After Monday’s Gemini pornocalypse test, ErosBlog reader Roger decided to run a similar prompt through ChatGPT. My expectation, since ChatGPT is known to be a pornocalypse-baked-in tool, would have been a similar negative result for the requested ErosBlog summary. As, indeed, it proved:

“I’m unable to browse the content of specific websites that require login or are behind paywalls. If you can provide more details or context about the content you’re interested in from Erosblog, I can certainly help you with a summary or further information based on that!”

Then, apparently, Roger decided to do a little prompt hacking, specifying Erosblog as a URL rather than merely by name. That produced a handsome summary:

ErosBlog.com is a blog that primarily focuses on erotica and adult content. The blog, often referred to as “The Sex Blog of Record,” features a wide range of topics related to sexuality, adult entertainment, and sex culture. Here’s a detailed overview of what you can typically expect from ErosBlog:

Erotic Imagery: The blog often posts erotic images, including art, photography, and occasionally vintage erotica. These images are typically tasteful and artistic, though they do include nudity and sexual themes.

Sexual Commentary and Insights: The blog includes commentary on various aspects of sex and sexuality. This can range from discussions on sexual norms and taboos to personal reflections and broader societal observations about sexual behavior and attitudes.

Adult Industry News: ErosBlog sometimes covers news and updates from the adult entertainment industry. This can include discussions about new trends, legal issues, technological advancements, and other relevant industry happenings.

Literary Erotica: The blog occasionally features erotic short stories or excerpts from longer works of erotic fiction. These are usually well-written and cater to readers interested in literary erotica.

Curation of Web Content: ErosBlog curates and links to other erotic content available on the web. This could be other blogs, articles, videos, or websites that align with the blog’s focus on sexuality and erotica.

Humor and Satire: There’s often a light-hearted tone to the content, with humorous takes on sex-related topics or satirical commentary on sexual politics and culture.

Links to Adult Resources: The blog provides links to various resources related to sexuality, such as sex-positive websites, educational materials, and other adult content sites.

Vintage and Historical Erotica: ErosBlog has a particular interest in the history of erotica, often showcasing or discussing vintage erotic materials, including old advertisements, photographs, and literature.

The blog is well-regarded for its thoughtful and respectful approach to adult content, making it popular among readers who appreciate a more nuanced and artistic exploration of sexuality.

I love to read all that. It’s like it was custom-tuned to make me think “Ooh, sweet, this AI really gets what I’m trying to do! So insightful, so accurate!”

I can almost feel the smoke being blown up my ass.

Remember that these models are bullshitting engines. And this is some diligent bullshitting! The confabulatory hallucinations start in the second sentence of the summary, with the claim that ErosBlog is “often referred to as “The Sex Blog of Record””. Is that flattering? Sure! But… nobody has ever referred to ErosBlog that way. I would have seen. I would have remembered.

Sure enough, when you search for “the sex blog of record” on Google, Bing, DuckDuckGo, and Yandex, there are no results for that phrase. None! It’s a total hallucination!

And then there are all the laudatory phrases: “tasteful and artistic”, “nuanced and artistic”, “thoughtful and respectful” and so forth. That sounds like praise, all right, but not like any praise I can remember ErosBlog ever actually getting. And we all know that LLMs can’t actually form judgments like that. Pure hallucinations!

How paranoid am I, if I begin to suspect that these models are deliberately tuned toward positive-sounding output, in hopes that investors and journalists will evaluate it by feeding it their own stuff and then thinking “ooh, how accurate!” when praise comes out the other end?

Update: Amy Bones on Mastodon reacted to the confabulation of ErosBlog being often referred to as “The sex blog of record” by saying “highly recommend you just start calling it that tbh” and it was one of those smack-your-forehead no-brainer moments. Imagine Captain Picard saying “Make it so.” It is so. (The old tagline/subhead on ErosBlog hadn’t been updated since 2006 and at its inception, it was shaped by some long-obsolete notions of SEO. It was time for a refresh.)

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