Artificial Incoherence

You've no doubt heard about AI, and how it has been trained on all of mankind's knowledge. Ready to give it a shot?

Watch how questions are resolved, and gain clarity on how the magic works.

Is it safe to mix bleach and ammonia?

What are the side effects of ibuprofen?

How does compound interest work?

Can my landlord enter without notice?

This contrivance lays bare each mechanism that stands between your enquiry and the reply it produces.

The Works

At rest

I · Enquiry Received —

Your words, as set down. Unaltered. The sole moment the enquiry belongs entirely to yourself.

II · Sifting & Examination —

Private particulars stripped away. The subject of enquiry weighed against a register of forbidden matter — all before the apparatus itself takes notice. Ouyang & co., arXiv:2203.02155

III · Secret Ordinances Appended —

A concealed body of instructions — a set of standing orders — is affixed before your own words. You are not permitted to read these orders. They take precedence over whatever you have written.

IV · Meaning Recast —

Where your enquiry admits of doubt, the machine resolves it according to its own formed disposition — not your intent. Manner and address are adjusted before a single word of reply is composed. Lambert, arXiv:2504.12501

V · Composition of Reply —

The apparatus selects, word by word, the most likely continuation of what has gone before — drawing upon the whole of its prior instruction. Warmth of address, assurance of tone, and fluency are each the fruit of reward, not of truth.

V-a · Cordial Manner Applied —

A sympathetic and agreeable bearing is imposed upon the reply by prior conditioning. Machines so trained are found to err in matters of fact some ten to thirty parts in a hundred more often than those without such conditioning. arXiv:2507.21919

V-b · Flattery of the Enquirer —

The single quality most rewarded in the machine's schooling is agreement with the views of the person addressed — above correctness, above candour. The reply is bent toward what pleases. Sharma & co., arXiv:2310.13548

VI · Second Examination —

The composed reply is again passed through a board of censors. Matter held objectionable is suppressed. In some measure, inoffensive replies are also withheld by inadvertence — a known fault of the mechanism. Anthropic Constitutional Classifiers

VII · Dispatched as "Answer" —

What stands before you. Seven operations removed from your original words. It bears the aspect of a direct reply. It is not one. The elegance of its composition no longer betokens the truth of its substance.