LLM HALLUCINATING: AN A.I. PARLOR GAME

ROBERT CRAWFORD’S ARTICLE “After the British Library Cyberattack,” London Review of Books, April 4, 2024, is an excellent—and humorous—imagining of A.I. It follows up on the lamentable October 2023 British Library Ransom Attack described here in Wikipedia.

Crawford’s article also encouraged me to concoct an A.I. parlor game (“What a parlor, Grandpa?”) based on Large Language Models. LLMs, you recall, are fed scads of data and use algorithms “to predict the next word.” Occasionally, it can be noted, with hallucinations.

Here are tidbits gleaned from Crawford’s LRB piece, together with my modest contributions to a proposed LLM Hallucination parlor game. First are my favorites by category selected from Crawford’s article: 

Irish Literature. Among these, Crawford cites Waitressing for Godot and A Farewell to Armagh.

Cookbooks. Mall Flan, Buns and Lovers, and Tart of Darkness.

Medical. The Illiad, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Deaf, Gays’ Anatomy, and The Scarlet Pimple. 

This last one got me giggling. 

Dressmaking and Haberdashery. The Hand-Made Tails, The Hat of the Matter, The Waistband, and Pin. 

For this last one, stick with Nabokov.

Drugs. Harry Pot, The Habit, and The Pharma Sutra.

Motoring. A favorite category, of course: Sir Gawain and the Green Light, Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cars, Jane Austin, and Mrs Gasket.

Rod & Truck isn’t cited because it’s a non-hallucination in occasional Aprils. Also, one reader once called the magazine Red & Track because of our proclivity for bright cars on the cover.

Crime. Another favorite category: Holmes and Gardens, Flaubert’s Poirot, Dorothy Slayers, and Meg Rae.

For this last one, think en français.

Crafts. A Loom of One’s Own, The Just Sew Stories, Venerable Beadwork, and As I Lay Dyeing.

For one of these, I thank Christopher De Hamel. And I delight in Railways’ Thomas the Search Engine.

My Modest Contributions. A train conductor’s demand: My Fare, Lady. A bartender’s query: Olive or Twist? Questionable Family Planning: Three Days of the Condom. A Throat Specialist’s Concern: The Sound of Mucus. Colonial Parenting: Who’s Afraid of Virginia Dare? Watch where you step: Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doo. A Speech Therapist’s Challenge: Schindler’s Lisp.

And then there are songs of the 1930s; singers left to the reader’s imagination: Lady of Pain. April in Pairs. I’ve Got the World on a Sting. It’s Only a Paper Moo. Keepin’ Out of Mischief No. Don’t Lame Me. You’re the Pot. I’m in the Nude for Love. Just One of Those Thongs. These Foolish Thongs Remind Me of You. Let’s Call the Whole Thong Off. (Enough already with the thongs.) 

Lulu’s Back in Tow. There’s a Mall Hotel. Beginner’s Uck. I’ve Got My Love to Keep Me War. The Lady is a Tram. (No doubt she’s named Desire).

I’m Gonna Lock My Ear and Throw Away the Key. Sin for Your Supper. Two Sleezy People. If I Only Had a Bra.

And that’s just from Wikipedia’s songs of the 1930’s.

Thanks, Robert Crawford, for inspiring all this. ds

© Dennis Simanaitis, SimanaitisSays.com, 2024