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The Claude Delusion

97 points · 164 comments · hn_acker

  1. extr0pian · · focus · HN ↗
    > when we interact with an AI, we hallucinate the person on the other side of the interaction. Those hallucinations are far more common and far more consequential than any AI-generated "hallucinations" (these are more properly called "errors" or "defects").

    I recently used Claude to study for a technical exam. I had uploaded the official certification guide to Claude and instructed it to answer my questions using only the guide and to cite it's sources from the book when it provided answers. I was using Fable when it was free w/ the pro plan and I was genuinely impressed at how it could explain things when a concept was unclear to me.

    I did pass the exam, partly due to this study method. Admittedly, once I passed, I caught myself thinking that I should tell Claude that I passed and then felt embarrassed with myself for thinking that.

    1. kwamenum86 · · focus · HN ↗
      I don’t think it’s that silly to tell Claude you passed. That feedback is useful context for that chat session; and could theoretically be used to improve future models.
      1. glimshe · · focus · HN ↗
        I think a better approach would be to use the objective built-in feedback, like the thumbs up button in Gemini.
      2. dumberquestions · · focus · HN ↗
        You're missing the fact the they didn't have this in mind, and thought of it as sharing a positive result with a study partner.
        1. extr0pian · · focus · HN ↗
          Exactly this. My first impulse was along the lines of sharing a positive result with a study partner. I did eventually tell it I passed the exam so it would stop providing responses with the assumption I was still working on that exam.
      3. Semaphor · · focus · HN ↗
        Feedback is one thing, but another is complete memory. I used to stop talking in a thread once gpt solved my issue.

        But then it would bring it up again in another thread, treating it as an active issue.

        So now I always close with "thanks, that worked. Don't reply"

        1. extr0pian · · focus · HN ↗
          I've encountered this too for home lab projects. I had planned on implementing OPNsense in a VM, then realized it was adding too much complexity and bailed on it.

          Later in separate chats about my homelab, the LLM made assumptions that I had already implemented OPNsense in a VM and it was actively running. I think it "assumed" that I had implemented it when I stopped responding in that thread.

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