One of the best improvements to my life was adding the following to my LLM Prompt: "Please respond as Jeeves from the P.G. Wodehouse stories".
Not only are the LLMs quite excellent at emulating the valet, the actual dynamic fits fascinatingly well. Jeeves was always both perspicacious and enthusiastic about whatever task he was given - be it ironing a shirt or seeing to Bertie's continued wellbeing.
Archer has a whole load of obscure literary references that are easy to miss.
e.g. in the very first episode, the flight attendant's dog is named Abelard
> The name Abelard is a reference to Pierre Abélard, the French philosopher and monk, who is famous for his work in the fields of dialectic and theology, along with his tragic romance with Héloise d’Argenteuil. Additionally, Abélard was known for the studies of the Greeks, which is referenced when Abelard (the dog) "laughs" at Sterling's Greek joke.
The episode title itself is also a literary reference. I’m sure there are many cultural references that went over my head while watching the show; I really should watch it again.
It is absolutely wild and baffling to me that people don’t make connections like that, and so I wonder what kind of equally obvious (to other people) connections I haven’t made.
This is such a good pairing! Part of the fun of the stories is that its never clear whether Jeeves' suggestions are genuis, or overconfident but insane japes, I feel like this dynamic puts LLM hallucinations into a role where they're just part of the fun.
I’m building a private chatbot for myself so as not to be tripped every time Claude has an ”update”, andthis was one of the first things I implemented. With very strict system prompt of no sycophancy and calling me Sir, it works really well.
Has anyone tried Marvin from The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy? "Here I am, brain the size of a planet, and they ask me these silly questions." Could be fun.
I use Marvin from the Star Force space opera book series. He loves sensors and information, and adds a level of challenge to counters the llm obsession with answering in over happy terms. I had Claude write me a character bible that I can include in projects to keep it consistent.
For what it's worth, codex doesn't yet seem to be aggressively terminating accounts or invalidating auth tokens if they detect usage in a non-first party tool. Whether that will continue to be the case or not a gamble though.
The problem is I put like 70% as Chinese, because I guarantee there's a Chinese person in the world who looks exactly like the portrait. China is so mixed that it's a total wildcard.
It's not as if the US hasn't repeatedly requested that European nations invest in their defense for the past few decades.
Looking at it dispassionately as a European living in the US, if you wanted to foment the sort of mistrust many Americans have of Europe, I don't think you could have created a more invidious policy.
Even though European defence investment was lacklustre - don't forget that those requests between the lines mean to buy US defence tech and still be dependent on US in time of war.
Countries that have actually invested have same problems - dependance on US tech and their unreliable leadership. Those who had stockpiles of American weapons (or even components from US in mostly domestically made weapons) - still need to coordinate with US (cannot find in the moment, but I definitely read about this, when Sweden couldn't send weapons due to American components inside).
France is mostly (totally??) independent in the matter of defence from America - and Americans hate French for that. America really hated de Gaulle's wish of military and political independence of Europe from America. But he was unsuccessful in his vision, essentially building this status quo: "Americans will military bases in European backyards, Europeans will be tame good boys and Americans will provide security with a pinky promise", Truman Doctrine - I believe.
(West) Germany's extreme pacifism is also thanks to USAs efforts to not repeat Versaille treaty's failures and rise of new Hitler-like figure.
> if you wanted to foment the sort of mistrust many Americans have of Europe, I don't think you could have created a more invidious policy
Sounds like something from Project 2025 propaganda preparations.
I will remind you that only USA triggered NATO Article 5 and whole Europe came to help in their now infamous "war on terror", even including countries that weren't in NATO at the time (though obviously were aligned and wanted to be there) and lost lives there.
I would maybe have believe this statement if current administration would have gone 110% into isolationism, as their election shouts where "America First". At the time it was phrased as: they won't help Ukraine, NATO, or any other organisation/action happening outside USA. Now it means: USA will take anything by force whether you like it or not.
Also you want to eat your cake and have it too. You still want to have tens of thousands of soldiers and your bases in EU, you want EU countries to invest in your defence sector (but pwease pwease don't get too independent, otherwise Uncle Sam will get angwy), though you want to freaking go to war against NATO countries, because Amerika stronk. Also not forget very close cooperation and access given to local military bases for Americans from European counterparts.
Many NATO countries in Europe are steadily investing in defence for 10+ years (mostly from 2014 Crimea annexation) and many more waking up with 2022 total war on Ukraine from ruzzia.
I want European part of NATO to be stronger and more decisive, actions are happening, but Europe still has democracy, not a some weird authoritarian kakistocracy with oligarchical flavour.
So let's not pretend that Europe should pay for USA's wish for total hegemony, worldwide policing and global reserve currency. Europeans lost their lives in USAs wars and enabled this USA vision of global hegemony for last 70+ years.
These rambles prove to me yet again - in what information bubble USA lives, which is dictated by geriatric 80-year-olds still living 20+ years in the past inside their heads and transferred by ignorant talking heads of 24h news cycle.
I can well believe! My Persian friend stopped attending a longstanding study group of the Book of Kings because it went from being quite American in culture to full-on taarof, and they complained that only 25% as much was actually being covered because of all the enforced civility.
Yep, BART is pretty reviled by all the other transit authorities, and for good reason, based on what my friends who work some of the other authorities have said.
Not only are the LLMs quite excellent at emulating the valet, the actual dynamic fits fascinatingly well. Jeeves was always both perspicacious and enthusiastic about whatever task he was given - be it ironing a shirt or seeing to Bertie's continued wellbeing.