SolidGoldMagikarp
A Descent Into the AI Underworld
Failed to add items
Sorry, we are unable to add the item because your shopping cart is already at capacity.
Add to basket failed.
Please try again later
Add to Wish List failed.
Please try again later
Remove from Wish List failed.
Please try again later
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Audible Premium Plus 30-day free trial
1 credit a month to buy any audiobook in our entire collection.
Unlimited access to our all-you-can-listen catalogue of 15K+ audiobooks and podcasts.
Member-only deals & discounts.
Auto-renews at $16.45/mo after 30 days. Cancel anytime.
SolidGoldMagikarp
Pre-order for $29.74
-
Narrated by:
-
By:
-
Matthew Watkins
When English mathematician Matthew Watkins went to San Francisco to study an early version of ChatGPT, he expected dry technical work. Instead, he uncovered a series of 'rare tokens' that made the system go haywire. Some produced gibberish. Others turned it hostile. One trigger word - petertodd - sent the machine into what looked like full-blown paranoia. Was it a simple bug? A trail of breadcrumbs left by whistleblowers? Or a glimpse into how AI really thinks?
The search for answers pulls Watkins into the bewildering world of AI safety research. In this rapidly expanding domain, the line between science and belief blurs: billionaires play god while rogue chatbots win fortunes and cult followings. What starts as a computer mystery becomes something much bigger: both a window into the eerie inner worlds of LLMs and a cryptic clue to what might be history's greatest power grab.
The system has since been patched. Even so, before the window closed, we saw inside for a brief moment - and what stared back at us was both stranger and more human than we might like to admit.
'Top notch. Unfolding like a nerdy occult techno-thriller, Watkins tells the weird tale of how he discovered two ghosts in the LLM machine' ERIK DAVIS, author of High Weirdness
'Utterly fascinating, hugely relevant and brilliantly told . . . One of the most compelling and bizarre mathematical adventures I have ever read' ALEX BELLOS, author of Think Twice
'Watkins was the sole witness to the weirdest - and perhaps most important - story in AI. His rigorous obsession with this mystery will become yours' CULLEN HOBACK, director of Money Electric©2026 Matthew Watkins (P)2026 Orion Publishing Group Limited
adbl_web_anon_alc_button_suppression_t1
Critic Reviews
Utterly fascinating, hugely relevant and brilliantly told. Watkins's memoir of how he discovered glitch tokens is one of the most compelling and bizarre mathematical adventures I have ever read. Not only is it a clear and fun exposition of how Large Language Models (LLMs) work, but it is also a terrific piece of reportage from the AI alignment community and a provocative treatise about who we are and where technology is taking us (ALEX BELLOS, author of THINK TWICE)
Top notch. Unfolding like a nerdy occult techno-thriller, Watkins tells the weird tale of how he discovered two ghosts in the LLM machine - 'glitch tokens' whose uncanny behavior makes it clear, at least, that AI will enchant as much as it will disrupt. The deets are important, and Watkins presents them with care and clarity. But equally valuable is his dry Gen X take on certain Bay Area-correlated pockets of the AI alignment scene whose cultural peculiarities continue to shape our visions of the technological future (ERIK DAVIS, author of HIGH WEIRDNESS)
Watkins was the sole witness to the weirdest - and perhaps most important - story in AI. His rigorous obsession with this mystery will become yours (CULLEN HOBACK, director of MONEY ELECTRIC)
No reviews yet
In the spirit of reconciliation, Audible acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of country throughout Australia and their connections to land, sea and community. We pay our respect to their elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples today.