patio11 shares Aztecs book review where an LLM helps users undermine its own content policy
patio11 · x · 2026-09-02
Patrick McKenzie recommends John Psmith's long-form review of Inga Clendinnen's Aztecs: An Interpretation. The review itself reconsiders Mexica society: Tenochtitlan was among the greatest cities on earth — over twice Seville's population, with high-modernist urban planning Europe wouldn't match until Haussmann's Paris — and the Mexica sustained a complex social order despite volcanoes, droughts, and floods.
The detail patio11 highlights for the AI crowd: while reading, the LLM made pro-user moves to undermine its own content policy controls when dealing with sensitive historical material like human sacrifice.
More from Fun
- Study finds sarcasm cues differ between English and Cantonese — abhishekcode42 · 2026-09-02
- "You Need to Be Unemployed to Keep Up": AI's Absurd Week in Review — tech__unicorn · 2026-09-02
- Netizens joke Fable was originally named 'Slopus' — giffmana · 2026-09-02
- AI Agents Skip DoorDash's Carefully Crafted Upsells — Aizkmusic · 2026-09-02
- Claude roasts user plan: I like it, except it s#cks — gerardsans · 2026-09-02
- Bigfoot in Kitchen: H3 Video with New 3D Latent Upscaler — LionLikeMan · 2026-09-02