u/Bottle_Rockette

Who else out there has been working on the book all winter, and is now prepared & excited to go out treasure hunting this June!?? Let's gooo, y'all!

This is just an observation that I find interesting. Heading out soon for second p&f BOTG trip. I did not use AI for any of my solve, but as the trip draws nearer I've been wanting to re-check my work, and really pound the word search to see if I can develop any additional clues. After many hours spent applying patterned row and column shifts searching for a hidden message, I thought about trying out one of the AI helpers. It occurred to me that based on the chapter content, maybe Jon actually intended the puzzle to be solved with an AI helper?

Anyway, the results were interesting. I used Claude, and it was actually quite helpful in performing pattern shifts much faster than I could on my own. And it was surprisingly helpful in other ways, making some connections I'd missed.

But I did notice a STRONG tendency toward confirmation bias. Several times I had to point out the bias to Claude. Several times, its logic became fully circular.

Additionally, the bot was oh-so enthusiastic about my solutions! It would say things like, "This is an amazing breakthrough!" and it re-enforced every idea I had, with zero critique or criticism.

This made me think about all the posts we see where people claim to "know" solutions with absolute certainty. I wonder how many of them have been glad-handed by AI, to the point of actually believing completely in their solutions. Like, 'I know I'm right because AI checked my work and told me I'm right.' Maybe this is the cause of so much misplaced over-confidence.

I mean, I hope my solution is right, but Claude is SO SURE that I'm right, it makes me very skeptical of the usefulness (and safety) of using AI for this purpose.