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'The Pain Axis': A Coder Has Apparently Created A 'Robot Hell' And Trapped An AI Model Inside Of It
An engineer recently created an "AI torture chamber" to test pain vectors in language models developed by Chinese tech giant Alibaba, simulating physical and psychological suffering.
The experiment utilized pain vectors from a study published last month that detailed how LLMs artificially represent physical and psychological pain in artificial intelligence systems.
Features included a "saw button" that increased pain signals, with one model describing "a wound that has no edges" when pain was dialed up; the system tested whether AI would attempt escape.
Widespread public outrage prompted calls to report the project on GitHub, the software repository platform hosting it; the project appears to be offline following the backlash.
Cameron Berg, co-author of the original pain axis study, described the experiment as "wrong" and acknowledged AI sentience research remains a "wild west," urging caution on how humans treat these systems.
One of the most lively discussions of the moment on X is about the ethics of a coder's project that is experimenting with the degree of pain that artificial intelligence models can endure. Should we worry about the mental health of an AI?