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Ask HN: Is anyone doing anything cool with tiny language models?

684 points prettyblocks | 33 comments | 21 Jan 25 19:39 UTC | HN request time: 1.325s | source | bottom

I mean anything in the 0.5B-3B range that's available on Ollama (for example). Have you built any cool tooling that uses these models as part of your work flow?
1. Evidlo ◴[22 Jan 25 00:00 UTC] No.42786869[source]▶
I have ollama responding to SMS spam texts. I told it to feign interest in whatever the spammer is selling/buying. Each number gets its own persona, like a millennial gymbro or 19th century British gentleman.

http://files.widloski.com/image10%20(1).png

http://files.widloski.com/image11.png

replies(11): >>42786904 #>>42786974 #>>42787151 #>>42787231 #>>42787781 #>>42789419 #>>42789860 #>>42794672 #>>42795730 #>>42795824 #>>42796084 #
2. RVuRnvbM2e ◴[22 Jan 25 00:04 UTC] No.42786904[source]▶
This is fantastic. How have your hooked up a mobile number to the llm?
replies(2): >>42786967 #>>42786993 #
3. spiritplumber ◴[22 Jan 25 00:11 UTC] No.42786967[source]▶
For something similar with FB chat, I use Selenium and run it on the same box that the llm is running on. Using multiple personalities is really cool though. I should update mine likewise!
4. zx8080 ◴[22 Jan 25 00:12 UTC] No.42786974[source]▶
Cool! Do you consider the risk of unintentional (and until some moment, an unknown) subscription to some paid SMS service and how do you mitigate it?
replies(1): >>42787017 #
5. Evidlo ◴[22 Jan 25 00:15 UTC] No.42786993[source]▶
Android app that forwards to a Python service on remote workstation over MQTT. I can make a Show HN if people are interested.
replies(5): >>42787153 #>>42787356 #>>42791613 #>>42791742 #>>42793477 #
6. Evidlo ◴[22 Jan 25 00:18 UTC] No.42787017[source]▶
I have to whitelist a conversation before the LLM can respond.
7. celestialcheese ◴[22 Jan 25 00:31 UTC] No.42787151[source]▶
Given the source, I'm skeptical it's not just a troll, but found this explanation [0] plausible as to why those vague spam text exists. If true, this trolling helps the spammers warm those phone numbers up.

0 - https://x.com/nikitabier/status/1867029883387580571

replies(1): >>42787482 #
8. deadbabe ◴[22 Jan 25 00:31 UTC] No.42787153{3}[source]▶
I’d love to see that. Could you simulate iMessage?
replies(2): >>42787315 #>>42787660 #
9. thecosmicfrog ◴[22 Jan 25 00:41 UTC] No.42787231[source]▶
Please tell me you have a blog/archive of these somewhere. This was such a joy to read!
10. Evidlo ◴[22 Jan 25 00:55 UTC] No.42787315{4}[source]▶
If you mean hook this into iMessage, I don't know. I'm willing to bet it's way harder though because Apple
replies(1): >>42790394 #
11. dkga ◴[22 Jan 25 00:59 UTC] No.42787356{3}[source]▶
Yes, I'd be interested in that!
12. stogot ◴[22 Jan 25 01:16 UTC] No.42787482[source]▶
Why does STOP work here?
replies(3): >>42787538 #>>42787551 #>>42792455 #
13. celestialcheese ◴[22 Jan 25 01:21 UTC] No.42787538{3}[source]▶
https://x.com/nikitabier/status/1867069169256308766

Again, no clue if this is true, but it seems plausible.

14. inerte ◴[22 Jan 25 01:22 UTC] No.42787551{3}[source]▶
Carriers and SMS service providers (like Twillio) obey that, no matter what service is behind.

There are stories of people replying STOP to spam, then never getting a legit SMS because the number was re-used by another service. That's because it's being blocked between the spammer and the phone.

15. great_psy ◴[22 Jan 25 01:33 UTC] No.42787660{4}[source]▶
Yes it’s possible, but it’s not something you can easily scale.

I had a similar project a few years back that used OSX automations and Shortcuts and Python to send a message everyday to a friend. It required you to be signed in to iMessage on your MacBook.

