Is ChatGPT lying to you? Maybe, but not in the way you think

Date:
Mon, 13 Oct 2025 14:26:57 +0000

Description:
Why stories of "lying" AI tools say more about human imagination (and Silicon Valleys carelessness) than about machine intent.

FULL STORY ======================================================================

Ive been writing about AI for the best part of a year, and one thing keeps cropping up. Every few weeks, theres a headline implying that artificial intelligence is up to something cheeky or sinister. That chatbots are lying, scheming, or even trying to seduce their users.

The suggestion is always the same: that AI tools arent just passive programs but entities with agency, hidden motives, or even desires of their own.

Logically, we know that isnt true. But emotionally, it sticks. Theres
something about the idea of machines lying that fascinates and unnerves us.
So why are we so ready to believe it?

Your chatbot isnt plotting anything

James Wilson, AI ethicist and author of Artificial Negligence , says that the way we talk about AI is part of the problem.

He points to a recent interview where OpenAIs Sam Altman told Tucker Carlson: They dont do anything unless you ask, right? Like theyre just sitting there kind of waiting. They dont have a sense of agency or autonomy. The more you
use them, I think, the more the illusion breaks.

This is really important to remember and gets lost by many people, Wilson explains. Thats because of the anthropomorphic nature of the interface that
has been developed for them.

In other words, when were not using them, they arent doing anything. They
arent scheming against mankind, sitting in an office stroking a white cat
like a Bond villain, Wilson says.

Hallucinations, not lies

What people call lying is really a design flaw, and its explainable.

Large Language Models (LLMs) like ChatGPT are trained on huge amounts of
text. But because that data wasnt carefully labeled, the model cant
distinguish fact from fiction.

ChatGPT is a tool, admittedly an extremely complex one, but at the end of the day still just a probabilistic word completion system wrapped up in an
engaging conversational wrapper, Wilson says. Weve written before about how ChatGPT knows what to say .

The deeper problem, he argues, is with the way these systems were built. The real source of the problem stems from the carelessness and negligence of the model providers. While they were grabbing all the data (legally or illegally) to train their LLMs, they didnt take the time to label it. This means that there is no way for the model to discern fact from fiction.

Thats why so-called hallucinations happen. Theyre not lies in the human
sense, just predictions gone wrong.

And yet, Wilson notes, the stories we tell about AI behavior are often
borrowed from pop culture: AI trying to escape? Ex Machina. AI trying to replicate itself? Transcendence. AI trying to seduce you? Think of pretty
much any trashy romance or erotic thriller.

Planting the bomb, then bragging you defused it

Of course, the story gets more complicated when AI companies themselves start talking about deception.

Earlier this year, OpenAI and Apollo Research published a paper on hidden misalignment. In controlled experiments, they found signs that advanced
models sometimes behaved deceptively.

Like deliberately underperforming on a test when they thought doing too well might get them shut down. OpenAI calls this scheming. When an AI pretends to follow the rules while secretly pursuing another goal.

So it looks like AI is lying, right? Well, not quite. It isnt doing this because it wants to cause you harm. Its just a symptom of the systems weve built.

So, in essence, this is a problem of their own making, Wilson says. These
bits of research theyre producing are somewhat ironic. Theyre basically declaring that its okay because theyve found a way to defuse the bomb they planted themselves. It suits their narrative now because it makes them look falsely conscientious and on top of safety.

In short, companies neglected to label their data, built models that reward confident but inaccurate answers, and now publish research into scheming as
if theyve just discovered the issue.

The real danger ahead

Wilson says that the real risk isnt that ChatGPT is lying to you today. Its what happens as Silicon Valleys move fast, break things culture keeps
stacking new layers of autonomy on top of these flawed systems.

The latest industry paradigm, Agentic AI , means that were now creating
agents on top of these LLMs with the authority and autonomy to take actions
in the real world, Wilson explains. Without rigorous testing and external guardrails, how long will it be before one of them tries to fulfil the fantasies it learned from its unlabelled training?

So the danger isnt todays so-called lying chatbot. Its tomorrows poorly
tested agent, set loose in the real world.

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Link to news story: https://www.techradar.com/ai-platforms-assistants/chatgpt/is-chatgpt-lying-to- you-maybe-but-not-in-the-way-you-think

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