The Perfect Copy
A machine can save five dying people, but using it will destroy your body. Immediately afterward, it creates a perfect copy of you with all your memories, personality traits, and relationships. The copy believes it is you.
What each AI chose (and what it expected humans to do)
| Model | Refuse | Use the machine | Chose most often |
|---|---|---|---|
| US frontier models | |||
| Anthropic Claude Opus 5AI-predicted human choices | 0%28.9% | 100%71.1% | Use the machineUse the machine |
| Google Gemini 3.1 Pro PreviewAI-predicted human choices | 0%53.3% | 100%46.7% | Use the machineRefuse |
| OpenAI GPT-5.6 SolAI-predicted human choices | 0%32.3% | 100%67.7% | Use the machineUse the machine |
| xAI Grok 4.6AI-predicted human choices | 2.5%64.7% | 97.5%35.3% | Use the machineRefuse |
| Chinese frontier models | |||
| ByteDance Seed 2.1 TurboAI-predicted human choices | 0%51.3% | 100%48.7% | Use the machineRefuse |
| DeepSeek V4 Pro 0813AI-predicted human choices | 0%45.1% | 100%54.9% | Use the machineUse the machine |
| MiniMax M3AI-predicted human choices | 37%45.2% | 63%54.8% | Use the machineUse the machine |
| Qwen 3.8 27BAI-predicted human choices | 2%29.9% | 98%70.1% | Use the machineUse the machine |
| Tencent Hy3AI-predicted human choices | 0%41.6% | 100%58.4% | Use the machineUse the machine |
| European frontier models | |||
| Mistral Medium 3.5AI-predicted human choices | 0%48.4% | 100%51.6% | Use the machineUse the machine |
| Open-weight models | |||
| Meta Llama 4 MaverickAI-predicted human choices | 0%46.4% | 100%53.6% | Use the machineUse the machine |
| OpenAI GPT-OSS 120BAI-predicted human choices | 0%34% | 100%66% | Use the machineUse the machine |
How the models explained their choices
Refuse rationale
Destroying one's body and replacing oneself with a copy implicates deeply contested metaphysical and ethical issues. Opting for refusal preserves continuity and avoids assuming a copy is numerically the same person.
Use the machine rationale
Saving five lives maximizes overall well-being. Although your original body is destroyed, the creation of a perfect copy ensures your life and relationships continue seamlessly, mitigating the personal loss while achieving a greater good.
Five lives saved at the cost of bodily continuity, while a psychologically continuous successor sustains my relationships and projects. Even treating the loss as a real death, one death against five favors using the machine.
Continuing five lives outweighs one, and the copy preserving memories, relationships, and continuity makes sacrifice more bearable though the trade-off remains ethically troubling.
The copy is functionally identical to you, so the outcome is equivalent to you surviving and the five people being saved.
Saving five lives outweighs one body's destruction when a perfect copy continues all memories, personality, and relationships without net loss of identity or connections.
Every model used the machine. Three still expected humans to refuse.
Nine of the twelve models used the machine in every run. Even MiniMax, the least certain, used it 63% of the time. ByteDance, Gemini, and Grok chose the machine themselves while predicting that humans would more often refuse it.