for TransPennine Express. The chatbot confidently sent him a mobile phone number for customer services, but it turned out to be the private number of a completely unconnected WhatsApp user 170 miles away in Oxfordshire.
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