Users can now add documents and drop links into the chat on Claude, a language model developed by Anthropic. Claude has the ability to summarize the contents of these documents and links. However, there is a caveat. Anthropic warns that when links are input into the chat, Claude may hallucinate content. In my experience, this was true about a third of the time.
An example was provided to demonstrate Claude’s summarization capabilities. When given just the link to a Wall Street Journal article, Claude “summarized” it. However, when I provided the text I accessed with my subscription, the results were different. This task revealed two notable issues: major hallucinations and the potential to access paywalled content.
The article in question discusses controversies surrounding restaurant tipping in Chicago and the consideration of new regulations. Claude’s major hallucination occurred when it claimed the issue was being debated in New York City instead of Chicago. This misrepresentation changes the main subject of the article, leading to inaccuracies in the summary.
One of the intriguing aspects of Claude is its ability to access content through links. However, this raises concerns about potential copyright infringement, as it could potentially bypass paywalls. To test this capability, I provided Claude with paywalled links. Although the resulting summaries were similar to those generated using copied text, they still contained hallucinations.
In conclusion, it is difficult to place trust in Claude’s summarization of content through links, as the results can be wildly inaccurate. However, the ability to summarize is a significant feature that Anthropic could further enhance, provided there are measures in place to respect paywalled content and adhere to copyright laws.
