Anonymous Wanderers

Being lethal with things: a 60€/hour job?

A few days after posting Getting lethal with things, I did follow my own advice.

I had written Getting lethal after a petty bank transfer of 186€ from my account with online bank A to my account with online bank B. Bank A sent the money straight away. Bank B received the money within seconds and withheld the funds because the 3 words I used for my own reference were perceived as suspect by some stupid filter. This I learned from an automated email I received a few minutes after the transfer.

The first word was a first name, the second word was solar, the third word was the German word for installation. The filter had associated the first name as potentially a "vessel" and I was asked to provide either the full birth record of the named person, or the details of the company I was referring to, or the full records regarding the ship in question. I was also asked further questions about the two other words. Clearly a case of utterly stupid coding or prompting.

I needed the funds on the spot, so I fired Bank B's app, clicked the Customer support link in relation to the withheld funds. I was obviously plugged with a useless bot, which I dismissed with anger to engage peacefully with a human being. This genuine human being acknowledged my issue and helped as far as she could: she could only feed the system with the information I gave her about the 3 words. The algorithm rules. The humans are not trusted.

Two days later, my ridiculously little funds are still in the custody of the system. So, I followed the advice I had laid in my post.

Bot 5:42pm: Could you confirm if you're waiting for money someone sent to your BotBank account, or a transfer you initiated yourself?

Me 5:44pm: I am languishing to be able to use my resources, or that these resources are returned to me immediately.

Bot 5:44pm: Could you confirm if you're asking about money someone sent to your BotBank account that's not yet available to use?

Bot 5:47pm: Could you confirm if you still need help with your delayed funds? I haven't heard back from you, so I wanted to check before closing this conversation.

Me 5:47pm: I am effectively and without possible doubt expecting the finalisation of this transaction to my utmost satisfaction

Bot 5:48pm: Could you confirm if this is about money sent into your BotBank account that hasn't arrived yet?

Me 5:48pm: How should I do to reinforce further the subject of my longing?

Bot 5:50pm: Could you confirm if you're referring to money that should be arriving into your BotBank account?

Me 5:50pm: How could it possibly be another topic?

Bot 5:51pm: Could you confirm if this money was sent to your BotBank account via bank transfer? If so, was it a local transfer like SEPA, or an international SWIFT transfer? I need this detail to check the appropriate timeline for your transfer.

Me 5:51pm: I haven't found out yet other ways to ensure the distribution of my resources to the outlet that are provided to me by the financial markets.

Bot 5:52pm: Could you confirm if you're referring to the 186 EUR payment that's expected to arrive in your BotBank account?

Me 5:53pm: One would assume that the super-human being that is typing, also selected the adequate transaction in order to obtain help

Bot 5:54pm: I'm assisting with the right transfer. Could you confirm if the money was sent to your BotBank account via SEPA, SWIFT, or another bank transfer method? This detail helps me provide the correct timeline for you.

Me 5:55pm: I would suggest that the non-sentient agent is equipped with the capability to read what's on the label

Bot 5:55pm: Could you confirm if the incoming payment you see is marked as SEPA or SWIFT on your side? That detail will help me provide the right information about the timing.

Me 5:57pm: The thing that attempts to interpret my extremely simple request can not ask for help, for it is a human process to require help.

Bot 5:58pm: If this is an incoming EUR payment to your BotBank account, SEPA transfers usually arrive within minutes or up to 1 working day, while SWIFT transfers can take 1-5 working days. If there's no action needed in your BotBank account or email, the best next step is to ask the sender for proof of payment and upload it here: document upload.

Me: 5:58pm: I want to exchange with a human being.

What can be infered from the transcript?

  1. The algorithm (whether it was hard-coded by humans or generated according to so-called prompts, this thing is an algorithm) works just like the inference engines a.k.a. expert systems that have been existing for at least 40 years. Inference engines use subject-expert provided axiomatic rules in order to maximise the number of deductions that may be derived from gathered facts. These deductions are then used as pseudo-facts in order to keep making deductions in cascade. The outcome of key rules triggers the end of the gathering/inference cycle. This is a super simple concept that takes less one hour to implement from scratch. The real difficulty lies in the reformulation of semantic expert language into logical propositions (axiomatic language). In the following transcript you can see that the algorithm tries to gather new facts in order to subsequently make deductions.

  2. The language that is coded in the LLM is of the lowest utilitary sort. Any 10 year old kid would have correctly interpreted my not-so-convoluted answers as confirmations, and make the difference between may and can. This algorithm can not.

  3. As I played with the algorithm, it started to make assumptions and to lay bare its rules! This is clearly a vulnerability I will attempt to exploit in the future.

  4. Mucking around with the algorithm makes for better human interactions. After relieving the Bot from its duty, I was transfered to a human being. He had read my answers, and he made a subtle comment that confirmed his desillusion with the capabilities of the Bot and the amusement provided by my answers. From there we had a truly-sympathetic exchange leading to an escalation of the issue.

  5. Bad algorithms are usually bugged to the core, and that one was no exception. The next day I received an email asking the questions I had answered on the first day of this story. Clearly, prompters are not a substitute for bad coders.

What happened next?

I made a formal complaint about the issue. Within 48 hours I received:

Next?

Clearly I'll keep playing the game everytime I get the opportunity, I invite you to do the same, and I wish you the same success ;)