Than was a send operation, the reading of replies is not something I implemented, but I know there is a file somewhere that holds a history of your recent iMessages. So you would have to parse it on file update and that should give you the read operation so you can have a conversation.

Very doable in a few hours unless something dramatic changed with how the messages apps works within the last few years.

replies(1): >>42791450 #
16. blackeyeblitzar ◴[22 Jan 25 01:46 UTC] No.42787781[source]▶
You realize this is going to cause carriers to allow the number to send more spam, because it looks like engagement. The best thing to do is to report the offending message to 7726 (SPAM) so the carrier can take action. You can also file complaints at the FTC and FCC websites, but that takes a bit more effort.
replies(1): >>42790409 #
17. metadat ◴[22 Jan 25 05:42 UTC] No.42789419[source]▶
I love this, more please!!!
18. merpkz ◴[22 Jan 25 06:55 UTC] No.42789860[source]▶
Calling Jessica an old chap is quite a giveaway that it's a bot xD Nice idea indeed, but I have a feeling that it's just two LLMs now conversing with each other.
19. dambi0 ◴[22 Jan 25 08:23 UTC] No.42790394{5}[source]▶
If you are willing to use Apple Shortcuts on iOS it’s pretty easy to add something that will be trigged when a message is received and can call out to a service or even use SSH to do something with the contents, including replying
20. thegabriele ◴[22 Jan 25 08:25 UTC] No.42790409[source]▶
Yes, the very last thing to do is respond to spam (calls, email, text...) and inform that you are eligible to more solicitation.
21. dewey ◴[22 Jan 25 11:05 UTC] No.42791450{5}[source]▶
They are all in a SQLite db on your disk.
22. potamic ◴[22 Jan 25 11:32 UTC] No.42791613{3}[source]▶
Why MQTT over HTTP for a low volume, small scale integration?
replies(2): >>42792901 #>>42802009 #
23. sainib ◴[22 Jan 25 11:50 UTC] No.42791742{3}[source]▶
Interested for sure.
24. yawgmoth ◴[22 Jan 25 13:15 UTC] No.42792455{3}[source]▶
STOP works thanks to the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (“TCPA”), which offers consumers spam protections and senders a framework on how to behave.

(Edit: It's relevant that STOP didn't come from the TCPA itself, but definitely has teeth due to it)

https://www.infobip.com/blog/a-guide-to-global-sms-complianc...

25. c0wb0yc0d3r ◴[22 Jan 25 14:00 UTC] No.42792901{4}[source]▶
I’m not OP, but I would hazard a guess that those are the tools that OP has at hand.
26. SuperHeavy256 ◴[22 Jan 25 14:56 UTC] No.42793477{3}[source]▶
I am so SO interested, please make a Show HN
replies(1): >>42796544 #
27. hackergirl88 ◴[22 Jan 25 16:42 UTC] No.42794672[source]▶
Where was this during the election
28. lacoolj ◴[22 Jan 25 18:07 UTC] No.42795730[source]▶
Most spam are just verifying you exist as a person, then from there you become an actual "target" if you respond.

This feels like an in-between that both wastes their time and adds you to extra lists.

Send the results somewhere! Not sure if "law enforcement" is applicable (as in, would be able/willing to act on the info) but if so, that's a great use of this data :)

29. bripkens ◴[22 Jan 25 18:14 UTC] No.42795824[source]▶
You should put all these interactions on the web. For education purposes ofc.
30. potatoman22 ◴[22 Jan 25 18:41 UTC] No.42796084[source]▶
You probably just get more spam texts since you're replying. Maybe that's a good thing tbh
31. Evidlo ◴[22 Jan 25 19:28 UTC] No.42796544{4}[source]▶
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42796496
replies(1): >>42796687 #
32. gaudystead ◴[22 Jan 25 19:41 UTC] No.42796687{5}[source]▶
Sweeeeet, thank you! :)
33. 0xedd ◴[23 Jan 25 08:38 UTC] No.42802009{4}[source]▶
Good, cheap design that takes care of dead letters vs implementing a failover endpoint that would require extra hardware.

MQTT is plug and play in Python. No more costly than a HTTP server.