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Guessing Amazon image URLs using GitHub Copilot#
I was experimenting with the new Readwise export API and it gave me back the following JSON:
1{2 "user_book_id": 15433610,3 "title": "Screenwriting: The Sequence Approach",4 "author": "Paul Joseph Gulino",5 "readable_title": "Screenwriting",6 "source": "kindle",7 "cover_image_url": "https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51UMeAAJNRL._SL75_.jpg",8 "unique_url": null,9 "book_tags": [],10 "category": "books",11 "readwise_url": "https://readwise.io/bookreview/15433610",12 "source_url": null,13 "asin": "B00F9476Y0",14 "highlights": []15}The image URL https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51UMeAAJNRL._SL75_.jpg produced a tiny little image - this one:

I wanted to get back a bigger version of that image. On a hunch, I popped open a VS Code window running GitHub Copilot and typed this:
1https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51UMeAAJNRL._SL75_.jpg2# That image but bigger:It autocompleted for me:
1https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51UMeAAJNRL.jpgWhich is indeed a larger version of the image!

I typed # and hit autocomplete again, to see what would happen, and got this:
1# That image but smaller:2https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51UMeAAJNRL._SL50_.jpg
Another correct guess. GPT-3/Copilot clearly includes training data that has seen these URLs before.
I typed # one more time and it autocompleted again to:
1# That image but with a different format:2https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51UMeAAJNRL._SL50_.gif… and this time that URL is a 404. Copilot made this one up!
Here’s the full flow in VS Code:
