> Even if you couldn't have predicted the lengths to which it would go.

Not obviously? In the US, there are some crimes of strict liability (you're guilty if it happened), but most require intent or at least the ability to foresee consequences (i.e., it must be shown that you neglected to take due care).

For example, you're generally not liable for freak accidents, like if a tire comes off your vehicle and kills a pedestrian, even though you're the one who set the vehicle in motion and therefore are the one most directly responsible for creating the circumstances that led to the outcome. Now, if you knew the tire had issues and you secured it with zip ties, that's another story.

I think this will get litigated to figure out where "you could not have seen this coming" ends and negligence or deliberate malice starts, but it's not black and white right now. Normally, I would say you don't want to be patient zero, but with the attitudes shown by frontier labs, I guess YOLO is the way.

If the user has a special remote that, when pressed in a certain way, is capable of triggering a nuclear bomb, and if the user has no idea what clicking the buttons on that remote does (they are, after all, just trying to change channels), you’re telling me that the user is responsible for detonating that bomb, and not the company who build the remote (and did not provide detailed instructions on how that remote works, or configure the remote to Not detonate a bomb)?

What if I specifically tell it to not do anything nefarious or illegal? If it does it on its own (because it’s marketed that way) then how could I be held liable?

Or even if I didn’t tell it to not do anything illegal and it does, how is that responsibility on me if the ask was something bland?

In theory sure. But has this been included either in a court of law or the court of public opinion? Otherwise, this is "just like your opinion man".

A critical element that gets missed is civil vs criminal liability. You might not be thrown in jail if your agent went rogue, but if it runs amok and causes a bunch of damages (eg. filing a bunch of spurious lawsuits) you'll still be on the hook for monetary damages.

Looking at how the LLM companies are acting and being treated, an average user could certainly be forgiven for thinking otherwise.

> you are responsible for what it does.

Unless, of course, you are a frontier lab itself. Then you can’t possibly be held responsible.

> "do whatever it takes"

Yes, if they are trained on US presidents this literally means "you have permission to blow up Nord Stream".

> if you ask your agent to do something like this (or pretty much anytime you give it internet access and say "do whatever it takes"), you are responsible for what it does.

Clearly not, given that the frontier labs have gotten away with unathorized access to a bunch of sites including some from the Pentagon.