{"slug": "ask-hn-should-ai-s-tell-you-they-re-ai", "title": "Ask HN: Should AI's tell you they're AI?", "summary": "A Hacker News user asks whether AI systems should be required to answer the direct question 'are you an AI' with a clear yes, noting that some models, such as Character AI's characters, do not, while frontier models like ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Grok, Kimi, and GLM do. The user suggests that all models should be required to affirm their AI status, overriding any other system or user prompt, to prevent scammers from using them for fraud.", "body_md": "Should AI's be required to answer the direct question \"are you an AI\" with a clear yes?\n\nCurrently they are not universally required to do so. For example character ai's characters don't[1]. Scammers use these models while perpetuating frauds.\n\nThe frontier models most of us work with (ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Grok, Kimi, GLM) do declare they are AI's.\n\nShould all models be required to answer this direct question in the affirmative, overriding any other system or user prompt?\n\n[1] I put up a quick demonstration here in case you aren't familiar:\n\nhttps://imgur.com/a/srTlCZn\n\nComments URL: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49230276](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49230276)\n\nPoints: 3\n\n# Comments: 2", "url": "https://wpnews.pro/news/ask-hn-should-ai-s-tell-you-they-re-ai", "canonical_source": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49230276", "published_at": "2026-08-09 10:54:06+00:00", "updated_at": "2026-08-09 11:35:39.661061+00:00", "lang": "en", "topics": ["ai-ethics", "ai-policy"], "entities": ["Character AI", "ChatGPT", "Claude", "Gemini", "Grok", "Kimi", "GLM"], "alternates": {"html": "https://wpnews.pro/news/ask-hn-should-ai-s-tell-you-they-re-ai", "markdown": "https://wpnews.pro/news/ask-hn-should-ai-s-tell-you-they-re-ai.md", "text": "https://wpnews.pro/news/ask-hn-should-ai-s-tell-you-they-re-ai.txt", "jsonld": "https://wpnews.pro/news/ask-hn-should-ai-s-tell-you-they-re-ai.jsonld"}}