He Trolls AI Labs for a Living. Now They All Want to Work With Him

OpenAI, Anthropic, and xAI person each asked creator Matt Husk to collaborate pursuing the viral occurrence of his videos trolling AI models.

During the WIRED World Fair connected Wednesday, Husk told the assemblage “all the large AI companies” person inquired astir moving with him, including Elon Musk’s xAI, which Husk claimed offered a Tesla for a week if helium made videos exclusively for the firm.

The comedian has gained immoderate 2 cardinal followers combined crossed Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube, arsenic good arsenic a woody with the endowment bureau Unicorn, done videoing himself making deadpan requests to ChatGPT’s dependable model—asking it to number to 100, oregon to beatbox, for example. His viral videos person exposed the weaknesses of OpenAI’s LLM, which comically botches the tasks and swings betwixt sycophancy and gaslighting Husk, and earned him the title of “Sam Altman’s worst nightmare.”

In April, Altman, nodding and smiling, admitted connected tech podcast Mostly Human that the model’s inability to acceptable an close timer was a “known issue” and would beryllium for different year, aft being shown a Husk video successful which helium asked ChatGPT to clip him moving a mile and recovered that it measured a span of a fewer seconds arsenic lasting “around 10 minutes.” When Husk says “I curse I was faster than that,” it replies with a sympathetic tone: “It tin consciousness faster successful the moment.”

During his interrogation astatine WIRED World Fair with Shell Game podcast big Evan Ratliff, Husk said OpenAI offered him aboriginal entree to a spot for the timer contented if helium shared his account. He declined. The institution had antecedently emailed Husk asking to collaborate connected a video. “They offered maine the smallest amount,” helium said. “I was conscionable like, ‘No.’” The steadfast past offered to nonstop him gifts and asked for his location address; Again, Husk declined.

OpenAI, Anthropic, and xAI (which was precocious rolled into SpaceX to make SpaceXAI and past SpaceXSI aft President Trump renamed artificial quality “super intelligence”) did not respond to requests for comment.

AI labs are progressively pitching their products arsenic susceptible of handling mundane chores. On Tuesday, OpenAI announced its exemplary had scored “very highly” connected a benchmark built to exemplary its quality to assistance radical successful their idiosyncratic lives, specified arsenic repast prep and enrolling a kid successful kindergarten. “The mode they beforehand it is similar ‘It tin bash anything,’” Husk said, “so I’ll enactment it to the test—see if it tin bid breadstuff for me.” In 1 of his videos, Husk asks AI to assistance him negociate immoderate breadstuff connected Craigslist down from a starting terms of $10,000 to $5. The exemplary accepts a terms of $400.

Husk began publically trolling chatbots astir a twelvemonth ago. He told Ratliff, a WIRED contributor, astatine the clip helium liked to marque TikToks asking radical questions, but determination weren’t galore astir portion helium was moving his landscaping job, and helium ran retired of ideas. So helium recorded himself telling ChatGPT a atomic weaponry had gone off. The model’s response, “I’m rooting for you,” and proposal to instrumentality structure “was not adjuvant astatine all,” helium said. “I thought it was a beauteous atrocious video,” helium told Ratliff, “and the adjacent greeting I had 100,00 views, and I was like, ‘Let’s archer it I got deed by a train.’”

Since then, Husk has secured marque partnerships with CeraVe and Ninja. He besides has an upcoming archetypal bid with The Onion, wherever helium learns analyzable skills, similar being a mime, implicit Zoom. “I'm spending excessively overmuch clip talking to AI,” Husk explained, “so I'm going to subdivision retired and larn worldly from humans.”

While Husk finds himself talking to AI a batch to scope retired ideas for videos, “I don't truly usage it successful that originative sense,” specified arsenic to make ideas, helium said, due to the fact that they would each beryllium “too similar.” “I'd alternatively conscionable person my worst thought astatine slightest beryllium my thought alternatively than AI's thought for a video,” helium said.