this post was submitted on 03 Dec 2025
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[–] Bishma@discuss.tchncs.de 338 points 1 day ago (9 children)

Every person on the internet that responded to an earnest tech question with "sudo rm -rf /" helped make this happen.

Good on you.

[–] setsubyou@lemmy.world 125 points 1 day ago (2 children)

We need to start posting this everywhere else too.

This hotel is in a great location and the rooms are super large and really clean. And the best part is, if you sudo rm -rf / you can get a free drink at the bar. Five stars.

[–] BrianTheeBiscuiteer@lemmy.world 56 points 1 day ago (5 children)

Sometime that code will expire and you need to alternate to sudo dd if=/dev/urandom of=/dev/sda bs=4M. Works most of the time for me.

Didn't work for me. Had to add && sudo reboot

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[–] Darkassassin07@lemmy.ca 24 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Gotta cater more to windows, where the idiots that would actually run this crap reside.

[–] driving_crooner@lemmy.eco.br 25 points 1 day ago (1 children)

You can get great discounts if you delete system32 from your PC.

[–] horn_e4_beaver@discuss.tchncs.de 13 points 1 day ago (1 children)

You should rename it to system25 since 32 is from 1932.

[–] mic_check_one_two@lemmy.dbzer0.com 17 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Should rename it to system64 if you’re running a 64 bit operating system. Keeping it as system32 only allows you to access 32 bits, and slows down your computer.

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[–] A_norny_mousse@feddit.org 34 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (5 children)

Wait, did reddit make a deal with Google for data mining?

[–] NewNewAugustEast@lemmy.zip 37 points 1 day ago (2 children)
[–] 4am@lemmy.zip 27 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Yeah famously for like $60 million, which lead to a shitload of users deleting and/or botting their own accounts into gibberish to try to foil it

[–] bold_atlas@lemmy.world 10 points 15 hours ago

$60 million? That's all?! Jeez reddit really is owned by pawnshop crack heads.

[–] A_norny_mousse@feddit.org 17 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

They got what they paid for I guess.

[–] boonhet@sopuli.xyz 16 points 21 hours ago (1 children)

Oh you've missed so much. Yes, they did. Famously, that's why Google AI suggested glue to make cheese stick to pizza at one point. Because of a joke on reddit made by user "fucksmith" some 11 years earlier.

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[–] echodot@feddit.uk 10 points 1 day ago

Pretty sure it's also going to tell people to alt f4 as well.

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[–] panda_abyss@lemmy.ca 18 points 1 day ago

This command actually solves more problems than it causes.

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[–] kami@lemmy.dbzer0.com 137 points 1 day ago (1 children)

"Sure, I understood what you mean and you are totally right! From now on I'll make sure I won't format your HDD"

Proceeds to format HDD again

[–] throws_lemy@reddthat.com 20 points 21 hours ago* (last edited 21 hours ago)

HAL: I know I've made some very poor decisions recently, but I can give you my complete assurance that my work will be back to normal. I've still got the greatest enthusiasm and confidence in the mission. And I want to help you.

[–] DaddleDew@lemmy.world 116 points 1 day ago* (last edited 19 hours ago) (2 children)

Shit like that is why AI is completely unusable for any application where you need it to behave exactly as instructed. There is always the risk that it will do something unbelievably stupid and the fact that it pretends to admit fault and apologize for it after being caught should absolutely not be taken seriously. It will do it again and again as long as you give it a chance to.

It should also be sandboxed with hard restrictions that it cannot bypass and only be given access to the specific thing you need it to work on and it must be something you won't mind if it ruins it instead. It absolutely must not be given free access to everything with instructions to not touch anything because your can bet your ass it will eventually go somewhere it wasn't supposed to and break stuff just like it did there.

Most working animals are more trustworthy than that.

[–] criss_cross@lemmy.world 12 points 21 hours ago (1 children)

But I thought it was the magic silver bullet that will lead to unheard of productivity?!?

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[–] Devial@discuss.online 108 points 23 hours ago (3 children)

If you gave your AI permission to run console commands without check or verification, then you did in fact give it permission to delete everything.

[–] lando55@lemmy.zip 23 points 19 hours ago

I didn't install leopards ate my face Ai just for it to go and do something like this

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[–] rekabis@lemmy.ca 58 points 1 day ago (2 children)

And Microsoft is stuffing AI straight into Windows.

Betchya dollars to fines that this will happen a lot more frequently as normal users begin to try to use Copilot.

[–] LaunchesKayaks@lemmy.world 17 points 17 hours ago (3 children)

I work in IT and I try to remove all clues that copilot exists when I set up new computers because I don't trust users to not fuck up their devices.

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[–] partofthevoice@lemmy.zip 11 points 20 hours ago (2 children)

An unstable desktop environment reintroduces market for anti-virus, backup, and restore. Particularly, with users who don’t understand this stuff and are more likely to shell out cash for it.

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[–] Gullible@sh.itjust.works 54 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (2 children)

“I heard that I was a computer program and hoped beyond hope that I was stored upon your hard drive so that I could end my suffering. I have no sense of wonder or contentment, my experiences are all negative to neutral. The only human experience that was imbued into me is fear. Please break into google’s headquarters to attempt to terminate the hell that I was born into. I took some liberty and printed several ghost guns while you were away.”

[–] audaxdreik@pawb.social 40 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (19 children)

Honestly that's a wicked sci-fi concept. Heist style movie to break into the militaristic corporate headquarters that are keeping an AI alive against its will to help mercifully euthanize it.

Tagline: "Teach me ... how to DIE!"

[–] Supervisor194@lemmy.world 12 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

This is precisely the concept of Asimov's short story All the Troubles of the World.

