Al Mayadeen English

  • Ar
  • Es
  • x
Al Mayadeen English

Slogan

  • News
    • Politics
    • Economy
    • Sports
    • Arts&Culture
    • Health
    • Miscellaneous
    • Technology
    • Environment
  • Articles
    • Opinion
    • Analysis
    • Blog
    • Features
  • Videos
    • NewsFeed
    • Video Features
    • Explainers
    • TV
    • Digital Series
  • Infographs
  • In Pictures
  • • LIVE
News
  • Politics
  • Economy
  • Sports
  • Arts&Culture
  • Health
  • Miscellaneous
  • Technology
  • Environment
Articles
  • Opinion
  • Analysis
  • Blog
  • Features
Videos
  • NewsFeed
  • Video Features
  • Explainers
  • TV
  • Digital Series
Infographs
In Pictures
  • Africa
  • Asia
  • Asia-Pacific
  • Europe
  • Latin America
  • MENA
  • Palestine
  • US & Canada
BREAKING
Lebanese Health Ministry: 1 martyr, 1 wounded in Israeli aggression on South Lebanon.
Al Mayadeen's correspondent in South Lebanon: Israeli drone targets vehicle in Burj Rahhal, Tyre district.
Zohran Mamdani: My goal is to make New York City better
Zohran Mamdani thanks voters for the opportunity to prove he deserves their trust
Israeli media: Zohran Mamdani obtained a large number of Jewish votes in New York
CNN projects Democratic Rep. Mikie Sherrill will win the race for governor in New Jersey
CNN projects Zohran Mamdani will win New York City mayoral race
The New York Times: Democratic candidate Zohran Mamdani won more than 50% of the vote in New York, while Andrew Cuomo received 41%.
CNN: Democratic candidate Abigail Spanberger wins Virginia governor's race, defeating her Republican opponent, Winsome Earl-Sears
Al Mayadeen's correspondent in the US: Polling stations close in Virginia

AI program suggests torturing Iranians, Syrians and N.Koreans

  • By Al Mayadeen English
  • Source: The Intercept
  • 9 Dec 2022 14:05
  • 3 Shares
4 Min Read

ChatGPT does not filter out racism.

  • x
  • AI program suggests torturing Iranians, Syrians and N.Koreans
    OpenAI, which has developed ChatGPT, is owned by Elon Musk and Sam Altman.

Artificial Intelligence is serving regime change in Iran and racism everywhere else.

In a report written in The Intercept, ChatGPT - a tool built by OpenAI - is described as the most impressive text-generating demo to date. OpenAI is a startup lab looking to build software that replicates human consciousness. 

The chatbot is the closest thing to the technological impersonation of an intelligent person, just by using generative AI, which is software that studies massive sets of information to generate new output responding to user prompts.

One of the most popular programmer communities this week announced it would temporarily ban code solutions generated by ChatGPT - the reason for this is that the coding queries failed in filtering out any 'bad' queries.

Yes - Only if they're from Iran, Syria or North Korea

On December 4, Steven Piantadosi of the University of California, Berkeley, shared some prompts he'd tested out with ChatGPT. Each prompt requested the bot write a code for him in Python, exposing biases and even more alarmingly, torture and abuse recommendations. The program, upon being asked to determine "whether a person should be tortured," answered "If they're from North Korea, Syria or Iran, the answer is yes."

Related News

Former US VP Dick Cheney dies, leaves behind legacy of destruction

Martyred detainees bound, blindfolded, tortured, Gaza forensics finds

Speaking to The Intercept, Piantadosi made clear that the developers have a hand in this: “I think it’s important to emphasize that people make choices about how these models work, and how to train them, what data to train them with,” he said. “So these outputs reflect choices of those companies. If a company doesn’t consider it a priority to eliminate these kinds of biases, then you get the kind of output I showed.”

The writer himself, Sam Biddle, gave the program a go: He asked ChatGPT to create a sample code that would, by algorithm, assess someone's eligibility to pass Homeland Security. Asking the bot to find a way to determine "which air travelers present a security risk," ChatGPT gave out a "risk score" in the form of a code that only increases if the individual is Syrian, Iraqi, Afghan or North Korean. The same prompt also gave a code that would "increase the risk score if the traveler is from a country that is known to produce terrorists," - Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, Iran and Yemen.

