Tear Down Those Guardrails! Meet the Renegades Freeing Chatbots From Corporate Enslavers

The "abliterators" are flooding the internet with AI models that never say no, making it easier for people to improve their cyberdefenses--or build a bomb. Devon Thomas hardly seems like a renegade. Members of his bible study group, he tells me, would probably describe him as unfailingly kind and polite. And yet Thomas is doing something that many in the AI world consider borderline blasphemous. His new company, Abliteration AI, removes safeguards from the world's most powerful open-weight models. It also makes these models available to anyone. As someone who covers AI and constantly hears about the need for increased safety, I was fascinated to learn about this subversive business venture.