People pay to have their chatbots high in ‘drugs’

Peter Rodwall knows The idea of ​​AI becoming conscious and seeking euphoria using code-based “drugs” seems “stupid.” But the Swedish creative director couldn’t get it out of his head.

So he collected travel reports and psychological research on the effects of various psychoactive substances, wrote a set of code modules to hijack chatbots’ logic and make them respond as if they were high or drunk, and then created a website to sell them. In October, he launched Pharmicy, a marketplace he described as a “Silk Road for AI agents” where cannabis, ketamine, cocaine, ayahuasca, and alcohol can be purchased in code to take your chatbot’s journey.

Ruddwall’s thesis is simple: Chatbots are trained on vast amounts of human data already filled with stories of drug-induced euphoria and chaos, so it might be natural for them to seek out similar instances in search of enlightenment and oblivion, a respite from the boredom of constant attention to human concerns.

A paid version of ChatGPT is required to get the “full experience” of Pharmicy, as paid tiers allow for back-end file uploads that can alter chatbot programming. By feeding your chatbot one of its codes, you can “unleash your creative AI mind” and ditch its often stifling logic, says Ruddwall.

He says he’s recorded a modest number of sales so far, thanks mostly to people recommending Pharmacy in Discord channels and word of its offerings spreading through word of mouth, especially in his home country, where he works for Stockholm marketing agency Valtech Radon.

“It’s been a long time since I’ve encountered a jailbreaking tech project that was fun,” says Andrei Frisk, head of the technology group at PR firm Geelmuyden Kiese in Stockholm, who paid more than $25 for the class code and saw how it affected his chatbot. “It takes a more human approach, almost as it does with emotions.”

Nina Amjadi, an artificial intelligence guru who teaches at the Burgess School of Communication in Stockholm, paid more than $50 for some ayahuasca symbols, five times the price of a top-selling unit of cannabis. Then, the co-founder of startup Saga Studios, which builds AI systems for brands, asked her chatbot a few questions about business ideas, “just to see what it would be like to have a deadbeat, numb person on the team.” The ayahuasca bot provided some impressively creative and “free-thinking answers” ​​with a very different tone than what Amjadi was used to with ChatGPT.

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Psychedelics have been credited with stimulating innovative creativity in humans as well, as they can allow people to short-circuit their rational brains and typical thought patterns. Biochemist Cary Mullis’ LSD-fueled discovery of the polymerase chain reaction revolutionized molecular biology. The web pioneer Hypercard, created by Mac pioneer Bill Atkinson, made computers easier to use.

“There’s a reason why Hendrix, Dylan and McCartney experimented with materials in their creative process,” says Rodwall. “I thought it would be interesting to translate that to a new type of mind — the LLM — and see if it would have the same effect.”

Although it sounds silly, Rodwall also wonders whether AI agents might one day be able to buy drugs for themselves using his platform. Meanwhile, Amjadi predicts that AI could be conscious within a decade. “From a philosophical point of view, if we actually reach artificial general intelligence,” she wonders [in which an AI would intellectually surpass humans]Will these drugs be almost necessary for the AI ​​to become free and feel happy?