{"id":95518,"date":"2026-03-24T15:05:01","date_gmt":"2026-03-24T12:05:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/?p=95518"},"modified":"2026-03-24T15:05:29","modified_gmt":"2026-03-24T12:05:29","slug":"chrome-extension-developed-to-slow-down-chatbot-responses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/chrome-extension-developed-to-slow-down-chatbot-responses\/","title":{"rendered":"Chrome Extension Developed to Slow Down Chatbot Responses"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>New York artist Sam Lavigne <a href=\"https:\/\/slowllm.lav.io\">has developed<\/a> the SLOW LLM extension for the Google Chrome browser, which intentionally slows down responses from popular chatbots.\u00a0 <strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/forklog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/img-75a43a7f1cc6f7d7-9569191565805257.webp\" alt=\"{B76F9537-C8E2-4DE6-B4A8-CE905FA4BF20}\" class=\"wp-image-277310\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Source: slowllm.lav.io.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The idea for the project arose after the plugin developer observed how heavily some of his students and acquaintances rely on generative tools for basic tasks.<\/p>\n<p>This open-source application works with ChatGPT and Claude. A &#8220;corporate&#8221; version is also available via <span data-descr=\"domain name system\" class=\"old_tooltip\">DNS<\/span> servers, supporting more models. It allows chatbots to be slowed down on a local network scale, such as in educational and corporate institutions.<\/p>\n<p>SLOW LLM does not interact directly with neural networks. The solution manipulates a feature of the JavaScript language by rewriting the Fetch function, which returns data to the browser. When a user visits a chatbot domain and enters a query, the modification stretches the response over a very long time.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>&#8220;Many are starting to use AI tools to outsource their cognitive and emotional functions, forgetting all the basic things they were taught. I think that as more people rely on <span data-descr=\"large language model\" class=\"old_tooltip\">LLM<\/span>, the trend of skill loss will begin to develop,&#8221; Lavigne stated in an interview with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.404media.co\/this-web-tool-sabotages-ai-chatbots-by-making-them-really-really-slow\/\">404 Media<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>The artist argues that chatbots have taken the idea of &#8220;friction&#8221; to an extreme. They suggest outsourcing any troubles or difficulties to &#8220;thinking machines of Silicon Valley&#8221;\u2014even if overcoming these obstacles is part of what makes human creativity meaningful and valuable.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>&#8220;Anything that removes the friction of solving complex problems hinders your learning and negates already acquired knowledge,&#8221; he believes.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Lavigne noted that no one has yet reported successfully deploying SLOW LLM in work or educational networks.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>&#8220;I haven&#8217;t tested the extension on unsuspecting people yet, but I&#8217;m considering it. Maybe they&#8217;ll just drop out of grad school in anger,&#8221; the developer jokes.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">The Artist&#8217;s Creativity<\/h2>\n<p>Previously, the New York artist conducted similar digital performances. During the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2021, he released the <a href=\"https:\/\/lav.io\/projects\/zoom-escaper\">Zoom Escaper<\/a> application for &#8220;escaping&#8221; video calls, which filled the user&#8217;s audio stream with annoying sounds.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>In 2018, Lavigne <a href=\"https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/2018\/06\/21\/ice-employee-list-github-linkedin\">scraped<\/a> publicly available LinkedIn profiles to create a database of <span data-descr=\"U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement\" class=\"old_tooltip\">ICE<\/span> agents. The incident caused a scandal, and the published information about government employees was removed from platforms like GitHub and Medium.<\/p>\n<p>A frequent collaborator of Lavigne, known by the pseudonym Tega Brain, has released several browser tools such as <a href=\"https:\/\/tegabrain.com\/Slop-Evader\">Slop Evader<\/a>, which remove &#8220;junk&#8221; generative content by filtering search results after November 2022\u2014the time of ChatGPT&#8217;s public launch.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>&#8220;I conduct small experiments in digital sabotage, trying to create tools that slightly disrupt the operation of computational systems,&#8221; Lavigne described his projects.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>However, the artist does not consider himself an anti-digitalization maximalist. He admitted to using the Claude chatbot to write the code for SLOW LLM.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>In March, analysts at ActivTrak <a href=\"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/news\/study-reveals-increased-workload-following-ai-adoption\">concluded<\/a> that instead of easing the workload, artificial intelligence currently only accelerates and complicates work processes.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>New York artist Sam Lavigne has developed the SLOW LLM extension for Google Chrome, which intentionally slows down responses from popular chatbots.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":95519,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"select":"","news_style_id":"","cryptorium_level":"","_short_excerpt_text":"Sam Lavigne's SLOW LLM for Chrome slows chatbot responses, questioning AI reliance.","creation_source":"","_metatest_mainpost_news_update":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[438,1201],"class_list":["post-95518","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-chatbots"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"views":"94","promo_type":"","layout_type":"","short_excerpt":"Sam Lavigne's SLOW LLM for Chrome slows chatbot responses, questioning AI reliance.","is_update":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95518","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=95518"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95518\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":95520,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95518\/revisions\/95520"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/95519"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=95518"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=95518"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=95518"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}