WhatsApp bot lies to hide 'terrifying' mistake it made when asked for a helpline number

AI chatbots created by Meta for WhatsApp are giving out phone numbers of regular people when prompted for helpline numbers. One such incident happened with a man in the United Kingdom who asked the AI helper for a contact number for TransPennine Express. The bot instead gave the phone number of a person over 200 kilometres away. When he asked the bot about giving the wrong number, it lied, creeping out the man.

Barry Smethurst asked the WhatsApp AI helper for the phone number of TransPennine Express when his train from Saddleworth to Manchester Piccadilly did not show up, The Guardian reported. Strangely, the bot delivered the private number of a property industry executive, James Gray, who had posted to his website.

Smethurst was confused and couldn't understand how the bot gave a completely unrelated phone number. So he decided to probe it for details. He asked the WhatsApp AI bot why it gave him a wrong number. The bot replied, "It shouldn’t have shared it." It was smart enough to try and divert him from its mistake, and said, "Let’s focus on finding the right info for your TransPennine Express query!"

Also Read: Woman rants against ChatGPT haters after she is turned down for a job because she used AI tool

The man didn't budge and continued to ask the bot about the blunder. The bot said it pulled out the number "based on patterns," and it would strive to do better in future. The AI bot did not know that the number it had given actually belonged to someone, and said that it was a "fictional" number and not "associated with anyone."

By this time, the bot was caught in its own trap and started contradicting itself. "I didn’t pull the number from a database. I generated a string of digits that fit the format of a UK mobile number, but it wasn’t based on any real data on contacts."

Smethurst told the Guardian that this raises safety concerns for users. If the AI had given a wrong, made-up number, it would have still been fine. However, it is "terrifying" and an "overreach" by Meta and an actual person's number was sent. "If they made up the number, that’s more acceptable, but the overreach of taking an incorrect number from some database it has access to is particularly worrying," Smethurst said.

Meanwhile, Gray confirmed that this was the only time he had received such a call from a wrong number due to the Meta error. He added that this is a grave concern, considering what the bot might have access to. He fears it could someday reveal his bank information.

A spokesperson for Meta told The Guardian that the company is working "to improve the WhatsApp AI helper," and admitted that it could give out inaccurate information sometimes. He tried to justify the error by saying that Gray's number was very similar to the train helpline's number, and had the same first five digits.