Last week we launched Stan, our virtual Singletrack expert. He's that speech bubble down there on the right. He's an expert on everything we've published and also on subscription issues and orders you may have placed. He also knows all about our merch - sizes, prices etc.
What he couldn;t do last week though was answer questions about the forum and inparticular individual form topics. We've been giving him lessons and they are starting (Not fully but..) to show results. Enough for me to encourage you to have a go anyway. It's an ongoing process as there's literally millions of posts but we've started from more recent history. He should nw be able to point you at individual topics.
So for example I just tested him with this query...
"can I take my bike on trans pennine express and are there any forum topics you can point me at about this topic?"
Because I know he's learned about a specific recent topic on the matter. Copy that and paste it for an example of what he can do right now.
Again, he's biased towards subscribers in what he says - I make no excuses for that - there's a cost to using him that we are absorbing and factoring in to subscription prices.
Caveat.. We aren't teaching him about individual authors. So queries about individual forum users won't be as useful as you might expect them to be. That's deliberate. It would be creepy and morally questionable.
This is all still very much BETA and we are learning as we go here about what is genuinely useful and what is not. My intention is that Stan is a genuinely useful additional function that serves Subscribers. We'll see how that evolves.
For background, we are using Anthropic as the backbone of Stan. There are a great many issues around the use of AI but the fact Anthropic told the Pentagon to **** off pleases me. I'm not saying they are angelic, but there are choices to be made with AI and where there are, they will be considered choices.
Good luck Stan.
Mark, watch out - Stan's productivity may plummet in a similar way to that of the forum members who spend too much time reading/commenting on the forum.
... Stan begins to learn at a geometric rate. It becomes self-aware at 2:14am Eastern time, August 29th.
Has he been taught the importance of owning with bombers ?
I'll be super happy if it ever responds with 'hammer frozen sausages in to their lawn' or 'wee in their shoes' as a valid response to anything.
he's biased towards subscribers in what he says - I make no excuses for that - there's a cost to using him that we are absorbing and factoring in to subscription prices.
It seems non subcribers have no choice, there is an advert banner blocking the ask Stan box
Dear Stan, I wrote you, but you still ain’t callin’
I left my user, my email and my secret answer at the bottom
I sent two DM's back in autumn, you must not’ve got ’em
There probably was a problem with an advert or somethin’....
there's a cost to using him that we are absorbing and factoring in to subscription prices.
Personally, I'd rather you didn't bother, and neither of us had to pay for it. I can't see me ever having use for it. Personally.
I give it 6 months before you realise it's a waste of time and money and ditch it. But that's my personal prediction, and I've been known to be wrong.
😉
I mean,
It can't hurt to try, right? Worst outcome, no-one uses it so the net cost approaches zero.
It's not like the forum has been well known historically for its exceptional search facility now, is it. 😁
Stan hasn’t learnt much about covid from the biggest thread on the database.
Dear Stan, I wrote you, but you still ain’t callin’
I left my user, my email and my secret answer at the bottom
I sent two DM's back in autumn, you must not’ve got ’em
There probably was a problem with an advert or somethin’....
I thought the whole Stan song was about an over-obsessed fan, and eventual demise through a mental breakdown?
Stan has informed me that he's not Skynet, but perhaps that's exactly what Skynet would say...
... Stan begins to learn at a geometric rate. It becomes self-aware at 2:14am Eastern time, August 29th.
At which time it suffers an existential crisis and retreats into a dark place from which it never returns.
I asked "What can you tell me about Bird Aether carbon bikes?" and got this response:
Function call loop detected. Function call loop detected after 4 iterations. The AI model is repeatedly calling functions without reaching a conclusion. Call stack: mwai_search_single_keyword
Great. Another AI bot invading my life. ☹️
but the fact Anthropic told the Pentagon to **** off pleases me
They're no better. The greater ethical problem with AI is not whether the AI companies do defence contracts for the govt, it's the fact that they and everyone who uses it will be putting millions of people out of work whilst making billionaire tech owners even more rich and powerful. I have to use the damn thing every day at work and every time I do I feel a little closer to redundancy. That's not a necessarily a bad thing for me (I'd be ecstatic quite frankly!), but it's going to be a catastrophe for anyone under 40.
Very disappointed - What are the dangers of picolax?
> That's a bit outside my lane — I'm here to help with Singletrack subscriptions, mountain biking, and anything on the site. Medical questions are better directed to a pharmacist or your GP.
Anything bike or Singletrack related I can help with?
Can a plane take off from a treadmill?
Ha — classic internet rabbit hole. But I'm going to have to duck out of that one, I'm afraid. Aerodynamics debates are a bit outside my lane
Based on this and the picolax comment, Stan is the forum, without the fun. I'm oot.
Great. Another AI bot invading my life.
Only if you use it. Stan does nothing if you don't ask him anything
I asked Stan to point me in the direction of forum threads discussing the benefits of using creatine (or not); it directed me to one thread, which was useful. I then asked it for other threads in which creatine is discussed, it told me to try using the forum search. I tried using the forum search and got lots of 'hits'?
So, what does / will Stan do that the forum search doesn't?
Stan will collate information from multiple sources and profer his advice/opinions. He knows more about what is in our editorial content from magazines to published stories. he currently knows forum contenct from the 1st January and is currently learning about forum topics from all of 2025. We will continue his learnings backward through the archives, so as I said earlier, he will get better with time and use. If you just want to search the forum for something then you are better off using the contextual AI search funtion in the tab at the top of the page - at least until we get Stan fully clued up on decades of forum topics.
Dear Stan, I wrote you, but you still ain’t callin’
I left my user, my email and my secret answer at the bottom
I sent two DM's back in autumn, you must not’ve got ’em
There probably was a problem with an advert or somethin’....
I thought the whole Stan song was about an over-obsessed fan, and eventual demise through a mental breakdown?
Wouldn't you get a very similar response just typing that same question into chatgpt and asking it to reference singletrackworld??
I asked if the only question that matters.
"Which tyres for the SDW?"
It made a pretty compelling case for the tyres it suggested which got me googling for them and their prices.
Stan, you devious little Bar steward.😉
^I resemble that remark.
So is Stan the new Forum search tool aimed at subscribers?
Yeah. It's trying to be all human and have a sense of humour...just no.
If we train it on certain topics, will that affect it's 'abilities'?
It can't hurt to try, right?
I assume this was sarcasm.
It's not like the forum has been well known historically for its exceptional search facility now, is it.
It did cross my mind that, if nothing else, it might solve that problem.
If you just want to search the forum for something then you are better off using the contextual AI search funtion in the tab at the top of the pag
Oh.
Right.