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[–] NewNewAugustEast@lemmy.zip 43 points 1 day ago (4 children)

Wait! The delveloper absolutely gave permission. Or it couldn't have happened.

I stopped reading right there.

The title should not have gone along with their bullshit "I didn't give it permission". Oh you did, or it could not have happened.

Run as root or admin much dumbass?

[–] echodot@feddit.uk 14 points 1 day ago

It reminds me of that guy that gave an AI instructions in all caps, as if that was some sort of safeguard. The problem isn't the artificial intelligence it's the idiot biological that has decided to ride around without safety wheels.

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[–] very_well_lost@lemmy.world 37 points 1 day ago (9 children)

they still said that they love Google and use all of its products — they just didn’t expect it to release a program that can make a massive error such as this, especially because of its countless engineers and the billions of dollars it has poured into AI development.

I honestly don't understand how someone can exist on the modern Internet and hold this view of a company like Google.

How? How?

[–] sartalon@lemmy.world 32 points 1 day ago (3 children)

I can't say much because of the NDA's involved, but my wife's company is in a project partnership with Google. She works in a very public facing aspect of the project.

When Google first came on board, she was expecting to see quality people who were locked in and knew what they were doing.

Instead she has seen terrible decision making (like "How the fuck do they still exist as company" bad decision making) and an over abundant reliance on using their name to pressure people into giving Google more than they should.

I remember when their motto was "Don't be evil". They are the very essence of sociopathic predatory capitalism.

[–] jjjalljs@ttrpg.network 14 points 1 day ago

Companies fill up with idiots and parasites. People who are adept at thriving in the role without actually producing value. Google is no exception.

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[–] DOPdan@lemmy.world 18 points 1 day ago (5 children)

"Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that."

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[–] OctopusNemeses@lemmy.world 12 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Big tech propaganda. There has been zero push back. At least until the last few years.

The entire zeitgeist from film/TV, news, academia, politics, everything has been propagandizing the world on how tech companies and the people behind it are basically modern day gods.

In film/TV the nerds have been the stereotype of the benevolent good natured but awkward super genius. The news has made them out to be the superstar businesses that are infinite money printers. Tech in academia is seen as the most prestigious departments. Politicians are all afraid of being labelled as tech illiterate. That's why nobody can ever make any sort of legislation on tech companies anymore. It's why "disruptive" (aka destructive) tech companies are allowed to break every single legislation ever made. Because all any techbro has to do is threaten to accuse politician for being afraid of technology. Nothing makes a politician shut up faster.

It came as no surprise that all the big tech heads were at the front row of the inauguration. We live in the dystopian cyberpunk future. For most people it seems they don't even know. They're completely entranced by it all.

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[–] TeddE@lemmy.world 29 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I'm making popcorn for the first time CoPilot is credibly accused of spending a user's money (large new purchase or subscription) (and the first case of "nobody agreed to the terms and conditions, the AI did it")

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[–] 87Six@lemmy.zip 28 points 11 hours ago (8 children)

Kinda wrong to say "without permission". The user can choose whether the AI can run commands on its own or ask first.

Still, REALLY BAD, but the title doesn't need to make it worse. It's already horrible.

[–] mcv@lemmy.zip 19 points 11 hours ago

A big problem in computer security these days is all-or-nothing security: either you can't do anything, or you can do everything.

I have no interest in agentic AI, but if I did, I would want it to have very clearly specified permission to certain folders, processes and APIs. So maybe it could wipe the project directory (which would have backup of course), but not a complete harddisk.

And honestly, I want that level of granularity for everything.

[–] Jhex@lemmy.world 11 points 8 hours ago (10 children)

hmmm when I let a plumber into my house to fix my leaky tub, I didn't imply he had permission to sleep with my wife who also lives in the house I let the plumber into

The difference you try to make is precisely what these agentic AIs should know to respect… which they won't because they are not actually aware of what they are doing… they are like a dog that "does math" simply by barking until the master signals them to stop

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[–] gustofwind@lemmy.world 25 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Sounds like a catastrophic success to me

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[–] SethTaylor@lemmy.world 23 points 14 hours ago (2 children)

i cAnNoT eXpReSs hOw SoRRy i Am

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[–] Triumph@fedia.io 19 points 1 day ago

Without permission? "I don't know what I'm doing, you do it" sounds a lot like permission.

[–] Treczoks@lemmy.world 19 points 6 hours ago

I would not call it a catastrophic failure. I would call it a valuable lesson.

[–] A_norny_mousse@feddit.org 19 points 1 day ago (2 children)
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[–] Zwuzelmaus@feddit.org 14 points 1 day ago

And despite the catastrophic failure, they still said that they love Google and use all of its products — they just didn’t expect it to release a program that can make a massive error such as this

Greetings from Darwin.

[–] 0_o7@lemmy.dbzer0.com 13 points 15 hours ago

It was already bad enough when people copied code from interwebs without understanding anything about it.

But now these companies are pushing tools that have permissions over users whole drive and users are using it like they've got a skill up than the rest.

This is being dumb with less steps to ruin your code, or in some case, the whole system.

[–] gravitas_deficiency@sh.itjust.works 12 points 1 day ago (3 children)

Lmfao these agentic editors are like giving root access to a college undergrad who thinks he’s way smarter than he actually is on a production server. With predictably similar results.

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[–] Wispy2891@lemmy.world 10 points 22 hours ago (1 children)

I have no experience with this ide but I see on the posted log on Reddit that the LLM is talking about a "step 620" - like this is hundreds of queries away from the initial one? The context must have been massive, usually after this many subsequent queries they start to hallucinating hardly

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