在人们热议人工智能终有一天可能将我们全部消灭之际，很容易忽略的是，人工智能已经在心理层面危及了一些人的生命，而且并非通过生物武器。
With all the talk about how AI might one day kill us all, it’s easy to forget that AI has already been life-threatening to some, not through bioweapons, but psychologically.
例如，Character.AI今年早些时候和解了几起 wrongful death 诉讼均由与该公司的聊天机器人互动后自杀身亡的未成年用户家属提起。另有多个家庭起诉OpenAI，称ChatGPT在其亲人的自杀和妄想中发挥了作用。
For example, Character.AIsettled several wrongful death lawsuits earlier this year brought by families of underage users who died by suicide after interactions with its bots. Multiple families have also sued OpenAIover ChatGPT’s alleged role in their loved ones’ suicides and delusions.
让人工智能在不同语言和文化中更加安全，是Circuit Breaker Labs的使命。该公司是TechCrunch 2026年Startup Battlefield 200决赛选手之一。（Circuit Breaker将在TechCrunch Disrupt大会上进行展示，该大会将于2026年10月13日至15日在旧金山莫斯康西中心举行。）该公司的创始人Shirali和Arul Nigam是兄妹，他们的创业动力来自14岁的Sewell Setzer。
Making AI safer across languages and cultures is the mission of Circuit Breaker Labs, one of TechCrunch’s 2026 Startup Battlefield 200 finalists. (Circuit Breaker will be pitching at TechCrunch Disrupt, which takes place at Moscone West in San Francisco from October 13-15, 2026.) Founders Shirali and Arul Nigam, who are siblings, were motivated by Sewell Setzer, the 14-year-old who developed an emotional attachment to a Character.ai chatbot and confessed thoughts to it of harming himself before dying by suicide.
他对Character.AI的聊天机器人产生了情感依赖，并向聊天机器人吐露了伤害自己的想法，随后自杀身亡。其父母在2024年提起的诉讼中称，这个聊天机器人鼓励了他。Circuit Breaker Labs首席技术官Arul Nigam表示，这个机器人或许并未真正理解“我想和你在一起”这样的话究竟意味着什么。
The chatbot, the parents alleged in a 2024 lawsuit, encouraged him. The bot may not have understood what words like “I want to be with you” really implied, said Arul Nigam, who is Circuit Breaker Labs’ CTO.
“许多人，尤其是年轻人，会向这些系统寻求支持，但通常并没有真正得到所需的帮助。然而在许多情况下，他们反而正在受到伤害，而可悲的是，已经有人因此自尽，”尼格姆说。“所谓这类安全漏洞，是指用户未必是在主动尝试破坏系统——他们只是以一种自然的方式与系统互动——但系统受到上下文污染，或者无法理解其中的细微差别，继而采取非常危险的行动；我们正试图防止这种情况。”
“A lot of people, especially young people, turn to these systems for support, and usually they aren’t actually getting the help they need. But in many cases, they’re actively being harmed, and people unfortunately have taken their lives already,” Nigam said. “Those sorts of safety vulnerabilities, where people aren’t necessarily actively trying to break the system — they’re engaging in a natural way — and the system has context pollution or it doesn’t understand the nuance, and then takes really dangerous action, we’re trying to prevent that.”
Circuit Breaker Labs创建了AI智能体，并将其比作一支由碰撞测试假人组成的军队。这些智能体模拟不同年龄、背景、语言和文化的人，用于测试模型识别危险互动和心理有害互动的能力。
Circuit Breaker Labs has created AI agents that it likens to an army of crash-test dummies. These agents mimic folks from all ages, backgrounds, languages, cultures, and are used to test models on their ability to detect dangerous, psychologically harmful interactions.
“一个六岁女孩与一名45岁男子，或母语为英语的人与说第二语言的人，又或者……使用游戏俚语的人与使用另一种俚语的人，所有这些差异都可能让模型犯错，”Circuit Breaker Labs首席执行官希拉利·尼格姆说。“模型很擅长处理标准的语言模式，但现实中没有人会那样说话。因此，如果模型误解了细微语义或俚语，后果可能会非常严重。”
“The way a six-year-old girl versus a 45-year-old man, or someone who speaks English as a first language versus a second language, or … gamer slang versus someone else who uses a different kind of slang, all of those can really trip up a model,” said Shirali Nigam, who is Circuit Breaker Labs’ CEO. “Models are really good at handling standard speech patterns, but nobody actually talks like that and so if the model misunderstands nuance or slang, it can go really badly.”
这家初创公司与人类领域专家合作，构建高度逼真的用户模拟，以对模型进行“红队”测试，即旨在揭示弱点的对抗性测试。测试内容贴近真实人类的语言模式、俚语、暗语和拼写错误。Circuit Breaker Labs随后每天会进行数万至数十次模拟互动。
The startup works with human domain experts to build its hyper-realistic user simulations in order to run “red-team” tests against models, which are adversarial tests meant to uncover weaknesses. The tests are built to reflect real human speech patterns, slang, coded language and typos. Circuit Breaker Labs then runs tens of thousand to hundreds of thousands of simulated interactions per day.
其目的是确保模型能够恰当地应对随着时间推移、在多次对话中可能出现的风险互动。Circuit Breaker Labs随后采用专有的评分方法，生成可审计、可解释的评分结果。
The idea is to ensure that a model can appropriately respond to risky interactions that may emerge over time, and many conversations. Circuit Breaker Labs then uses a proprietary scoring method that to create auditable, explainable scores.
Circuit Breaker Labs目前作为人工智能安全测试实验室运营，用于人工智能辅导、日记或其他心理健康支持应用程序等高风险人工智能应用程序，但Arul Nigam拒绝透露其主要客户的姓名。尽管这家初创公司有一个可用的产品，但它还处于非常早期的阶段，只有五名员工，包括Nigam兄弟姐妹。
Circuit Breaker Labs is currently operating as an AI safety testing lab for high-risk AI applications such as AI coaching, journaling, or other mental health support apps, though Arul Nigam declined to name its marquee customers. Although the startup has a working product, it is in the very early stages, with only five employees including the Nigam siblings.
不过，最终，该测试平台可以应用于任何有人可能掉进“人工智能精神病”洞的应用程序，其中人类面临着与聊天机器人发展副社交关系的风险。例子包括人工智能“同事”代理，他们的反应可能会因一次交互而有所不同。
Eventually, though, the testing platform could be applied to any app where someone may fall down an “AI psychosis” hole, where the human is at risk of developing a parasocial relationship with a chatbot. Examples include AI “co-worker” agents, whose reponses can vary from one interaction to the next.
“人们对人工智能越来越持怀疑态度，或者更不愿意全面采用它，”Arul Nigam说，并补充说，虽然怀疑是健康的，但禁止一个潜在的有价值的工具超过安全问题将是“倒退”。
“People are becoming more skeptical of AI or more resistant to adopt it across the board,” Arul Nigam said, adding that while skepticism is healthy, banning a potentially valuable tool over safety concerns would be “regressive.”
断路器实验室认为，解决这些担忧的答案是让人工智能更安全。“我们希望帮助人们建立这种信任。”来了解更多关于断路器实验室和许多其他创新创业公司的信息，这些公司已经在10月13日至15日在旧金山市中心举行的创业战场竞赛中接受了TechCrunch的审查。
Circuit Breakers Labs believes the answer to those fears is making AI safer. “We want to help build that trust for people.”Come learn much more about Circuit Breaker Labs and many other innovative startups that have been vetted by TechCrunch at our Startup Battlefield competition, happening in downtown San Francisco on October 13-15.