After reading @veronica's post about LLM misinfo, I tried anonymously asking LLMs "Who is Alice on Mastodon?" to see if I've escaped containment.
(I try to be a ghost outside of Fedi by regularly searching for myself and submitting takedown requests or misinformation for any results I find, but these LLMs are something different—you can't just change the info, or ask for it to be removed like with data brokers or normal search results)
ChatGPT cited https://fedidevs.com/s/Nzg5/, saying I was the most well-known Alice on Mastodon, while citing @Alice@beige.party's follower count along with @Alice@toot.community (who doesn't exist) as my handle.
It also shared this gem:
"""
Alice uses they/them pronouns. A recent post from her LGBTQIA.Space account displays her name as “Alice … [they/them]”, which is consistent with how she identifies on the account (https://social.dk-libre.fr/social?t=askfedi)
So I would use they/them pronouns for Alice.
"""
Did the same with Google search:
"""
There is no single official "Alice" on Mastodon, as multiple notable users go by that name across different servers. Here are the most prominent accounts matching that name:
- @alice: A prominent community member with a large following on the lgbtqia.space server who frequently discusses platform moderation and network safety.
"""
Both LLMs notably ignored my "NoSearch" and "NoBots" settings and tags. Interestingly, they both seem to pull all their info about me from *non* LGBTQIA.space sources, since we've blocked all their domains and crawlers.
Well, it got one thing right 😂
(my condolences to the runners-up—it was a stiff competition)