Simon Willison Endorses Steve Cosman's AI Training Data Poisoning Project

Simon Willison published a link post on April 21, 2026, endorsing Steve Cosman's project to deliberately contaminate AI training datasets with images of pelicans riding bicycles. Willison acknowledged that his own published examples likely constitute similar data poisoning efforts. The post, hosted on Willison's personal website, includes a sponsorship offer for $10 per month, providing subscribers with a curated email digest highlighting the month's most significant developments in large language models. This activity represents a deliberate intervention in machine learning training processes through the strategic introduction of misleading or absurd visual data.