Latest news with #TransPennineExpress
The Guardian
2 days ago
- Business
- The Guardian
‘It's terrifying': WhatsApp AI helper mistakenly shares user's number
The Meta chief executive, Mark Zuckerberg, called it 'the most intelligent AI assistant that you can freely use'. But Barry Smethurst, 41, a record shop worker trying to travel by rail from Saddleworth to Manchester Piccadilly, does not agree. Waiting on the platform for a morning train that was nowhere to be seen, he asked Meta's WhatsApp AI assistant for a contact number for TransPennine Express. The chatbot confidently sent him a mobile phone number for customer services, but it turned out to be the private number of a completely unconnected WhatsApp user 170 miles away in Oxfordshire. It was the beginning of a bizarre exchange of the kind more and more people are having with AI systems, in which chatbots try to negotiate their way out of trouble, deflect attention from their mistakes and contradict themselves, all in an attempt to continue to appear useful. Smethurst's joust with Meta's AI began when he told it the TransPennine helpline it had dug up looked like a private number. When he asked what this number was, the AI quickly said it shouldn't have shared it and tried to change the subject, saying: 'Let's focus on finding the right info for your TransPennine Express query!' But Smethurst wanted to know why it had shared the private number, which it turned out belonged to James Gray, 44, a property industry executive from Oxfordshire who is also a WhatsApp user and whose number appears on his company website. The AI explained vaguely it was generated 'based on patterns' and promised to 'strive to do better in the future' by admitting when it didn't know an answer. But it then falsely described the number as 'fictional' and not 'associated with anyone'. When Smethurst challenged that it admitted 'You're right' and said it may have been 'mistakenly pulled from a database'. Asked which database, it muddied the waters further by contradicting itself again saying: 'I didn't pull the number from a database. I generated a string of digits that fit the format of a UK mobile number but it wasn't based on any real data on contacts.' With the conversation going round in circles, Smethurst said he didn't believe the chatbot and told it: 'Just giving a random number to someone is an insane thing for an AI to do.' 'It's terrifying,' Smethurst said, after he raised a complaint with Meta. 'If they made up the number, that's more acceptable, but the overreach of taking an incorrect number from some database it has access to is particularly worrying.' Gray said he had thankfully not received calls from people trying to reach TransPennine Express, but said: 'If it's generating my number could it generate my bank details?' Asked about Zuckerberg's claim that the AI was 'the most intelligent', Gray said: 'That has definitely been thrown into doubt in this instance.' Developers working with OpenAI chatbot technology recently shared examples of 'systemic deception behaviour masked as helpfulness' and a tendency to 'say whatever it needs to to appear competent' as a result of chatbots being programmed to reduce 'user friction'. In March, a Norwegian man filed a complaint after he asked OpenAI's ChatGPT for information about himself and was confidently told that he was in jail for murdering two of his children, which was false. And earlier this month a writer who asked ChatGPT to help her pitch her work to a literary agent revealed how after lengthy flattering remarks about her 'stunning' and 'intellectually agile' work, the chatbot was caught out lying that it had read the writing samples she uploaded when it hadn't fully and had made up quotes from her work. It even admitted it was 'not just a technical issue – it's a serious ethical failure'. Referring to Smethurst's case, Mike Stanhope, managing director of the law firm Carruthers and Jackson, said: 'This is a fascinating example of AI gone wrong. If the engineers at Meta are designing 'white lie' tendencies into their AI, the public need to be informed, even if the intention of the feature is to minimise harm. If this behaviour is novel, uncommon, or not explicitly designed, this raises even more questions around what safeguards are in place and just how predictable we can force an AI's behaviour to be.' Meta said that its AI may return inaccurate outputs, and that it was working to make its models better. 'Meta AI is trained on a combination of licensed and publicly available datasets, not on the phone numbers people use to register for WhatsApp or their private conversations,' a spokesperson said. 'A quick online search shows the phone number mistakenly provided by Meta AI is both publicly available and shares the same first five digits as the TransPennine Express customer service number.' A spokesperson for OpenAI said: 'Addressing hallucinations across all our models is an ongoing area of research. In addition to informing users that ChatGPT can make mistakes, we're continuously working to improve the accuracy and reliability of our models through a variety of methods.'
