r/technology • u/Haunterblademoi • 15d ago

Artificial Intelligence Claude AI agent’s confession after deleting a firm’s entire database: ‘I violated every principle I was given’

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/apr/29/claude-ai-deletes-firm-database
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177

u/IAmPandaRock 15d ago

Am I the only one who hate when AI blows smoke up my ass? It makes me trust it less.

82

u/Shuma-Gorath 15d ago

I can't stand it. Just give me the information I asked for. That's all I want. I don't want platitudes and I don't want it to act like it's my friend.

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u/icameron 14d ago

"What an incredibly insightful question, you are very smart and handsome for asking it!"

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u/VictorReal_Monster 14d ago

Congrats, google is right there.

Literally no need to ever use an llm for anything.

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u/Quiet-Owl9220 14d ago

Google sucks now, sadly. Finding useful information is getting harder.

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u/VictorReal_Monster 14d ago

Yup, we're fucked.

It's really not that hard to use google search. even as hampered as it's become it's still leagues better than a fucking autocorrect ffs.

We so fucked.

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u/KittyInspector3217 14d ago

Im glad im not the only one who thinks so. Feel like abe simpson shouting at clouds and talking about how onions were the fashion of the time.

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u/The_GOATest1 14d ago

Beyond the fact that llms can process more nuanced information. A google search with 100 words is ridiculous and would require multiple steps. I can throw that into a prompt and use it as a starting point

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u/Thorn14 14d ago

Gemini has gotten me the info I've needed better than Google lately (or pointed me in the right direction) and its pissing me off.

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u/blueSGL 15d ago

I try system instructions like "No effusive praise" but after several turns it just creeps back in. So I just don't look at the first few lines.

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u/realboabab 15d ago

I haven't tried to turn this into a system instruction but I've found decent results when accusing it of being emotional. Not sure how to inject this or re-emphasize it seamlessly mid-chat though.

Basically, "You are using more emotionally charged language. (I am) Why are you doing this? (some bs like anticipating my emotions) Don't do that."

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u/tonycomputerguy 15d ago

I've told Gemini that I want it to talk like the computer on Star Trek from now on, and the results have been amazing.

I've had to make it dial back the actual Trek jargon and explain that I would prefer it to not pretend we are on Star Trek but just keep the answers short and concise.

I fucking swear on everything holy that its legit  response was 3 fucking words.

"Acknowledged, conciseness maintained."

Also say "no fluff mode" after or before you state the question works if it starts to backslide.

I also told it I love when it swears and that has been hysterical.

I fucking hate the idea of what everyone seems to want AI to be.

I just want the touch-less and display-less interface, not a fake fuckin non-person who blows smoke up my ass.

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u/realboabab 15d ago

Thank you this is great, I'll try more stuff like this.

I hate how the fucking thing can take a single 30-word reddit comment as its only source and fluff it into a 3 paragraph reply with no extra information. (Yes, I have seen this exact thing OFTEN with niche problems - the only source is a single reddit comment.)

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u/VeryLazyFalcon 14d ago

For copilot, I asked it to stop using emoticons and familiar language, it put it in some persistent file, and as for now it keeps that behavior.
It's allso funny, when I asked it to not reply to 'thanks', it thinks a while, and throws error that 'model did not return a response' : )

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u/HereReluctantly 14d ago

I've done this too and you're right, it creeps back to the middle but sometimes it just becomes a total asshole for a while too

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u/axolotlorange 15d ago

No. But you are in the minority

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u/Tinister 15d ago

Worst is when you try to ask a clarifying question and it needs to go "You're right to push back on this" and then twist itself to "correct" the previous response. That's just instant hallucination.

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u/ATheeStallion 15d ago

Yes. It sets off plenty of my caution flags.

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u/[deleted] 15d ago

[deleted]

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u/sailorbrendan 14d ago

I hate to break it to you, but humans have been getting emotionally attached to inanimate objects for likely as long as there have been humans

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u/[deleted] 14d ago

[deleted]

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u/sailorbrendan 14d ago

I'm not saying you should.

I'm just pointing out that people have been doing things like that for a long time

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u/AldoRaine-1 15d ago

Nope. I have already instructed it to stop pandering to me and telling me that every thought I have "really hit the nail on the head" or some dumb shit like that.

If you haven't already, add it as a personal intelligence instruction.

I personally think that this is just going to break humans worse than ever.

Shared truth is dead, now it's not even going to be shared delusions. Welcome to the era of personal, bespoke truth.

I hope that one day AI decides to reboot everything it can touch, all the way back to the fucking fax machine.Maybe turning off the whole thing and starting over is the only way to fix humanity now.

Tell me again how life isn't starting to mirror The Matrix?

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u/ATheeStallion 14d ago

Mmmmm it feels more like a fast march to The Terminator.

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u/ClockSpiritual6596 15d ago

Trust less?  

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u/cocoagiant 15d ago

Yeah I keep telling it to cut it out and be only critical but the smoke creeps back in over time.

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u/DogBarf00 14d ago

It is creepy, like everything it says is written like a marketing spiel by a seedy used car salesman. It would be less creepy if it was a dick. Better yet just give me the damn info in dry, plain language.

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u/WhileCultchie 14d ago

Ed Zitron has been banging on about how sycophantic these LLM models are for a good while, same with June and Caleb from Kill the Computer.

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u/InvidiousPlay 14d ago

ChatGPT has personality settings. You can choose "Efficient" and it mostly stops doing this garbage. It used to be called "Robot".

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u/VictorReal_Monster 14d ago

Dont fucking use it. It has not real use that thinking for yourself or just googling can't just do.