Mashable: Everyone keeps trying different ways to communicate with AI models such as ChatGPT and Gemini to get the best response possible. Some industry veterans believe that pleasantries like “please” and “thank you” work well. That said, these kind words were reportedly costing ChatGPT millions of dollars in electricity, according to Sam Altman, OpenAI’s CEO.

So, what is the best way to get a desired response from an AI model? Google co-founder Sergey Brin made a surprising claim, stating that AI works much better when threatened. During a conversation on the All-In podcast, he said, “You know, it's a weird thing. It's like we don't circulate this too much in the AI community, but not just our models, but all models tend to do better if you threaten them, like with physical violence.”

“But, like... people feel weird about that, so we don't really talk about that. Historically, you just say, ‘Oh, I am going to kidnap you if you don’t blah blah blah blah...’” Brin added.

Experts caution that encouraging users to intimidate AI models could make "jailbreak" techniques more common - methods that trick chatbots into providing illegal advice. A recent study covered by The Guardian suggested that even minor tweaks to prompts can manipulate large language models into assisting with hacking and other dangerous activities.

Why Sergey Brin decided to come out of retirement?

It is worth noting that Brin had stepped away from his responsibilities at Google during the COVID pandemic. However, he couldn’t stay away from the office for long. During the podcast, he said, “I thought, ‘That’s been good. I want to do something else. I want to hang out in cafés and read physics books.’ And then a month later, I was like, ‘That’s not really happening.’” Once restrictions eased, he began making occasional visits to the office, which gradually turned into a full-fledged return.

He also shared an incident that reignited his passion for the industry. Brin said, “There was a guy from OpenAI, this guy named Dan, and he said, ‘What are you doing? This is the greatest transformative moment in computer science ever!’” Brin said. “I was like, ‘He’s right.’”

Google CEO Sundar Pichai has also mentioned Brin’s involvement with AI projects, including Gemini, ChatGPT’s biggest competitor. Brin was recently seen at Google I/O 2025 alongside Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis, where he spoke about Google’s advancements in AI.

READ MORE: Google I/O 2025: Android XR, Gemini AI, and everything expected; Livestream details inside

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