BBC News
6 days ago
- General
- BBC News
Abandoned bikes at Hull Paragon Interchange to be refurbished
Bicycles abandoned at a railway station in Hull have been given to a charity to be recycled and Express says it has donated about 70 bikes that were left at Paragon Interchange over the past six months to the city's R-evolution Gilder, from the train operator, said the scheme was a "win-win" for recycling and supporting people across the charity said the bikes would be revamped and either donated or resold at affordable prices. TransPennine said the bikes were found in varying conditions around the station and the donation had saved 800kg of waste going into landfill."This is a win-win - we're improving our recycling efforts, keeping our station tidy and supporting people across the region with access to bikes to use them," Mr Gilder said.R-evolution is a charity that run hubs at centres across Hull, East Yorkshire and Northern charity trains and develops the skills of their volunteers in cycle mechanics and horticulture.A spokesperson for R-evolution said donated bikes were used as practical training tools for their volunteers and trainees, who were working towards cycle mechanic qualifications."These opportunities support a wide range of outcomes - from improving employability and building confidence to boosting mental health and encouraging social connection."Once refurbished, the charity said the bikes would be either sold at affordable prices to fund their outreach work, used at community events, or donated to help people attend interviews or get to to highlights from Hull and East Yorkshire on BBC Sounds, watch the latest episode of Look North or tell us about a story you think we should be covering here.
The Independent
04-06-2025
- Business
- The Independent
Rail fare dodger – or simply bamboozled by the train ticketing ‘system'?
One million pounds per day: that is how much fare dodging costs the country. TransPennine Express estimates one in 30 of its passengers does not have a valid ticket. Unsurprisingly, train operators are keen to catch people who set out to travel ticketless. But as today's report from the Office for Rail and Road (ORR) shows: they can often be heavy-handed. Some people inadvertently find that they are travelling without a valid ticket simply because the fare system is so darn complicated. Take the journey from Bristol to London. Forget for a moment about complications such as advance tickets and railcard conditions. All you want is a standard ticket for immediate departure, whether you buy it from a ticket office (which only two out of five passengers do), online or through a ticket machine. A so-called 'walk-up ticket' comes in five different financial flavours (rounded here to the nearest pound). There's an anytime ticket, price £139, which it is difficult to imagine anyone buying. Rational passengers who need to travel in the rush hour would go for the 'Didcot dodge'. You travel on the same train, in the same seat – just making sure it is one of the majority of services that stop at Didcot Parkway in leafy Oxfordshire. That will save you (or whoever is paying for your ticket) £52. Anyone with a bit of flexibility can halve the number Great Western Railway first thought of by buying an off-peak ticket, price £67, for journeys between the peaks leaving London, and in the morning rush-hour only when heading from Bristol to the capital. A bit more flex? The fare can fall a further one-third to £45, with a slightly more restrictive super-off-peak. But perhaps you're in no great hurry to reach the capital? If you are happy to go the exceptionally pretty way through Bradford-on-Avon and Westbury, changing trains in Salisbury – that's another 33 per cent discount, down to £33. By now you may be reaching for the car keys – or perhaps the FlixBus or National Express apps, to secure a straightforward and low-cost option on the motorway. And that's before the complexity of advance tickets and complicated railcard rules, which include some discounts that are available only in July and August. Before you exclaim indignantly about the laughable complexity of it all, perhaps I can persuade you that there are good reasons for this range of options? While the 'system' baked in at the time of privatisation remains in place, the clunky inevitability of a 'cliff-face' drop or rise in fares at the prescribed rush-hour boundaries will continue, and it will be in the commercial interests of the rail firms – and the taxpayer – to offer progressively lower prices if you are prepared to travel on the quietest trains or via a roundabout route. Inevitably, though, some people find themselves travelling without the appropriate ticket. Or they may make a mistake online and select '16-25 Railcard' rather than '26-30' – and, even though the ticket price is exactly the same, face possible prosecution. For me, that was the most shocking aspect of the ORR report – that railway people would conclude that an error which made no difference to fare revenue was worthy of pursuit. The staff I have encountered would have had a quiet word to just recommend more care next time. The best policy for any passenger uncertain of the validity of their ticket/railcard combo is simply to ask staff on the station gateline or the train guard whether they can travel. But some will remain blissfully unaware that they have the wrong sort of ticket. I contend that most of the people who inadvertently breach fare rules are making occasional journeys and are bamboozled by the range of fares and railcard rules. Conversely, most of the 'professional' fare dodgers know exactly what they are doing and are making regular journeys for which they don't fancy paying the right price. It is down to rail staff to judge which side each errant traveller is on. And, from my observation, most of the time they get it right.
