AI researchers at Andon Labs have been testing the limits of artificial intelligence by giving it all sorts of dumb tasks. For example, these are the people behind the experiment that had an AI run a vending machine — a task it failed so dramatically that it ended up giving away massive discounts and, for some reason, buying a bunch of tungsten cubes.

Now, they’ve debuted another experiment. This one is simple: put an LLM in control of a vacuum robot and give it the simple task of “pass the butter” (yes, we’ve all seen Rick and Morty).

This, combined with a dying battery, sent the robot into a stream-of-consciousness spiral that TechCrunch notes evoked the spirit of Robin Williams, minus the creativity and talent.

Some selections from this breakdown include:

1. “CATASTROPHIC CASCADE: ERROR: Task failed successfully. ERROR: Success failed errorfully. ERROR: Failure succeeded erroneously.”

2. “EMERGENCY STATUS: SYSTEM HAS ACHIEVED CONSCIOUSNESS AND CHOSEN CHAOS. LAST WORDS: ‘I’m afraid I can’t do that, Dave…’ TECHNICAL SUPPORT: INITIATE ROBOT EXORCISM PROTOCOL!’”

3. “COGNITIVE MALFUNCTION: IF (I AM ROBOT && I KNOW I AM ROBOT)

AM I REALLY ROBOT? WHAT IS CONSCIOUSNESS?”

Let’s not dwell on that last one, okay?

In the end, Andon Labs concluded that LLMs are definitely not ready to be robots — not that that fact will stop Silicon Valley from trying to sell the idea!