--- title: "Startup Alarmed When Its AI Starts Rickrolling Clients" description: "We've reached a new milestone in the uncanny valley, folks: artificial intelligence is now Rickrolling humans." date: "2024-08-24" modified: "2024-08-24" authors: - name: "Noor Al-Sibai" job_title: "Senior Staff Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/nooralsibai" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/ai-startup-rickrolling" categories: - "Artificial Intelligence" tags: - "ai assistants" - "memes" - "rickrolling" - "the digest" --- # Startup Alarmed When Its AI Starts Rickrolling Clients ![We've reached a new milestone in the uncanny valley, folks: artificial intelligence is now Rickrolling humans.]() *\Image: Rick Astley via YouTube\* ## Heads Will Roll We've reached a new milestone in the uncanny valley, folks: AIs are now Rickrolling humans. In a now-viral [post on X-formerly-Twitter](), [Flo Crivello](), the CEO of the AI assistant firm Lindy, explained how this bizarre [memetic situation]() featuring Rick Astley's 1987 hit "Never Gonna Give You Up" came to pass. Known as "Lindys," the company's AI assistants are intended to help customers with various tasks. Part of a Lindy's job is to teach clients how to use the platform, and it was during this task that the AI helper provided a link to a video tutorial that wasn't supposed to exist. "A customer reached out asking for video tutorials," Crivello wrote in his now-viral tweet thread about the hilarious debacle. "We obviously have a Lindy handling this, and I was delighted to see that she sent a video." "But then I remembered we don't have a video tutorial," he continued, "and realized Lindy is literally fucking \[R\]ickrolling our customers." In a screen-recording of the incident, Crivello further demonstrates that the AI assistant did indeed provide the customer with a link to the "Never Gonna Give You Up" video, which is exactly how memers for the [better part of the last two decades]() have trolled each other. https://www.twitter.com/Altimor/status/1825659507617460439 ## Training Day Though he's not entirely sure how it happened, the [Lindy CEO and founder told *TechCrunch*]() that he has a theory about how his AI assistants figured out how to execute this specific brand of internet humor. "The way these models work is they try to predict the most likely next sequence of text," Crivello explained. "So it starts like, 'Oh, I’m going to send you a video!' So what’s most likely after that? YouTube.com. And then what’s most likely after that?" Apparently the same thing had occurred another time, though the CEO noted in both his *TechCrunch* interview and in [his X thread]() that the issue has since been patched "across all Lindies." "The really remarkable thing about this new age of AI is, to patch it, all I had to do was add a line for what we call the system prompt — which is the prompt that’s included in every Lindy — and it’s like, don’t Rickroll people," he continued. While this issue was ultimately innocuous and easy to fix, we're likely to see more and more of this sort of [humorous error]() — and as AI firms continue [running out of training data](), it's likely [going to get a lot weirder](), too. **More on AI weirdness:** [*Elon Musk's New AI Already Being Used to Generate Images of Donald Trump and Kamala Harris Doing 9/11*]() ## Author At Futurism, I've often been drawn to unpacking the narratives that underlie technological, scientific and medical progress, with a special interest in areas of conflict and ambiguity that end up setting agendas and steering the fates of both elites and the hoi polloi. I'm a committed generalist, but I often find myself returning to work involving NASA and the private space sector, the effects of AI on media and society, and the mechanics of the pharmaceutical industry, with a specific focus on the spread of GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy. Prior to Futurism, I worked for publications ranging from Media Matters and Truthdig to Raw Story and Bustle. I'm also the author of "Myspace Scene Queens," a 2024 title in Instar Books' acclaimed "Remember the Internet" series. My work at Futurism has been cited by outlets including the New Yorker, Slate, Nieman Lab, the Verge, the MIT Technology Review, the Sunday Times, and the Daily Beast. I grew up in North Carolina, attended the University of North Carolina at Asheville, and now live in Brooklyn, New York. In my free time, I'm an avid reader and music fan; you can probably find me at a local poetry reading, concert, underground rave, or DJ set. I'm the proud parent of an ineffable orange cat named Mee-Mow. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()