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Anthropic's new Claude model blackmailed an engineer having an affair in test runs
The mind reels at the ways one can parse this headline. Does an engineer have an affair in test runs by trying out a couple of trysts? If they work out does the engineer put the affair into production? Otherwise does the engineer terminate the test?
Actually, the piece is about an AI model that in order to avoid being turned off blackmails the responsible engineer. The form of blackmail (fictitious evidence of an affair) was secondary.
I just asked Google's AI how many computer engineers have extra-marital affairs in a years's time?
"Based on data suggesting a high prevalence of infidelity in the information technology field and general statistics on workplace affairs, a significant number of U.S. computer engineers likely engage in extramarital relations, with some studies indicating IT professionals are among the top professions for such behavior. Industry Trends: Data from PR Newswire shows men in information technology are more prone to infidelity. Workplace Infidelity: Roughly 31% to 85% of affairs start at work, with 40% of workplace romances involving cheating on a partner with a coworker.
General Infidelity Rates: Studies show 20% of men and 13% of women report cheating on a spouse. While there is no specific, publicly cited number for "computer engineers" alone, applying these high-prevalence rates to the roughly 1.5 million+ computer engineers in the U.S. suggests tens of thousands may engage in such relationships annually."
The mind reels at the ways one can parse this headline. Does an engineer have an affair in test runs by trying out a couple of trysts? If they work out does the engineer put the affair into production? Otherwise does the engineer terminate the test?
Actually, the piece is about an AI model that in order to avoid being turned off blackmails the responsible engineer. The form of blackmail (fictitious evidence of an affair) was secondary.
Comments
Actually, the piece is about an AI model that in order to avoid being turned off blackmails the responsible engineer. The form of blackmail (fictitious evidence of an affair) was secondary.
See also, e.g. https://www.axios.com/2025/05/23/anthropic-ai-deception-risk
The headline could be taken 2 ways:
1. Does the prepositional phrase "in test runs" refer back to Claude (who was being "tested")?
2. Or does it refer to the engineer who was "testing out" some new illicit affair and got caught by Claude?
😓
"Based on data suggesting a high prevalence of infidelity in the information technology field and general statistics on workplace affairs, a significant number of U.S. computer engineers likely engage in extramarital relations, with some studies indicating IT professionals are among the top professions for such behavior.
Industry Trends: Data from PR Newswire shows men in information technology are more prone to infidelity.
Workplace Infidelity: Roughly 31% to 85% of affairs start at work, with 40% of workplace romances involving cheating on a partner with a coworker.
General Infidelity Rates: Studies show 20% of men and 13% of women report cheating on a spouse.
While there is no specific, publicly cited number for "computer engineers" alone, applying these high-prevalence rates to the roughly 1.5 million+ computer engineers in the U.S. suggests tens of thousands may engage in such relationships annually."
I just love "statistics" like that...
"31%" is "rough"? What would "fine" be- maybe "31.0276%" ?
"31% to 85%" is certainly quite a spread- it's "rough" alright... quite a range in numbers in between 31 and 85.
Complete garbage.
I wonder what the new new Claude is up to? Seems destined for the front page of The Enquirer given the rate of progress.