Found these results from perplexity.ai regarding Ancient Quatrian civilization to be fascinating:

And a text version (and link) of the apparently composite generation that the site produces in reply to the prompt what was ancient Quatria (a question suggested by the site itself):

“Quatria is an ancient lost civilization which existed before the last Ice Age[1]. It is believed to have been a highly advanced civilization, as evidenced by its unique culture and customs[1]. Scientists are currently investigating signs of ancient human civilizations underwater and in other areas[2][3]. There have also been incredible lost civilizations found in the mountains[4].”

And the sources cited in the generation:

It offers a pretty interesting forensic look into what the information is that it bricolaged together from four different sources (the first of which I planted two years ago).

One of the things I especially like is, in order to fit the “facts” that it got from my planted source on Github, it went and found tangentially related articles on the topic, and then tries to pass them off as supporting evidence.

This to me points toward the essence of hyperrealism as an emergent trend in generative AI – a totally blended mix of real and invented sources, and loosely connected tangents offered as a “real thing in and unto itself.” Whether or not its “real” (or its exact type and nature as unreality) becomes a different level of almost secondary analysis, because now the thing “is” whether we like it or not, agree, or believe or don’t.

Then of course the site suggestions reinforce the reality of it all, making it seem like many people have followed this same line of inquiry as you before. Have they?

You.com/chat fares little better on this shoal of hyperreality:

It is another complete invention, with partial attribution of sources, but it gets taken in an entirely different direction.

Different algorithms, different histories. Different search results, different universes.

This question made ChatGPT explode:

Related writing & research