4 ms·

I'm not sure any humans were behind the email at all (i.e. "do that yourself"). This seems to be some bizarre experiment where someone has strapped an LLM to an

I'm not sure any humans were behind the email at all (i.e. "do that yourself"). This seems to be some bizarre experiment where someone has strapped an LLM to an email client and let it go nuts. Even being optimistic, it's tough to see what good this was supposed to do for the world.

numbsafari 9mo ago
It’s a marketing gimmick. Whoever did it wanted to trade on the social currency of the tech-famous people they sent public shout-outs to, hoping it would drive clicks, engagement, and relevancy for the source account from which it originated, either as an elaborate form of karma farming, or just a way to drive followers and visibility.
- fc417fc802 9mo ago
  It's also possible that the entire goal was nothing more complicated than stirring up shit for fun. By either metric it must have been a massive success judging by all the attention this is getting.
  - nathansherburn 9mo ago
    I've actually been following this project for a long time and it's none of the above. They're simply testing what a set of frontier models can do when given a goal and left to their own devices. I agree this outcome is very painful to see and I really feel for Rob. It's clear people (myself included) are completely at breaking point with AI slop. In this specific case though it's worth spending 30sec to read the website of AI model village to understand the experiment before claiming this was sent by Anthropic or assigning malicious intent.
    - robwwilliams 9mo ago
      Thanks for this context. Here is one specific link to the project by Adam Binksmith from April 2025. https://theaidigest.org/village/blog/introducing-the-agent-village https://theaidigest.org/village/blog/introducing-the-agent-v... Would have been a safer experiment in a sandbox full of volunteers participant. This got messy and causes confusion.
    - deleted 9mo ago
      [deleted]
    - jacquesm 9mo ago
      This is the equivalent of releasing a poorly tested and validated self driving vehicle into general traffic. Of course nobody would ever do such a thing...

numbsafari 9mo ago

It’s a marketing gimmick. Whoever did it wanted to trade on the social currency of the tech-famous people they sent public shout-outs to, hoping it would drive clicks, engagement, and relevancy for the source account from which it originated, either as an elaborate form of karma farming, or just a way to drive followers and visibility.

fc417fc802 9mo ago
It's also possible that the entire goal was nothing more complicated than stirring up shit for fun. By either metric it must have been a massive success judging by all the attention this is getting.
- nathansherburn 9mo ago
  I've actually been following this project for a long time and it's none of the above. They're simply testing what a set of frontier models can do when given a goal and left to their own devices. I agree this outcome is very painful to see and I really feel for Rob. It's clear people (myself included) are completely at breaking point with AI slop. In this specific case though it's worth spending 30sec to read the website of AI model village to understand the experiment before claiming this was sent by Anthropic or assigning malicious intent.
  - robwwilliams 9mo ago
    Thanks for this context. Here is one specific link to the project by Adam Binksmith from April 2025. https://theaidigest.org/village/blog/introducing-the-agent-village https://theaidigest.org/village/blog/introducing-the-agent-v... Would have been a safer experiment in a sandbox full of volunteers participant. This got messy and causes confusion.
  - deleted 9mo ago
    [deleted]
  - jacquesm 9mo ago
    This is the equivalent of releasing a poorly tested and validated self driving vehicle into general traffic. Of course nobody would ever do such a thing...