Glad to see news outlets pointing out that #LLM chatbots aren't reliable sources of information about themselves: Way too many people who should know better fall for the "chatbot did weird thing, so I asked it to explain and it said…"

However it should be pointed out that this isn't a special case, they're equally likely to BS about loads of other stuff!

https://www.theverge.com/x-ai/758595/chatbots-lie-about-themselves-grok-suspension-ai

(also https://arstechnica.com/ai/2025/08/why-its-a-mistake-to-ask-chatbots-about-their-mistakes/)

Today's #AIIsGoingGreat, via @Iris: Elsevier "values user experience, hence we develop ways of improving our product" such as having machines invent new, random definitions of terms and attaching them prominently to published papers

https://irisvanrooijcogsci.com/2025/08/12/ai-slop-and-the-destruction-of-knowledge/

Related to this, I recently discovered that Elsevier uses these AI generated "definitions" on standalone "topic" pages, which rank highly in google. Bonus: The slop is free, but the articles referenced are of course frequently paywalled. Example https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/engineering/air-fuel-ratio

(this particular definition seems OK, if extremely basic)

Don't worry, in the glorious #AI future, you'll still have choice! For example, you can choose to have your (or your children's) medical details filtered through a stochastic bullshit machine, or you can choose to forgo treatment https://ia.acs.org.au/article/2025/kobi-refused-a-doctors-ai-she-was-told-to-go-elsewhere.html

#AIIsGoingGreat

Today's #AIIsGoingGreat (HT @hazelweakly*) sheds light on whether there might be risks associated with the industry's headlong rush to adopt a technology for which input validation is literally impossible

https://embracethered.com/blog/posts/2025/wrapping-up-month-of-ai-bugs/

* https://mastodon.social/@hazelweakly@hachyderm.io/115138692622938480

Reverse dogfood #AIIsGoingGreat "Most [of the interview google AI training] workers said they avoid using LLMs or use extensions to block AI summaries because they now know how it’s built. Many also discourage their family and friends from using it, for the same reason"

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/sep/11/google-gemini-ai-training-humans

Department of Education and Early Childhood Development spokes says they are aware of a "small number of potential errors in citations" and "We understand that these issues are being addressed, and that the online report will be updated in the coming days to rectify any error" - Ignoring the obvious problem that if the citations are BS, arguments or conclusions they were supporting were likely unjustified at best, if not outright BS

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/newfoundland-labrador/education-accord-nl-sources-dont-exist-1.7631364

#AIIsGoingGreat "Americans are much more concerned than excited about the increased use of AI in daily life, with a majority saying they want more control over how AI is used in their lives"

https://www.pewresearch.org/science/2025/09/17/how-americans-view-ai-and-its-impact-on-people-and-society/

Also pleased to see the stuff people are concerned about mostly isn't skynet

https://www.pewresearch.org/science/2025/09/17/americans-on-the-risks-benefits-of-ai-in-their-own-words/

2) His offers NFTs as an example of a "hype bubble" and then points to Amazon, Google and Paypal as examples of real value that emerged from the dotcom bubble. I agree with both, but… can anyone point to an Amazon or Google equivalent that emerged from the NFT bubble? Or anything of value at all to anyone other than speculators, scammers and crooks?
I can't, and while my gut says the AI stuff is probably closer to dotcom than NFTs, how much is far from obvious

https://www.fastcompany.com/91400857/there-isnt-an-ai-bubble-there-are-three-ai-bu

In today's #AIIsGoingGreat (HT @markwyner*) MIT boffins offer us an "AI Incident Tracker project" which "classifies real-world, reported incidents by AI Risk Repository risk domain, causal factors, and harm caused"
Sounds useful, right? But how exactly do they classify them? "Using a Large Language Model (LLM), the tool processes raw reports from the AI Incident Database and categorizes them using established frameworks" 🤨

https://airisk.mit.edu/ai-incident-tracker

* https://mastodon.social/@markwyner@mas.to/115249150911541318

Meanwhile, California appeals court fines #ChatGPTLawyer Amir Mostafavi ten grand for "filing a frivolous appeal, violating court rules, citing fake cases, and wasting the court’s time and the taxpayers money"

https://calmatters.org/economy/technology/2025/09/chatgpt-lawyer-fine-ai-regulation/

The court observes "Many courts confronted with AI-generated authorities have concluded that filing briefs containing fabricated legal authority is sanctionable" and backs it up with a page of (presumably non-hallucinated) citiations

https://www4.courts.ca.gov/opinions/documents/B331918.PDF

Bonus #AIIsGoingGreat (HT @acdha*) features Cascade PBS and KNKX using public records requests to get local Washington governments #LLM chatlogs

https://www.knkx.org/government/2025-08-26/washington-city-officials-chatgpt-write-government-documents-artificial-intelligence

