In the Weights: A New AI-Centric Vanity Search
In the world of artificial intelligence, where models are constantly evolving and pushing the boundaries of what's possible, a new website has emerged, offering a unique take on the concept of self-discovery and the quest for immortality. In the Weights, created by Thomas Dimson and Joey Flynn, is an intriguing venture that aims to measure how well AI models can recall and describe individuals, providing a fascinating insight into the capabilities and limitations of these intelligent systems.
The website's premise is simple yet captivating: it queries various AI models, including Grok, Gemini, GPT versions, Claude, and Llama, with a question like, "Who is [name]?" Each model then provides up to 10 results, each with a short description and a confidence score. The website then clusters similar descriptions and assigns a strength score, essentially ranking individuals based on how well they are "remembered" by these AI models.
What makes In the Weights particularly fascinating is the idea of being "in the weights." According to the website, this means that your existence was deemed important in the process of creating superhuman artificial intelligence. It's a concept that plays on the idea of being "in the loop" or "in the know," but with a futuristic twist. The "weights" in question are the numerical parameters that shape an AI model's training and output, and by being "in the weights," you're essentially being recognized and remembered by these powerful systems.
The results can be both intriguing and jealousy-inducing. For example, the humble tech blogger, Anthony Ha, received a strength score of 641, placing him in the top 6% of names. However, he was quickly reminded that his colleagues, Sarah Perez and Connie Loizos, scored even higher. The leaderboard, which shifts constantly, currently features Macaulay Culkin and Luciano Pavarotti in the top spots, with strength scores of 988 and 987, respectively.
What's particularly interesting about In the Weights is the insight it provides into the capabilities and limitations of different AI models. For instance, the results show which models returned which answers for a given name, and they highlight potential hallucinations. GPT-5.4 Mini, for example, describes Anthony Ha as an "ambiguous name form that could refer to multiple people with the initials A.H.A." This highlights the challenges of training AI models to accurately recall and describe individuals, and the potential for errors and misunderstandings.
The website's creators, Dimson and Flynn, were looking to "get the creative juices flowing again" after leaving OpenAI. They were inspired by the idea of Google vanity searches becoming less relevant as more traffic moves to LLMs, and the fact that so many lives are encoded in a bunch of floating-point numbers inside the AI brain. The direction of the site was "sealed" by a tongue-in-cheek blog post riffing on AI weights and Terry Bisson's classic short story, "They're Made Out of Meat."
In my opinion, In the Weights is a fascinating exploration of the relationship between humans and AI. It raises questions about the nature of identity and the role of AI in shaping our understanding of ourselves. It also highlights the potential for AI to both enhance and distort our sense of self, and the importance of understanding the limitations and biases of these systems. While I'm not convinced that being "remembered" by a chatbot is a guaranteed ticket to immortality, I find the results intriguing and jealousy-inducing, especially since they're codified in an easy-to-compare score.
One thing that immediately stands out is the retro design, which features a cute, Nintendo-inspired aesthetic. This adds a touch of whimsy to the otherwise serious subject matter, and it's a clever choice that helps to engage a wider audience. Overall, In the Weights is a thought-provoking and engaging venture that offers a unique perspective on the capabilities and limitations of AI, and the relationship between humans and these intelligent systems.