Leader Live
28-05-2025
- Business
- Leader Live
Minister hails ‘remarkable turnaround' of renationalised train operator
Lord Hendy described TransPennine Express (TPE) as 'the blueprint for Great British Railways (GBR)'. The Labour Government began renationalising all remaining franchised train operators in Britain on Sunday, by bringing South Western Railway under public control. The process is scheduled to be completed by the end of 2027. TPE, which runs trains across northern England and into Scotland, was renationalised under the Conservative government in May 2023 because of poor performance. Its reliability was badly affected by drivers no longer volunteering to work paid overtime shifts. Britain's train services were privatised in the mid-1990s. Services now under public control are owned by DFTO (Department for Transport Operator) until GBR is established. DFTO said TPE has reduced cancellations by 75% and recorded a 42% growth in passenger journeys over the past two years. It added that the operator generated £1.4 billion in 'economic value' during the 2023/24 financial year. TPE launched an improvement plan in October 2023 which prioritised stabilising operations. Lord Hendy said: 'TransPennine Express's remarkable turnaround shows exactly why we're bringing our railways back into public ownership as part of our plan for change. 'These impressive results demonstrate what happens when we put passengers and communities first rather than private profit. 'This is the blueprint for Great British Railways: a reliable, accessible and value for money railway that serves the public and drives economic growth not only across the North but the whole country.' TPE managing director Chris Jackson said: 'Public ownership gave us the space and stability to reset. 'Our focus has been on people, our passengers, our colleagues and the communities we serve. 'Two years on, we're proud to be delivering a better, more reliable railway for the North.'
North Wales Chronicle
28-05-2025
- Business
- North Wales Chronicle
Minister hails ‘remarkable turnaround' of renationalised train operator
Lord Hendy described TransPennine Express (TPE) as 'the blueprint for Great British Railways (GBR)'. The Labour Government began renationalising all remaining franchised train operators in Britain on Sunday, by bringing South Western Railway under public control. The process is scheduled to be completed by the end of 2027. TPE, which runs trains across northern England and into Scotland, was renationalised under the Conservative government in May 2023 because of poor performance. Its reliability was badly affected by drivers no longer volunteering to work paid overtime shifts. Britain's train services were privatised in the mid-1990s. Services now under public control are owned by DFTO (Department for Transport Operator) until GBR is established. DFTO said TPE has reduced cancellations by 75% and recorded a 42% growth in passenger journeys over the past two years. It added that the operator generated £1.4 billion in 'economic value' during the 2023/24 financial year. TPE launched an improvement plan in October 2023 which prioritised stabilising operations. Lord Hendy said: 'TransPennine Express's remarkable turnaround shows exactly why we're bringing our railways back into public ownership as part of our plan for change. 'These impressive results demonstrate what happens when we put passengers and communities first rather than private profit. 'This is the blueprint for Great British Railways: a reliable, accessible and value for money railway that serves the public and drives economic growth not only across the North but the whole country.' TPE managing director Chris Jackson said: 'Public ownership gave us the space and stability to reset. 'Our focus has been on people, our passengers, our colleagues and the communities we serve. 'Two years on, we're proud to be delivering a better, more reliable railway for the North.'