* https://mastodon.social/@acdha@code4lib.social/115253478967518855

#AI #FOIA

Nice interview (via @ink*) with reporter Nate Sanford about how the project came about, along with tips for people who want to make similar requests
https://www.poynter.org/reporting-editing/2025/how-to-foia-chatgpt-logs-government-public-records/

* https://mastodon.social/@ink@merveilles.town/115253543686563040

#AIIsGoingGreat "When we spoke to executives, they would often say the internal tool was very successful … But when we spoke to employees, we found zero usage"

https://www.ft.com/content/e93e56df-dd9b-40c1-b77a-dba1ca01e473

#AIIsGoingGreat Newsguard illustrates yet another case where #LLM chatbots a terrible substitute for search engines: "…the chatbots were prone to repeating false claims about Moldova due to the intensity of Russian propaganda campaigns, as well as the lack of English-language data in smaller Eastern European political markets"

https://www.newsguardrealitycheck.com/p/new-kremlin-linked-influence-campaign

Today's #AIIsGoingGreat (HT @ai6yr*) highlights the perils of using a stochastic BS machine for vacation planning. In addition to making up non-existent destinations, it will also happily provide you with nonsense directions to reach them

https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/20250926-the-perils-of-letting-ai-plan-your-next-trip

* https://m.ai6yr.org/@ai6yr/115288912082804761

Meanwhile @therecord_media provides a sneak peek at coming #AIIsGoingGreat attractions, featuring startups Tranquility, Truleo and Allometric as they aggressively pitch police and prosecutors on using stochastic BS machines to sift through and summarize evidence. What could possibly go wrong?!

(also, what are the odds at least one of them is shoveling all that evidence on to an improperly secured S3 bucket? Better than the lottery, I'd wager!)
https://therecord.media/law-enforcement-ai-platforms-synthesize-evidence-criminal-cases

"we are looking for videos of both real and staged events, to help train the Al what to be on the lookout for" - First thought was "what could possibly go wrong with training theft detection AI on staged videos?" but this is probably a rational response to someone realizing that paying would inevitably lead to staged videos anyway. Not that it makes the whole concept any less creepy or suspect…

https://techcrunch.com/2025/10/01/anker-offered-to-pay-eufy-camera-owners-to-share-videos-for-training-its-ai/

JFC, it's not like there's any good case to go #ChatGPTJudge on, but this seems like a particularly poor one "The letter stems from an error-laden temporary restraining order Wingate issued July 20, which paused the enforcement of a state law that bans [DEI] in public schools"
errors "included naming defendants and plaintiffs that weren’t parties to the case, misquoting state law and referencing a case that doesn’t exist"

https://mississippitoday.org/2025/10/06/us-senate-chairman-grassley-asks-federal-judge-in-mississippi-to-explain-possible-ai-usage/

#AIIsGoingGreat

Today's #AIIsGoingGreat is… actually unsarcastically going pretty great 🤯

https://mastodon.social/@bagder/115349752966505897

Hard to see how anything could possibly go wrong here "the industry is spending over $30 billion a month (approximately $400 billion for 2025) and only receiving a bit more than a billion a month back in revenue"

https://pracap.com/an-ai-addendum/

#AIIsGoingGreat

Today's #ChatGPTLawyer (via @404mediaco*) ticks all the boxes:
✅ Files slop motion citing non-existent cases
✅ Denies using AI in slop-filled motion opposing sanctions for original slop
✅ Blames unnamed "staff"
✅ Eventually admits using AI and unconvincingly feigns remorse in sanctions hearing
✅ Gets sanctioned

https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/26185971-653917-2024-pamela-b-ader-v-jason-ader-et-al-decision-order-on-174/

* https://www.404media.co/lawyer-using-ai-fake-citations/

Dave Karpf's #AIIsGoingGreat take "But I’ll say this: the AI bubble isn’t predominantly giving off Pets.com or Global Crossing vibes anymore. It’s giving Enron vibes."

https://davekarpf.substack.com/p/its-giving-enron

Excellent deep dive into who goes #ChatGPTLawer by @riana

https://cyberlaw.stanford.edu/blog/2025/10/whos-submitting-ai-tainted-filings-in-court/

#AIIsGoingGreat "In a preview of its 2025 report on the impact of the tech on research, the academic publisher Wiley released preliminary findings on attitudes toward AI. One startling takeaway: the report found that scientists expressed less trust in AI than they did in 2024"

(I suspect that like me, many readers of this thread will not be particularly startled by that)

https://futurism.com/artificial-intelligence/ai-research-scientists-hype

RE: https://mastodon.social/@lawfare/115390271811742445

Pass the bong, @lawfare https://mastodon.social/
@lawfare/115390271811742445