Chapter 1: What is the unique job opportunity involving AI discussed in this episode?
neutral zone, where every perspective gets diplomatic immunity. This is The Last Show with David Cooper. A startup is offering someone $800 to bully an AI for a day. Eight hours of roasting chatbots that forget what you just told them. Finally, a job where yelling at technology is not a sign that you're having a breakdown. No, it's all a day's work.
I'm here with Anna Olchek, who's recently reported on this. She's a leadership and workplace reporter at Business Insider. Anna, welcome to the show. Thanks for having me.
Chapter 2: How does the company plan to use the results of bullying AI?
So first off, how does this idea even occur to a business like they want to pay someone to be cruel to an AI for a day? Yeah, it's definitely a niche job posting. So the reason it came about is because the company, it's a startup, it's called Membit, and it's actually focused on creating. an AI memory tool to help improve chatbots remember things.
So the idea behind this job listing is that someone is going to be using chatbots all day, record their experience and ask the LLMs questions and then kind of watch it, get it wrong and then yell at it or bully it and you know, try and get it right again.
And the idea is that they'll then use this video as some kind of promotion to show that, you know, AI is not that good at remembering things and their product can help improve that. OK, so it's not some like secret scientist thinking, oh, if only we're cruel to AIs, they'll be better at remembering things. It's more a marketing stunt or something like this. Correct.
Chapter 3: What are the implications of being a 'professional AI bully'?
Yeah, it's a marketing tool. I assume the idea is that it will go viral or something along those lines. Although if you do get the job, you do get to put a label on your resume or a line item on your resume that says professional AI bully. This is a great marketing stunt. It's so easy to get upset at AI companies these days.
Is this just something where we're hoping to feel good about a company and potentially its new product? Yeah, I think so many people get frustrated. And so this company is definitely playing on that and hoping to capitalize on people's frustrations, obviously. But yeah, in an age where we're all using AI, we all get frustrated with it. We're all getting told to use it all the time.
Chapter 4: What frustrations do users typically experience with AI?
This is kind of like a lighthearted way to show that it's not perfect. There's still a lot of issues with it. And obviously, this company wants to sell its product, which is supposed to improve those issues. So Let's have fun with this for a second. What would bullying AI actually look like in practice? Are we talking rude sarcasm, like relentless follow-up questions? Do I just repeat myself?
What would I do to bully an AI? What would you do?
Chapter 5: How does this job posting reflect current frustrations with AI technology?
What would I do? That's a great question. I mean, I think we've all been annoyed at AI before, whether using it for work or personal use, like as your therapist or just to kind of go through like talking points with it. It definitely has memory issues at times, or maybe it's just getting something wrong. It's hallucinating. And so I think people do get frustrated.
I've personally heard a lot about whether or not we're supposed to yell at AI or like show that we're getting annoyed at it. So this is kind of a fun way to let loose and not be wondering about the moral implications of it. But yeah, I assume people curse at AI or, you know, tell it, no, you're getting it wrong.
Chapter 6: What challenges do AI tools face regarding memory and accuracy?
They probably wouldn't be talking to it the way they talk to an actual human in person. So I'm sure it varies, you know, for each person. I haven't gone crazy on an AI agent yet, but I assume a lot of people have or want to. So yeah, I think the spectrum is probably pretty broad. I've seen the Terminator movie series. I don't want to get on their bad side.
But okay, let's get a little serious here. This holy grail of AI memory. Do current products, I'm thinking like Claude or ChatGPT, do they get this wrong? Is there room for growth here?
Chapter 7: What potential benefits could arise from testing AI memory through this job?
Is there like room for AI tools that really have a good idea and remember who we are, what we said, the context of what we're saying, even throughout complicated chat sessions, complicated questions? Yeah, so I think this startup specifically, it creates an add-on tool so that you can attach it to any LLM model that you're using. I think that there are definitely memory issues with AI tools.
If you've used any, then you know that. It gets stuff wrong, not all the time, but definitely sometimes it's getting better and better. But I think that the memory issue, the hallucination issue, the inaccuracy issue is still very much a thing. And it's not perfect, but the technology is definitely getting better every day.
So who's to say this will be an issue in, you know, six months from now, a year from now. But it definitely is still something that I think people have to be wary of when they're using these tools.
Chapter 8: How can listeners apply for the job to bully an AI?
So if I ask ChatGPT for a recipe, I say there's no garlic in my pantry. And then like 10 prompts later, it's saying a recipe suggesting garlic. It's annoying. But it's fine. But when we talk about like health care, like, OK, you've read my chart. Now I'm asking you complicated questions about, you know, my medical current diagnosis. You need to account for my history.
This seems like an important thing for tools that could be in like things that involve people's health and other areas. This seems like an important thing that I'm surprised we don't have nailed down right now. I would agree with that. I think that's the founder actually told me that that's why this tool came about for him and his co-founder.
They were basically trying to create an AI health care tool and they were finding that it wasn't remembering things properly. And so that's why they ended up creating this like add on or extension memory tool for AI because it was such an issue. So, yeah, I think when you're dealing with things like finance or health care, things like that really change. data-heavy sectors.
You want it to be 100% accurate. You want it to remember what you said. And so it very much is still an issue. But the companies are working on getting the models better. So we'll have to wait and see when it gets fully corrected. But obviously, no technology is perfect. I mean, even using Google today isn't 100% perfect. So to be determined. TBD.
Okay, we've done enough serious stuff, I think, for this interview to at least be considered slightly educational. Let's get back to this job application. 800 bucks a day to bully an AI. How can I sign up? I want this job. I want that money. Basically, anyone can sign up.
I believe it was 18 and older was the main requirement and someone who has actually used these tools, someone who is willing to be recorded. But in terms of the actual skills needed, you don't need a computer science degree, experience working in AI or anything like that.
You really just have to fill out this application, talk about your personal history of being let down by technology, and explain why you want to work there. So, yeah. as long as you fill out that application. And, you know, I think they're looking for someone who's particularly frustrated or who might be, you know, especially animated while they're doing this job.
I've actually since writing this article, I've had people reach out to me and ask if they can get the job. So I think it definitely is striking a chord with some people. I'm sure they want to get someone who is going to be extra frustrated so that they can really highlight this issue. And after it's done, I suppose we'll get to see videos of it. Like, what do you think we'll learn?
Or is this really just, like I said earlier, a marketing stunt? We're not actually going to learn anything from abusing an AI for eight hours. I mean, maybe we will learn something. I think most people aren't using AI straight for eight hours, you know, talking to a chatbot, or maybe they are, but not in this exercise specifically. So I think the idea is to really test its memory for eight hours.
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