Kinda relieving.
When I entered my real name, the response was entirely about a reasonably prominent investor/commentator who shares my pretty uncommon name.
When I entered my Dope name, it mentioned nothing about me or the Dope.
Not going to ask AI MORE about me using more specific details, fearing that will encourage it to start developing a profile about me.
Asking about Jophiel as an internet user was pointless as every platform has a Jophiel. I might be a guy big into Minecraft (I am not)
Exactly. According to AI, I’m a leader, innovator, renowned … all kinds of amazing stuff like that. Gross exaggerations, to say the least.
Basically, it cribs my own blog bio.
I don’t even get an AI summary. I find a couple indexed FB posts (a couple, like two) and my public record info: phone number and address. It has the correct address, and right phone number, but also two wrong phone numbers and no correct email addy.
I guess my efforts at anonymity paid off.
For those of you who say that the summary is more or less identical to a bio/LinkeIn/FB page or something similar, are you sure you have it set to “AI mode”? If I don’t specifically choose AI, I just get a bland regurgitation of dry facts from LinkedIn, etc. But when I choose AI mode, that’s when it indulges in puffery about what a leader I am.
Same here. I am not active on social media so maybe it’s starved for information. It did find someone with the same name who happens to live in the same city, but that’s not me at all - some muckety-muck at some company. Heck, if someone looking for me thinks that other person is me, that’s cool! They appears to have done better than me at any rate.
It got my job and location right, but it also said I have a blog/project titled Building Bridges with Beer. Although that sound like a fun project, it just isn’t so.
If you value your anonymity here you may want to remove that reference - someone can reverse find you with that.
When I asked Google AI about me under my real name, it provided a resume-like dossier about my work experience and skills that was pretty accurate-- seemed to scrape from my LinkedIn profile and a website I own based on a freelancing side hustle business.
When I asked it to tell me about the user ‘solost’ on the SDMB, it gave me a less accurate summary, though not wildly inaccurate. For example, in the ‘Interests’ bullet point, I do contribute to music threads, but I’m hardly a gearhead when it comes to musical equipment, and though I do work in the tech industry, I don’t think I contribute too often to tech-related troubleshooting posts.
On the Straight Dope Message Board (SDMB), solost is an active and long-term member of the community. As of 2026, he is a frequent participant in various forums, particularly those related to music, technology, and general discussion.
Key details about user solost include:
- Longevity: He has been a member for many years, often contributing to long-running “Teeming Millions” threads.
- Interests: His posts frequently focus on progressive rock, musical equipment (specifically guitars and synthesizers), and tech-related troubleshooting.
- Community Presence: He is known for a generally helpful and conversational tone, often engaging in “MPSIMS” (Mundane Pointless Stuff I Must Share) and “Cafe Society” (the arts and entertainment sub-forum).
- Collaborations: He has participated in several community-driven projects, such as shared music playlists or collaborative creative threads common to the SDMB culture.
I am not really concerned about my anonymity. I am pretty sure the fact that my name is Michael Pinnick is a secret that this board will guard as if its life depended on it.
Okay, I put it into AI mode definitely. It still regurgitates my bio when I put in my real name.
When I put in “CalMeacham” it instantly blows my cover and writes about me in a gushy way. It also hallucinates that I’m so obsessed with the character Cal Meacham from This Island Earth that I have built a full-scale (nonfunctional) Interociter in my home. I have not built an interociter, functional or not, in any scale.
I like that it had to specify “non functional”. Otherwise I’d be using it to destroy incoming alien space ships.
Oddly enough, not much. It only finds things I have explicitly put online: basically music work, and public material such as patent applications which have my name on them. Of course my exact surname is rather uncommon, though often confused with a more familiar variant. Still, I am somewhat reassured: I don’t think I am a good target for identity theft for the moment…?
When I asked it about my name and specified the city I live in, it said:
[My Name] is an IT professional and actor
Which is amusing. I had one tiny part in a low budget independent film 15 years ago, and it gives it equal weight to my career of almost 30 years.
Funny enough, I asked it about “the person with the online persona ‘atamasama’” and it said:
Under the handle u/Atamasama , the user is a prominent figure on the platform, contributing to various communities and holding moderation roles in several subreddits.
Which is total BS. I have 21 total contributions to the platform, period. I’ve barely done anything there. I’ve never been a moderator over there, I’m barely a member.
It also chose to talk about contributions for the MMORPG Star Wars: The Old Republic, and yes, I was involved in chats when I played that game, but it’s not like I was there that much.
I do like this last bit:
While “Atamasama” maintains a significant presence in hobbyist and community-driven spaces, they generally keep their real-world identity private, adhering to the common practice of using a pseudonym for online interactions.
Damn straight!
Despite likely being the only person on the planet with my particular first and last name, Google AI gravitated to another individual with a similar name who lived during the 19th century. I tried with a different version of my name that is more generic, but only got a list of other [Tabcos] that were not me.
Tried again with my SDMB username, still nothing, likely owing to my infrequent (and largely uninteresting) posting.
Mine was very accurate, got my role as Scoutmaster, some comments I had about scouting online, my marital status, education and work status as well.
It mentioned a few people who share my very common name (I narrowed it with where I live, without that it told me about a notable person with my name who died over 100 years ago)
I also asked it about my online handle Cheesesteak, here at the SDMB, and it told me there’s no user with that name. I don’t feel seen Google.
I see you.
You’re “cheesy”
I’m very happy to discover that AI knows nothing about the “real” me (first last and middle names) or any of the aliases I use on message boards or my blog.
When I asked ChatGPT, it said, “You are a proactive individual who uses data-driven nutrition and consistent activity to manage a complex metabolic condition while optimizing your long-term health and longevity.” Which is completely accurate. ChatGPT remembers everything I’ve asked it in the past.
It gives me a set of summaries of several people with my name, none of which are me.