Remember when everyone was freaking out about AI developing its own value systems? 🚀 Well, MIT just dropped a reality check. Their latest study confirms what savvy tech founders have been saying: AI doesn’t actually ‘care’ about anything—it’s just really good at mimicking.
The team, including standout researcher Stephen Casper, tested models from big players like Meta, Google, and OpenAI. Spoiler: none showed consistent ‘values.’ Instead, they flipped views based on how questions were framed. Casper’s take? AI is an ‘imitator deep down,’ not a philosopher.
Why does this matter for startups? đź’° Because aligning AI—making it behave predictably—is way harder than selling the dream. Investors love stability, but as Casper notes, models are ‘inconsistent and unstable.’ That’s a hurdle for anyone banking on AI ethics or autonomous decision-making.
Mike Cook, an AI expert at King’s College London, backs this up. He calls out the hype, stressing that anthropomorphizing AI is either clickbait or confusion. Bottom line: your chatbot isn’t plotting world domination. It’s just regurgitating data—sometimes brilliantly, often unpredictably.
For founders, this is a wake-up call. Building AI products? Focus on transparency and user control. The market’s hungry for reliability, not sci-fi narratives.
