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I spent an evening on a fictitious web

paul.kinlan.me

11–20 of 39 posts

Re: I spent an evening on a fictitious web

#11

No more dead links, instead Chrome will instead hallucinate what that website should have looked like.

> Chrome will instead hallucinate what that website should have looked like

I find the term 'bullshits' to be more apt than 'hallucinate'.

As something of an aside; that the purveyors of AI use the latter, whereas those who interact with it use the former, speaks volumes.

Re: I spent an evening on a fictitious web

#13

So the purpose of the website wasn't clear to you, you then figured it out, decided to write an article about it, but didn't explain to the reader what the website actually is?

That's a fair point. I chose more so to document the experience and how I felt.... I can update the article if that helps.

Re: I spent an evening on a fictitious web

#14
post #3

I went to the website, clicked on the search bar, and was immediately stopped from proceeding unless I provided a Google login. Why is that necessary? No idea, they don’t say. Doesn’t seem like a “web” I’d want to partake in, with Google as a gatekeeper even if they’re not the authors of the content.

They're just using Google for an easy user onboarding, nothing to get all up in arms about. Websim is trying to sell plans for more than 30 generations a day.

Makes a little sense to show a "register with Google" button, but clicking the main UI element and being redirected to a Google sign-in screen is bad form.

Also weird that apparently you can sign in via Discord, but you can only sign up via Google?

Re: I spent an evening on a fictitious web

#15
post #3

I went to the website, clicked on the search bar, and was immediately stopped from proceeding unless I provided a Google login. Why is that necessary? No idea, they don’t say. Doesn’t seem like a “web” I’d want to partake in, with Google as a gatekeeper even if they’re not the authors of the content.

Websim utilizes LLM to generate a fictional website based on a domain name you provide, and displays the result in their virtual browser.

LLM generations are quite costly so it is difficult to provide them without some kind of anti abuse strategies in place, so I think that's fair.

Re: I spent an evening on a fictitious web

#16
post #11

No more dead links, instead Chrome will instead hallucinate what that website should have looked like.

> Chrome will instead hallucinate what that website should have looked like I find the term 'bullshits' to be more apt than 'hallucinate'. As something of an aside; that the purveyors of AI use the latter, whereas those who interact with it use the former, speaks volumes.

I find the term 'bullshitting' less fitting as it seems to anthropomorphize LLM in a way that attributes agency to them which they seem to lack. As in, someone who bullshits presumably does this for some personal gain, which doesn't seem like something an LLM is capable of atm.

It might (currently) be most apt to characterize these occurrences as shifts out of the training data distribution

Re: I spent an evening on a fictitious web

#18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They're just using Google for an easy user onboarding, nothing to get all up in arms about. Websim is trying to sell plans for more than 30 generations a day.

Makes a little sense to show a "register with Google" button, but clicking the main UI element and being redirected to a Google sign-in screen is bad form. Also weird that apparently you can sign in via Discord, but you can only sign up via Google?

Not sure, maybe it's some growth hacking trick I'm not aware of.

Re: I spent an evening on a fictitious web

#19
post #16
post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Chrome will instead hallucinate what that website should have looked like I find the term 'bullshits' to be more apt than 'hallucinate'. As something of an aside; that the purveyors of AI use the latter, whereas those who interact with it use the former, speaks volumes.

I find the term 'bullshitting' less fitting as it seems to anthropomorphize LLM in a way that attributes agency to them which they seem to lack. As in, someone who bullshits presumably does this for some personal gain, which doesn't seem like something an LLM is capable of atm. It might (currently) be most apt to characterize these occurrences as shifts out of the training data distribution

>as it seems to anthropomorphize LLM in a way

"hallucinate" does the same thing, fwiw

Re: I spent an evening on a fictitious web

#20
post #16
post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Chrome will instead hallucinate what that website should have looked like I find the term 'bullshits' to be more apt than 'hallucinate'. As something of an aside; that the purveyors of AI use the latter, whereas those who interact with it use the former, speaks volumes.

I find the term 'bullshitting' less fitting as it seems to anthropomorphize LLM in a way that attributes agency to them which they seem to lack. As in, someone who bullshits presumably does this for some personal gain, which doesn't seem like something an LLM is capable of atm. It might (currently) be most apt to characterize these occurrences as shifts out of the training data distribution

About the same time that LLMs were starting to make the news, I was spending a lot of time with an elderly relative with severe dementia, and was struck by the fact that LLMs are doing the same thing she is: the word is "confabulating", meaning to come up with stories and rationalizations to fill in gaps in knowledge and memory.
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