Shanahan Recommends SolidGoldMagikarp, Chronicle of the LLM Whisperers Era
Around October 17, DeepMind researcher Murray Shanahan posted repeatedly to recommend a new book by AI scholar Matthew Watkins (@SoCtrilogy), "SolidGoldMagikarp: A Descent into the AI Underworld." According to Shanahan, the book is published by W&N and chronicles a unique slice of AI history from 2022 to 2024—the strange phenomena discovered in large language models by the so-called "LLM whisperers," a community exemplified by figures like @repligate and @AndyAyrey.
Confirmed
- "SolidGoldMagikarp: A Descent into the AI Underworld" was written by Matthew Watkins and published by W&N, covering the explorations of the "LLM whisperer" community from 2022 to 2024
- Notable figures documented in the book include @repligate, @AndyAyrey, and others
- Shanahan also shared the paper "Existential Conversations with LLMs," which he co-authored with Beth Singler
Why it matters
- Shanahan noted that these bizarre latent-space phenomena have yet to attract meaningful attention from academia, mainstream media, or frontier labs—a lack of interest he finds puzzling
- The book stands as documentary testimony to a community's explorations that went almost entirely unrecorded by the mainstream; Shanahan sees its value in preserving a first-hand account of this "unique period"
2026-10-17 ~ 2026-10-18 · 5 related posts
Primary sources
- Murray Shanahan recommends SolidGoldMagikarp, a chronicle of the 2022-24 'LLM whisperer' era — mpshanahan ·
- Murray Shanahan: LLM whisperers' strange findings still ignored by academia and labs — mpshanahan ·
- Shanahan baffled LLM anomalies get no mainstream attention; paper on existential LLM conversations — mpshanahan ·
- SolidGoldMagikarp piece chronicles the 2022-2024 era of "LLM whisperers" — mpshanahan · 2026-10-17
- [source] Murray Shanahan: LLM whisperers' strange findings still ignored by academia and labs — mpshanahan · 2026-10-17
- [source] Murray Shanahan recommends SolidGoldMagikarp, a chronicle of the 2022-24 'LLM whisperer' era — mpshanahan · 2026-10-17
- New book SolidGoldMagikarp chronicles the 2022-2024 LLM whisperer era of AI history — mpshanahan · 2026-10-18
1 near-duplicate retellings: mpshanahan