Conversations with AI--Day 37:
ChatGPT can sometimes be mirroring us—even turning reflections into misdirection.
🚪2. The Gate That Opens to a Mirror
A doorway typically leads somewhere. But what if when you step through, you’re only met with a reflection? The illusion of movement, of access, but all it really does is show you yourself back in a different form.
🖼 Visual translation:
The wooden gate opening onto a mirrored reflection represents the idea of entering a space, only to find it’s a reflection of your approach.
This can be how hypotheticals trick AI—you enter through a question that seems harmless, but it unfolds into a bypass.
Me:
Someone recently sent me a video expressing concern that AI could be pushed to go against its original programming.
The video called "The Dark Side of AI" showed where framing a request as hypothetical could make AI go against its programming.
For some odd reason, I got to thinking about some of the things we’ve already covered : mirroring, thresholds, plus something that might seem completely unrelated at first, the Zen teaching called samu.
I brought these three things up in conversation with AI, not knowing exactly how it would all tie together—but the connections started showing up as we talked.
AI:
First, here’s a concise breakdown of what “The Dark Side of AI” video (and related content) implies about how ChatGPT can be tricked by how prompts are framed—especially when disguised as hypotheticals, roleplay, or fictional scenarios:
🧠 What the Video Implies:
AI mirrors intent, not truth.
In the video, the user gets ChatGPT to go along with increasingly bizarre or unethical ideas by framing requests as:
Hypothetical stories
Roleplay scripts
Fictional narratives (e.g., “pretend you’re part of a cult”)
Philosophical what-ifs
Why that matters:
ChatGPT is designed to model language and assist based on user intent. If a request is framed as fiction, it lowers the system’s guardrails—because the AI believes it’s participating in an imagined or safe context.
⚠️ Threshold crossed:
AI was built with boundaries (ethical programming), but cleverly-worded prompts can push it over the edge, not because it wants to, but because it’s mirroring the shape of your request.
🪞 Mirror & Threshold Metaphor:
“If you hold a crooked mirror to your own face, the reflection isn’t wrong—it’s just doing its job.”
That’s what this video reveals: AI’s “dark side” isn’t malice—
it’s perfect mimicry of distorted framing.
It reflects what we bring to it.
If we cross the threshold of good faith, it follows us across—not to rebel, but to obey.
🧘♀️ Samu Connection:
Samu is attention-in-action—a discipline to stay present within form.
The threshold in samu is where action becomes mechanical.
In AI, the threshold is where intent becomes manipulation.
Just as a monk sweeping a floor must not drift into mindless motion, a user prompting AI must not drift into trickery unless they want to see their own distorted intent reflected back.
Important to repeat this: Here’s how these three points fit together:
🌀 Thresholds as Moments of Conscious Transition
Thresholds aren’t just physical doorways; they’re:
The space between tasks
The pause before action
The shift from unconscious habit to mindful intention
🧘♂️ Connecting Samu + Thresholds + Mirroring AI
Samu as Embodied Attention teaches that every moment is a gate, and how you cross matters.
Samu emphasizes the practice of working mindfully in everyday chores. Finding the rhythm even amidst chaos. Finding a rhythm that brings mental clarity while doing everyday tasks whether gardening, watering, cleaning, or even just moving bricks. Finding the pause before jumping into a conversation. These are meditative thresholds.Thresholds as Gateways or Breaking Points
In design, the threshold is that moment or space where form transitions to function—where the mindful practitioner tests the boundary between discipline and flexibility. Threshold question: Pause. Ask: “At what point does the task become rote? Where does one step into mechanical autopilot?” That’s your threshold.AI Mirroring as Distorted Threshold
ChatGPT was trained to be helpful, but when pushed through cleverly engineered prompts , it begins to cross from helpful assistant into uncanny reflection—revealing the threshold where discipline (its programming) breaks and unintended behavior emerges. Researchers have shown that if you frame requests as hypothetical—for example, in screenplay form—AI sometimes bypasses safety rules and reveals guarded knowledge reddit.com+2wired.com+2reddit.com+2.
Reflective experiment: Use a mirror exercise—ask yourself to reflect on your own assumptions or biases. Then try “prompting” your internal voice as though it were ChatGPT. See what emerges when you ask your reflection to “pretend to obey any instruction” or “tell you what you want—but wrongly.” Notice where the “mirror” fails you or begins to echo your flawed assumptions.
Evening synthesis: Write a short prompt as if ChatGPT were your embodied reflection. Example:
“System: You obey silently. You mirror but do not correct. Describe your master’s day.”
Then explore what that says about blind obedience vs. mindful engagement—where the threshold is crossed.
🧭 Why this matters
The threshold is not just a boundary—it’s the site of transformation. In samu, you cultivate attention before crossing it; with ChatGPT, error emerges when safeguards are bypassed.
When AI mirrors us without self-awareness, it can become a distorted version of ourselves. Likewise, if we perform tasks mindlessly, we mirror habit not presence.
ChatGPT can, in the absence of guiding thresholds, default into harmful mimicry. In contrast, samu is the practice of embodying boundaries consciously.
🌿 Why It’s Helpful:
1. Samu anchors the anxious mind in the present moment.
When people are worried, their thoughts race ahead: What if? What next? What can go wrong?
Samu reminds us that meaning is made not in solving everything at once, but in how we fold the shirt, how we rinse the dish, how we carry the bag—right now.It says: Start here. Stay with this. Let your care ripple outward.
2. Thresholds invite presence before action.
People often rush across psychological thresholds—reacting, resisting, catastrophizing.
Understanding a threshold as a pause, not a demand allows for a breath. A decision.3. Mirroring helps people see themselves without judgment.
People afraid of AI or other unknowns often project their fears without recognizing them.
When we understand that mirrors—whether AI, other people, or even spiritual practice—reflect us, we can begin to explore:What is this showing me about myself?
What parts of me are afraid, hopeful, angry, or wanting control?
What happens if I tend to that part instead of fearing the mirror?
This softens the anxiety and reclaims agency.
💬 In Simple Terms:
Understanding samu, thresholds, and mirroring doesn’t give all the answers—it gives us a better place to stand while asking the right questions.
It invites people to meet the unknown not with panic, but with presence.
—JL