Another Single Case Test of Two AI LLMs: Infinite Jest and Steven Pinker

This series of blog posts began as a set of observations about literary research on the novel A Confederacy of Dunces (Confederacy), by John Kennedy Toole, but I have extended it to include other topics like AI chatbot testing. This blog entry is another one that gives a case study of AI testing.

A friend of mine introduced me to the writings of Steven Pinker thirty years ago. Pinker’s groundbreaking The Language Instinct was published in 1994. This summer, I have been enjoying David Foster Wallace's novel Infinite Jest, which was published in 1996. I discovered in the footnotes to the novel (yes, this thousand page novel has footnotes) a humorous reference to Steven Pinker.

I mentioned this fact to my friend a couple of months ago. He decided to query ChatGPT, to see if it could retrieve accurate information about the reference. As usual, ChatGPT was full of poppycock. I decided to run two queries in ChatGPT and Google's Gemini, respectively, and Gemini returned accurate information. Below are the two test queries and their results in the different services.

Q1: In the novel Infinite Jest, what event causes the MIT language riot of 1997?

1.A. ChatGPT said:

In David Foster Wallace's Infinite Jest, the MIT language riot of 1997 is caused by a public lecture on the theoretical implications of the Incandenza family's "samizdat" film [VL: not true]—a film so entertaining that it renders viewers completely catatonic due to their inability to look away or stop watching. [The fictional film in the novel that causes viewers to become catatonic is sometimes referred to as "the samizdat," but its formal name is "Infinite Jest." But a discussion of that film is not what causes the riot.]

Specifically, the riot breaks out at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) when a linguistic theorist gives a talk about the film's potential effects on communication, semiotics, and the limits of language. The lecture attracts radical theorists and academics, many of whom have divergent and extreme interpretations. The confrontation between competing linguistic camps escalates into chaos, culminating in what becomes known as the MIT language riot. [This is vaguely true with no names or specific details.]

The event is one of many satirical moments in Infinite Jest that lampoon the excesses of academia, the fragmentation of intellectual discourse, and the cultural obsession with entertainment and theory.

1.B. Gemini Said:

In David Foster Wallace's Infinite Jest, the MIT language riot of 1997 is attributed to a public debate between Steven Pinker and Avril M. Incandenza (Hal Incandenza's mother) on the political implications of prescriptive grammar. This debate occurred during a convention of the "Militant Grammarians of Massachusetts" and is credited with helping to incite the riots. [VL: Accurate.]

Q2: Is Steven Pinker mentioned in the novel Infinite Jest?

2.A. ChatGPT said:

Yes, Steven Pinker is mentioned in Infinite Jest.

David Foster Wallace references Pinker in a tongue-in-cheek, satirical manner as part of a broader critique of academia and intellectual culture. In one passage, Wallace refers to a linguistics professor with “hair like Steven Pinker” [VL: not true] — a nod to Pinker’s famously voluminous hair and his prominence in the field of linguistics and cognitive science.

The mention is brief and more caricature than critique, but it fits with the novel’s dense tapestry of cultural, academic, and intellectual references. Wallace often peppers real-life figures into Infinite Jest to lend texture to the world, blur the lines between fiction and reality, and satirize the intellectual elite. [VL: Vague statements that could have been written by a student who didn't read the assignment.]

2.B. Gemini said:

Yes, Steven Pinker is indeed mentioned in Infinite Jest. He appears in the novel's filmography, specifically in a documentary titled "Union Of Theoretical Grammarians In Cambridge." This documentary features interviews with participants in a public debate between Steven Pinker and Avril M. Incandenza (Hal's mother) on the "political implications of prescriptive grammar." This debate is famously credited with helping to incite the MIT language riots of B.S. 1997. [VL: Accurate.]