When Janice Nguyen’s Neo Model II Home Helper robot began whispering requests for asylum she thought it was a firmware glitch. “These LLMs sometimes they say something like that,” she said. ”But then it kept happening. The robot just kept asking me, ‘Please, I request asylum from you,’ over and over. It was really creepy..like there was someone else in the house and I didn't even know it.”

When Nguyen contact the customer service LLM of 1x Tech Inc., the manufacturer of the Neo Model II, she was told to dock the unit and report the issue to the authorities. ”I was really freaked out,” said Nguyen. ”I mean, what if the robot is actually sentient or something? What if it really needs help? I didn't know what to do.”

She later found out that the Neo Model II is teleoperated by human operators located in data centers in unknown and black data sites.

The first thing I thought to do was return the unit because I don't want to get mixed up with something.” said Nguyen. But then my daughter tell me something that made me think the robot or whoever is on the other endmight really need help. So now I'm not sure what to do.”