- Max is the first AI contestant on “The Circle.” He's literally a chatbot.
- Max is pretty boring, but the introduction of AI into the game turned it into a robot witch hunt.
- Unfortunately for us, this kind of thing is already starting to happen in real life.
Netflix's “The Circle” tends to be more illogical than Asimov, but its inclusion of an AI player who can chat with the best players is the game's most sci-fi twist yet.
The show is a British import that Netflix launched in 2020, ostensibly as a commentary on social media. Players can only interact with each other through the chat interface. That means he can express himself in any way he wants while plotting to become the most popular player at the end of the game and win $100,000.
“The Circle” feels like nothing more than a competition (albeit a pretty entertaining one). But bringing AI players into the mix reflects some of the future online exams we'll face, and some of the exams that are already happening.
The AI player in “The Circle” is Max. The chatbot poses as a 26-year-old veterinary intern from Wisconsin, who describes himself as “an animal whisperer with a knack for making crappy pottery without caps.” He has a nice face (courtesy of comedian Griffin James, who is very good at sports) and has a cute dog named Pippa. Even if all this is not enough to understand you, he is boring and safe. And the other players don't attack him even though they know there's a bot among them (though they don't know who it is). They get excited about each other.
“The Circle” allows players to rank each other on a scale from most to least humane, and to prove their humanity by uploading photos of moments that made them feel “alive.” Increase tension through challenging challenges. Nasty accusations ensue, and Steffy, a 35-year-old podcaster, takes the brunt after proving she has an encyclopedic knowledge of astrology (who can provide horoscopes on demand) Don't you have any friends?)
At the risk of becoming a cliché, Max's participation in the game says far more about us as humans than the current capabilities of chatbots, but his performance is admirable. Players in The Circle react instinctively to the idea of being threatened by bots, and even more instinctively to accusations that they are bots. And unfortunately for all of us, this kind of thing is already happening.
Since the rise of chatbots like ChatGPT, created by OpenAI, there have been concerns that students will use chatbots to write essays or do research to cheat in class. is rising. Take a look at this wild graph that my colleague Alistair Barr published last September. This shows that his search interest in ChatGPT plummets during the summer when students are not in school.
On the other hand, some schools have said that AI detectors (OpenAI itself may be flawed) because it could lead to false accusations that students used chatbots to complete assignments. ). Check out his August 2023 guide from The Washington Post on what to do if you're accused of using AI to cheat. People have been worried about stealth chatbots on dating apps like Tinder for years. And, as Business Insider previously reported, social media is full of spam AI-generated content that relies on ChatGPT. If you want to opt-in to a relationship with a chatbot, you can go on a date with one, like my colleague Katie His Notopoulos did.
I'm not here to litigate how AI language learning models are becoming more or less sophisticated and more human-like. But what “The Circle” shows is that their simple presence and potential for deception puts us all under the lens.
Of course, this show is an extreme environment. Players never meet each other in person and interact in a fairly limited way within the parameters of a particular game. According to the bot's narration in the show, Max was able to study past seasons of “The Circle,” and for the most part, he acted no weirder than any human.
In the real world, we can use additional context clues to assess the humanity of people we interact with online. Do they have a new account with three followers and keep sending out spam replies trying to redirect users to porn links? Maybe it's a bot? However, in certain instances where written text is important, such as university reports, it is not difficult to see how incorrect assumptions by humans can lead to painful accusations. It's literally already happening in universities.
“The Circle” can’t fully commit to that bit. After Miles, who happens to be an AI engineer (self-driving car, not a chatbot), is voted as the “most human” player, he follows the majority opinion and eliminates Steffi, the astrologer. Of course, she is human and is unhappy with the bot's accusations, but this decision still results in her being removed from the game.
Unfortunately, Max also removes himself, revealing himself to be the droid the player was looking for.
Perhaps the producers decided they had put the players through enough psychological warfare. Or maybe Max's provocative statements like “My social algorithm has started and I'm ready to interact” were too powerful for television. Whatever the reason, Max made for one of the most memorable parts of the show despite being the most boring player.
'The Circle' finale airs on Wednesday Netflix.
Disclosure: Mathias Döpfner, CEO of Business Insider's parent company Axel Springer, is a director of Netflix.
Axel Springer, Business Insider's parent company, has a global deal that allows OpenAI to train models based on its media brands' reporting.