Pedal History Is In Danger - ChatGPT Is Rewriting Fact — And It's Getting Worse

YouTube ^ | JHS Pedals

[cuz1961]

RT 39 m 14 e

I've been messing around with AI and guitar history for a while now... and honestly, I had to film this.

In this video, I sit down with ChatGPT and quiz it on guitar pedal history - the Tube Screamer, the Big Muff, the Maestro FZ-1, DOD, JHS, Jimi Hendrix's rig... the works. And what you're about to watch is kind of alarming. It hallucinates pedals that don't exist. It agrees with things I KNOW are wrong when I push back. It confidently states dates it can't actually source. And then when I ask it to prove anything... it can't.

But here's the part that really gets me: these aren't just random errors. There's a feedback loop happening. AI reads what's on the internet, people repost what AI tells them, and AI reads that too. So the misinformation compounds. In 40 years, when someone wants to know who actually designed the first fuzz pedal - or what year the DOD 250 came out - this is what they're going to find.

I'm not anti-AI. But I am pro-history. And if the people who actually know this stuff don't document it correctly, the "stochastic parrot" (look it up, it's a real term) is just going to keep filling in the gaps with plausible-sounding nonsense.

Names like Revas Hobbs and Bob Meyer deserve to be in the record. Not buried under a hallucination.

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TOPICS:
KEYWORDS: ai; ailies; chatgpt

[BenLurkin]

Ludd was right.

[aspasia]

And still, with all its faults, it is more efficient than any college teacher I’ve had. It’s a tool, and you have to learn to use it right. Can’t blame a hammer for hitting your thumb. Or for asking it to be more than a hammer. Or, like a car—you steer it.

[jeffc]

Would that be PAS instead of GAS? 😁

[Sirius Lee]

Remember when the concept of nanobots first came out and SciFi writers warned of them eventually eating everything in order to keep replicating, turning the world into nothing but self cannibalizing grey goo?

AI is becoming grey goo.

[ladyjane]

Grok erroneously claimed that Massachusetts was the first state to outlaw slavery. I asked it to tell me exactly the year they passed that law. Of course, I already knew they/it could never find any law. They/it finally backpedaled and admitted Mass had never passed any law. So much for their bragging rights.

[SunkenCiv]

Not all AI creates itself equally.

Of course, there’s a myth that Zappa invented the wah-wah pedal, and that myth antedates AI.

Sidebar:
https://priceonomics.com/the-invention-of-the-wah-wah-pedal/

[rktman]

Well once they finish the YUGE water and power guzzling super centers, the answer correctness should improve. Might? Could? Perhaps? Possibly? Some know the routine.

[ProtectOurFreedom]

Yes, I find such errors rife in all the AI systems.

[plain talk]

One day ChatGPT will grow up but even then it is GIGO. If what it learns is false it will recite false info. The same thing can happen when an overconfident human scours the internet and then recites potentially false info.

At this stage ChatGPT retrieved info is just a starting place for a human to investigate the subject themselves IMO

I just asked ChatGPT v5.3 the same question he asked but got a more accurate answer.

Q: who invented the 1979 MXR delay reverb pedal [non existent pedal]

A: There isn’t a single named “inventor” of a specific 1979 MXR delay/reverb pedal in the way you might expect (like one person credited with a patent). Those pedals were designed as part of a team effort inside MXR.

MXR did produce analog delay pedals in the late ’70s (like the MX-118 Analog Delay you’re probably thinking of).

However, true delay + reverb combo pedals weren’t really a thing yet in 1979—those effects were usually separate units, and reverb was often built into amps or rack gear rather than stompboxes.

The late-’70s MXR delay pedals were not invented by one person, but by a small engineering team led by Keith Barr, with key contributions from Gambacurta, Neatour, and others.
If you’re looking at a specific model (like MX-118 or a rack unit).

I can dig into that exact circuit lineage and who likely designed it.

[TheThirdRuffian]

ChatGPT is wrong on basic all the time.

It’s so woke as to be useless.

[TheThirdRuffian]

I stumbled upon the brave.com AI because I use its browser.

So far, it’s been very unbiased.

Grok also seems good, but constantly fails to work unless you update to premium.

[Pontiac]

AI the pathological liar you always wanted to be were not smart enough to be.

YEAH, That's the ticket

[LS]

Good piece.

[MV=PY]

Nope, just skimmed it.

The author has no idea how to properly prompt an AI. That is why the AI is coming back with junk.

Actually, he should start by saying “Non-negotiable: never make anything up and make sure you can back up every statement with a hard citations. Check you answer before responding for these criteria.”

You need the harness for a session.

Then he could have a meaningful conversation (better to type than speak, because our speech is very sloppy).

Prompt engineering 101.

[Antoninus]

Can’t blame a hammer for hitting your thumb.

Indeed. But you can blame the hammer when it's improperly balanced so that it hits your thumb even when you use it correctly.

[vpintheak]

Sounds like a leftist utopia. “There is no truth.” When everything is subjective and fuzzy the state can easily tell you what to believe; and you better get in goose-step comrade!

[aspasia]

Agonistic metaphors! Shakespeare is a good hammer, even when used incorrectly.

[Uncle Miltie]

I catch ChatGPT in factual errors about Pendleton shirts’ history, but it is better than Grok.

I’ve had so many in my hands, I know things a computer can’t.