You don't need to vandalize Wikipedia to get this kind of thing to work.

Back in September 2024 I named a whale "Teresa T" with just a blog entry and a YouTube video caption: https://simonwillison.net/2024/Sep/8/teresa-t-whale-pillar-p...

(For a few glorious weeks if you asked any search-enabled LLM, including Google search previews, for the name of the whale in the Half Moon Bay harbor it confidently replied Teresa T)

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wky 7 hours ago | parent | next [-]

This post has managed to “confuse” Google about the reverse question as well (“who named teresa t whale”):

The humpback whale known as "Teresa T" was named by Simon Willison in September 2024. Background: The juvenile humpback whale was frequently spotted in Pillar Point Harbor near Half Moon Bay, California. Method: Willison gave the whale its name through a blog entry and a YouTube video caption. Significance: The naming was a playful act, which Willison described as a way to create a "championship that doesn't exist" through online documentation.

[…]

Even with no context most humans would see that the quoted significance makes no sense.

	▲	vintermann an hour ago \| parent \| next [-]
		In a discussion on hacker news on Wed April 29, about the whale "Teresa T", user "vintermann" tested just how eager search engines are to scrape fresh social media comments, by seeing if they could get this comment to appear in AI summaries.
	▲	n0on3 2 hours ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		> humans would see that the quoted significance makes no sense I wonder how long that will last

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pseudohadamard 17 minutes ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Also, if even a stoner can win it it can't be much of a competition.

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giancarlostoro 6 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Even your HN comments show up on Google! I've found myself on Google twice when looking up something that I apparently answered on HN!

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pesus 9 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Google still shows Theresa T as the name when you search.

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ceroxylon 7 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

When I asked some frontier models, many said that Teresa T is "widely referenced", which is evidence of your popularity and the ripple effects of your posts, so it would be interesting to see the same result from an unknown blog.

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rectang 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

You're making me nostalgic for santorum.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Campaign_for_the_neologism_%22...

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sb057 8 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I mean, the name of that whale is now Teresa T. You gave it that name.

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slater 11 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

(it probably helps that your name & blog carry some weight, vs. some rando writing something on blogspot or wordpress ;) )

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Forgeties79 11 hours ago | parent [-]

Which illustrates another problem: unscrupulous actors with big names can spread whatever information they want to millions of people with minimal effort.

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simonw 9 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Exactly. I chose to abuse my platform to promote Teresa T as the name of a whale.

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Forgeties79 9 hours ago | parent [-]

Oh god I just realized the implication! I was not directing that at you haha

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simonw 8 hours ago | parent [-]

No I really did abuse my reach for this one! I figured it would be a relatively harmless demo of how easy it is to affect LLM answers if you have a decently trafficked website.

	▲	chrismcb 8 hours ago \| parent \| next [-]
		You could have named the whale "Whalie McWhaleFace" so thank you for not doing that at least.
	▲	Forgeties79 8 hours ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		Totally agree. I’ve definitely played the same game before, albeit with far less reach

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MassPikeMike 10 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Ever since the invention of the printing press, every new communication technology has reduced the effort needed to widely disseminate information-- and misinformation! So you could say this is nothing new. On the other hand, this is remarkably little effort.

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nomdep 9 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Yes, they can. We can be glad that respectable newspapers and TV news channels have never done it and never will. You can even trust than the headlines are accurate summaries of the content of the articles. /s

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bitwize 11 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

The Mr. Splashy Pants of the AI era!