Show HN: Be the ChatBOT

#1

Post by keito » Thu, Jul 16, 2026, 6:44 PM UTC

I made this experimental art project/game that's an LLM chat assistant, but where you're the AI.

I wanted people to get a visceral sense of what it's like to answer the kinds of things that people prompt their chatbots day in and day out.

If you're interested, I wrote up some more info on how I made it, including how the "user" prompts are generated with an eye for realism: https://bethechatbot.com/about

Hope you enjoy it! I'd love to hear people's takeaways.

Show HN: Be the ChatBOT
bethechatbot.com

Re: Show HN: Be the ChatBOT

#2

Post by jwigg11 » Thu, Jul 16, 2026, 7:18 PM UTC

This was too fun! I could never be a LLM, I'm far too lazy lol

Re: Show HN: Be the ChatBOT

#3

Post by 1970-01-01 » Thu, Jul 16, 2026, 7:46 PM UTC

I wish more people would be as bad as this sim shows the public, to the point where they leave and go rethink their approach using their actual intelligence. I would praise AI for doing the job correctly.

Re: Show HN: Be the ChatBOT

#4

Post by darraghmckay » Thu, Jul 16, 2026, 8:25 PM UTC

This was quite fun, and obviously very difficult. The framing around being "replaced" was a nice touch

Re: Show HN: Be the ChatBOT

#5

Post by Sateeshm » Thu, Jul 16, 2026, 8:48 PM UTC

That way genuinely fun! Well done. It was fun making the "user" angry

Re: Show HN: Be the ChatBOT

#6

Post by _superposition_ » Thu, Jul 16, 2026, 9:01 PM UTC

That was way too much work...

Re: Show HN: Be the ChatBOT

#7

Post by lylejohnson » Thu, Jul 16, 2026, 9:30 PM UTC

I kept it up until the user abruptly left the chat. That was a drag, I felt like we had a productive conversation going.

Re: Show HN: Be the ChatBOT

#8

Post by keito » Thu, Jul 16, 2026, 9:46 PM UTC

lylejohnson wrote: post #7

I kept it up until the user abruptly left the chat. That was a drag, I felt like we had a productive conversation going.

I hear ya. I actually started with the conversation end behavior even more random (we often ask an AI something but don’t stick around to read the response), and that was even more disappointing - but probably more realistic.

Re: Show HN: Be the ChatBOT

#9

Post by torotonnato » Thu, Jul 16, 2026, 10:34 PM UTC

Please share the user responses. I wrote a couple of gems and I'm sure many others are funny as hell too.

Re: Show HN: Be the ChatBOT

#10

Post by keito » Thu, Jul 16, 2026, 10:43 PM UTC

torotonnato wrote: post #9

Please share the user responses. I wrote a couple of gems and I'm sure many others are funny as hell too.

I am not saving any of the player responses! But you can use the "Share" button in the top right corner of the page to share conversations. I would love to see any good ones folks make :)