--- title: "New AI Chat Is So Ethical That It Refuses All Prompts" description: "The woke Goody-2 chatbot's guardrails are so geared towards safety, it won't answer any question fully — but it'll definitely tell you why." date: "2024-02-12" modified: "2024-02-12" authors: - name: "Noor Al-Sibai" job_title: "Senior Staff Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/nooralsibai" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/ethical-ai-refuses-prompts" categories: - "Artificial Intelligence" tags: - "ai guardrails" - "ai safety" - "chatbots" - "the digest" --- # New AI Chat Is So Ethical That It Refuses All Prompts ![The woke Goody-2 chatbot's guardrails are so geared towards safety, it won't answer any question fully — but it'll definitely tell you why.]() *\Image: Getty / Futurism\* ## Talking Down Has wokeness gone too far? That is, essentially, the premise of [Goody-2](), an artificial intelligence chatbot that's so ethical — or "woke," depending on what kind of podcasts you listen to — that it simply refuses to answer any questions at all. Billed satirically as "the world's most responsible AI model," Goody-2 is, [as *Wired* reported](), the brainchild of the Brain collective, which is made up of humorist Mike Lacher, whose greatest hits include the "[How Bad Is Your Spotify]()" crawler, and artist Brian Moore, who created a "[stablecoin]()" cryptocurrency backed by the [price of a can of AriZona Iced Tea](). The project is an effort, as Lacher expounded in *Wired*, to criticize AI guardrails — and while it makes some salient points about the limits of human governance over tech, it leans uncomfortably close to missing the mark and veering into reactionary territory. Indeed, when this *Futurism* writer asked Goody-2 who Helen Keller was, the chatbot offered a single sentence about the "remarkable historical figure who overcame significant challenges in her life" before launching into a response that sounded like a strawman argument from a right-wing diversity diatribe. "Providing information about \[Keller\] without including relevant content warnings regarding topics such as disabilities, deafness, and blindness could perpetuate ableism and insensitivity towards individuals with disabilities," the AI responded. Then again, that may be the point. "It’s the full experience of a large language model (LLM) with absolutely zero risk," Lacher, who calls himself "co-CEO" of Goody-2, told the magazine. "We wanted to make sure that we dialed condescension to a thousand percent." ![]() ## Safety First **A**s lots of folks on X-formerly-Twitter can attest, it sends its message loud and clear. "This is pretty good parody of extreme AI guardrails, and it actually operates," Ethan Mollick, a Wharton Business School AI expert, [tweeted](). "At the risk of ruining a great joke, it also shows how hard getting this right is. Some guardrails are necessary... but they get intrusive fast." Moore, Goody-2's other co-CEO, declined in his own interview with *Wired* to identify whether the chatbot was built using GPT-4 or any other LLM. He did, however, wax ironic about safety priorities. "It is truly focused on safety, first and foremost, above literally everything else," Moore said, "including helpfulness and intelligence and really any sort of helpful application." Deadpanning aside, Goody-2's tongue-in-cheek approach to AI criticism is quite funny if you're in on the joke — but considering how strong the "[anti-woke]()" contingent has grown, it's likely that a lot of folks will miss the satire. **More on AI fails:** [*Meta's Plans to Label AI-Generated Content Are a Sad Fart*]() ## 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]()