ChatGPT keeps sending locked-out users to 404 Media, and writes their emails
A Russian man banned from Instagram, with 13 years of photos gone, emailed a tech outlet because ChatGPT told him to, using a message the chatbot drafted.
404 Media says it is inundated with AI-written emails from people with ordinary tech problems. After it began asking senders how they found it, every one it asked said a chatbot recommended contacting it.
ChatGPT, asked how to recover a banned Instagram account, concluded that emailing Meta was probably hopeless.
A chatbot's last resort is a journalist
404 Media's Jason Koebler traces a flood of mail to one pattern. A man in Russia lost his Instagram account and "13 years of personal photos, videos and memories". ChatGPT told him that reaching Meta was unlikely, listed 404 Media as a technology and privacy outlet and wrote the email he sent. In a review of a handful of shared conversations, the outlet found the same recommendation each time. It blames big tech companies that offer little or no human support.
The thread: it's not wrong
"the underlying problem is that ChatGPT is right. If you have any kind of problem with these overgrown, understaffed companies, your only chance is to get media attention." — a commenter
"StackOverflow had this problem, too; various large companies would put "for support, ask on StackOverflow!" style wording in place, with predictable results." — ceejayoz
The practical point for a company without a support desk: the user's escalation path no longer stops at your help page. It runs through a model that has learned the public record of who gets results.
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