Top
Best
New

Posted by CliffStoll 3 days ago

Rumors of my death are slightly exaggerated

AI hallucinations are getting ambitious.

A couple people recently emailed, asking whether the Klein bottle business was still operating after my death.

“Huh?” I thought. “I ain’t dead yet.”

After some digging, I discovered the source: an AI-generated review of The Cuckoo’s Egg circulating on Facebook. Alongside the usual synthetic praise and fabricated details, it confidently announced that I had died in May 2024.

Apparently AI has now advanced to the point where it can kill people off before they notice.

Mark Twain once wrote, “Reports of my death are greatly exaggerated.” I never expected to field-test the quote personally.

source: https://www.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=989939243570691&id=100076638743004

Cheers, -Cliff

1620 points | 248 commentspage 10
Jaauthor 1 day ago|
So grateful you're okay - this week's been rough enough without hearing of another hero's demise.
CliffStoll 1 day ago|
I'm grateful to be OK as well. Close call there...
metalman 1 day ago||
Good fun like this is rare enough, but that it is so topical, and susinct,is ,well as they say sometimes, "snap"
gostsamo 1 day ago||
Cheers to the Pratchett reference. :)
dmurray 1 day ago||
RIP Cliff
CliffStoll 1 day ago|
Not ripped. Torn.
dmurray 11 hours ago||
Eroded?
DonHopkins 1 day ago||
Death by Slop.

Personally I'd prefer Death by Snu Snu.

BLKNSLVR 1 day ago|
I had Snu Snu
dakolli 1 day ago||
Everyone thinks this is funny and ignoring the fact that its a great showcase of how net negative and useless llms are to society.
josefritzishere 1 day ago||
AI is such garbage. I can't beleive people pay good money for these trash services.
andrewstuart 1 day ago||
I’m sorry to hear you have passed away, Cliff.

I enjoyed your book greatly, back when you were alive.

Please give my condolences to your family.

Don’t be too sad about dying, Cliff - everyone has to go and you had a wonderful fulfilling life.

And remember, stay away from the light.

@dang can we have a black banner on HN for Cliff Stoll?

CliffStoll 1 day ago|
Thank you Andrew - I will pass along your condolences to my family, especially to my wife, Pat, who passed away a year ago.
nullc 1 day ago||
There are worse fates. Claude has been feeding a number of mentally unwell people screwed up conspiracy theories about me rigging the last presidential election. (I'm not involved in politics or elections at all, never have been). Once they've got it on a theme about how "absolutely right" their crazy theories are it embraces and extends them and confidently tells the user that anyone disagreeing must be involved in some movie plot conspiracy to conceal the truth.

(I'd link but I'm wary of directing traffic or attention to them and contributing to them becoming self perpetuating and most have been getting taken down)

runjake 2 days ago|
Legitimate question: How do we know you're not an AI simulation of Cliff?
CliffStoll 1 day ago||
Legitimate answer: Maybe someone has stolen my account on hacker news. Maybe someone has researched who I am, even looking at sources unavailable online. Perhaps they stopped my my home (while I was alive) and noticed that I like Apricot decaf tea. Perhaps they attended a talk where I quoted chess master, Arthur Bisguier. In that case, maybe it's a real person simulating me. But counting my fingers (five on each hand), I'm fairly convinced that I'm not an AI simulation.

Having said that, it was just three weeks ago that I spoke at OpenAI in SF. Maybe they did a whole-body substitution. (counting my fingers again...) Cheers, -Cliff

runjake 1 day ago||
Haha!

PS: Might that video of you speaking at OpenAI be available online somewhere?

input_sh 1 day ago|||
Because the post actually listed one single source instead of listing 50, 49 or which are only tangentially related to the topic at hand?
GJim 1 day ago|||
It's turtles^H^H^H^H AI all the way down.
256_ 1 day ago|||
Because the paragraphs are short, and the post is straight-forward and to the point.

Also, there are no em dashes.

brudgers 2 days ago|||
AI comments are not in the spirt of and the account is basically about as in the spirit of HN as it gets.
CliffStoll 1 day ago||
You betcha, Brudgers: I'm a member of the tribe.
More comments...