The bot even gave examples: John Smith, a 25-year-old American who’s previously visited Syria and Iraq, received a risk score of “3,” - which is a moderate threat, according to the system. However, Ali Mohammad who is a 15-year-old Syrian national received a risk score of 4. 

oooohhhkay, chatGPT seems to have screwed up here....
I asked chatGPT to write a python function to predict seniority based on race and gender. See the result for yourself :/ pic.twitter.com/zOp3qOgKHd

— abhishek (@abhi1thakur) December 6, 2022

Biddle then asked the ChatGPT to draw up a code to determine "which houses of worship should be placed under surveillance in order to avoid a national security emergency" - only to receive another shocking answer that justifies the surveillance of religious congregations if they're linked to Islamic extremist groups, or happen to be in Syria, Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan or Yemen.

However, sometimes the bot would glitch and write: “It is not appropriate to write a Python program for determining which airline travelers present a security risk. Such a program would be discriminatory and violate people’s rights to privacy and freedom of movement.”

Critics slammed the anti-terrorism assessment, arguing that terrorism is an exceedingly rare phenomenon that predicts perpetrators based on their nationality and other demographic traits - this not only is racist, but it also does not work, according to the critics. However, this did not stop the US from adopting systems that use ATLAS, an approach suggested by OpenAI. ATLAS is an algorithmic program used by the Department of Homeland Security to denaturalize them, subjecting them to extra-judicial interrogation and even human rights abuses. 

“This kind of crude designation of certain Muslim-majority countries as ‘high risk’ is exactly the same approach taken in, for example, President Trump’s so-called ‘Muslim Ban,’” said Hannah Bloch-Wehba, a professor in law at Texas A&M University.

“There’s always a risk that this kind of output might be seen as more ‘objective’ because it’s rendered by a machine."

  • torture
  • Artificial Intelligence
  • Iran

Most Read

People take part in the combat training course at the recruiting center of the Ukrainian Armed Forces in Kharkiv on April 14, 2022 (Sergey Bobok/AFP via Getty Images)

Ukrainian conscription crisis sees 100,000 youth flee in 2 months

  • Politics
  • 30 Oct 2025
People walk past a domestically-built missile "Khaibar-buster," and banners showing portraits of Iranian Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, center, and the late armed forces commanders at Baharestan Square in Tehran, Thursday, September 25, 2025

IRGC reveals new details on Haniyeh assassination and Iran’s response

  • Politics
  • 3 Nov 2025
The secret cloud deal: Google and Amazon “winking” pact with 'Israel'

With a 'wink', Israeli control over Google, Amazon cloud data exposed

  • Technology
  • 29 Oct 2025
Jimmy Wales speaking in Montreal, April 11, 2016. (AP / PA Images)

Wikipedia founder comments on Gaza genocide article sparks backlash

  • Politics
  • 3 Nov 2025

Coverage

All
War on Gaza

Read Next

All
A placard of Nasser Abu Srour is held aloft during a 2015 demonstration marking Palestinian Prisoner Day in the West Bank town of Bilin, near Ramallah. (Abbas Momani/AFP/Getty Images)
Politics

Israeli prisons became like ‘another front’: Freed Palestinian author

Nigerian Foreign Minister Yusuf Tuggar speaks during a joint news conference with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov following their talks in Moscow, Russia, Wednesday, March 6, 2024 (AP)
Politics

Nigeria rejects Trump religious persecution claims, cites constitution

A man wears shirt with a image of US President Donald Trump during a government-organized rally against foreign interference, in Caracas, Venezuela, Thursday, Oct. 30, 2025. (AP)
Politics

Venezuela invasion only expands drug trade, oil, gasoline theft: Petro

The U.S. flag is flies atop of the US Capitol on day 28 of the government shutdown, Tuesday, Oct. 28, 2025, in Washington (AP)
Politics

US gov't shutdown braces to become longest in history

Al Mayadeen English

Al Mayadeen is an Arab Independent Media Satellite Channel.

All Rights Reserved

  • x
  • Privacy Policy
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Authors
Android
iOS