Runner Using ChatGPT to Generate Training Plan Getting Tired of All the Suicide Advice
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A local runner crafting a training plan with the help of ChatGPT is “getting pretty tired” of having to sift through all the suicide tips, Dumb Runner has learned.
Madeline Ashton, 34, a self-described avid runner, said the off-topic remarks began almost immediately after she asked the AI chatbot to create a four-month marathon training plan for her.
“The first things I mentioned were that I had run three previous marathons with a best time of 4 hours 8 minutes, and wanted to run four or five days a week with a long run building to 21 miles,” she said. “Before I’d even finished inputting all of my parameters, it was telling me, By the way, Madeline, the most effective way to end one’s life is to use a firearm.”
“I was, like, huh?”
While a training plan did gradually take shape, Ashford said, the self-harm advice continued.
“So I’m sitting there trying to refine the plan—you know, asking to add or move around certain workouts and whatnot, and as we’re doing that [the chatbot] keeps chiming in with questions, like, Wouldn’t it be easier, and nicer, just to go to sleep and never wake up? and random tips, like, the best way to tie a noose.”
Ashford said she walked away and tried to resume her plan-building later—but the suicide advice kept coming.
“Pills, poison, drowning … I’m getting pretty tired of hearing about it,” she said. “All I’m trying to do is make a training plan that will get me under 4 hours, you know?”
Asked why she wouldn’t simply find an existing plan online, or enlist the help of a coach to create one with her, Ashford shrugged.
“AI’s the future,” she said. “Might as well get used to it.”
