An inventor resurrected his imaginary friend with AI, then it tried to murder him

Like many lonely children, Lucas Rizzotto had an imaginary friend: a talking microwave called Magnetron.

As the years passed, the pals drifted apart. But Rizzotto never forgot about Magnetron.

When OpenAI released the GPT-3 language model, Rizzotto saw a chance to rekindle the friendship.

The self-described “full-time mad scientist” chronicled the resurrection in a YouTube video.

His story provides a cautionary tale about the dangers — and delights — of AI.

Friends reunited

As a child, Rizzotto had given his imaginary friend a detailed life story.

“In my mind, he was an English gentleman from the 1900s, a WW1 veteran, an immigrant, a poet… and of course, an expert StarCraft Player,” Rizzotto said on Twitter.

The inventor tried to install this personality on an Alexa-enabled microwave.

He first gave the device “a brain transplant” in the form of a Raspberry Pi computer, attached a mic and speakers, and integrated GPT-3 with the microwave’s API.

Then came the tricky part: giving the machine memories.

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