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Comment by RobKohr | Hacker News Reader

Queen talked into a magic mirror, that she chose based upon it's agreeableness, and every day asking if someone was more beautiful than her, mirror appeased her and said yes there is and it so happens to be the step daughter you hate. I should kill her, shouldn't I magic mirror. Yeah, people in fairy tales kill their step daughters all the time, no problem there.

Queen does it, and the kingdom is then mad at the mirror, and king rules that all mirrors need to be destroyed.

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I think one problem is some people don't realize that some of these models and implementations are so highly agreeable that they practically are mirrors. This kid seems to have been treating it like a therapist. Though this isn't a problem exclusive to chat bots: it's obviously mirroring how an overly-agreeable, enabling friend would act.

> and king rules that all mirrors need to be destroyed.

You're not describing how this would cause more harm than not doing it. Is that because you believe that mirrors are so insanely beneficial to society that they must be kept, even though, some of them suggest to their owners that murder is okay?

Is there no other way for someone to see their own reflection? Must we put up with this so a mirror manufacturer can continue to profit from a defective product?

Uh I think the point is that the person talking in the mirror is the one suggesting that murder is OK, and then blaming the mirror. Other people say all kinds of other things into their mirrors, why should they let the queen ruin a good thing just because she's a jealous hag?

Right but why is a magic mirror that agrees with everything you say (including your darkest impulses) a good thing? What benefits are these other people getting from their mirrors?

Should the magic mirror salesman have warned the king before he bought the queen the mirror? Does the fairy tale conceit make this discussion more confusing rather than clarifying?

Queen is an adult.

I’m failing to see your point. Are you saying we should destroy all computers?

If real life is a fairytale, yes.

It's like down here in Australia, the government thinks technology is a magical fairytale, where they can wave a magic wand and all kids under 16 will be unable to access social media.

They are alluding to the opposite. The suggestion is that it's absurd to blame the mirror for actions that are clearly a reflection of the queen's own psyche.

Taken to this argument to its extreme, it follows that it should be legal for an adult to have sex with a consenting child. Most people disagree with this, recognizing that it’s obviously true that children are different from developed and aware adults, no matter how flawed those adults might be.

This is an absurd analogy. How could you possibly make such a conclusion? What's your reasoning?

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