HN Explorer

Ask HN: Do AI-generated images ruin technical posts for anyone else?

60 points by konsalexee ↗ HN
Every time I see technical posts with AI-generated feature images, I get extremely turned off. My assumption is that, subconsciously, it makes me think that most of the text is written by an LLM rather than by the actual expertise of the writer.

104 comments

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taylodl
AI-generated images and AI-generated text both have their "tells." Just because an author chooses to use an AI-generated image doesn't mean they didn't write the post.
jslakro
By the very nature of ai-generated content, a typical internet user is going to be exposed to a huge mass of ai posts. Then, to associate ai images with ai text is a logical step.
taylodl
Is it? People tend to have a much easier time creating prose than they do art. Look at us here, right now!
the__alchemist
Does this bother you more than stock photos?
jayceedenton
Not all stock photography is corporate cheese.
ben_w
Neither is all GenAI; in both cases there are certain patterns — woman laughing at salad, the actors holding soldering irons by the hot part, hackers wearing black hoodies and having their faces illuminated by a projector showing a text editor with some HTML, etc.
konsalexee
Not so much. I believe in the wild there are less stock images in tech posts, as engineers would not even bother to search something generic.
jayceedenton
Yes, please just choose a good photo. There are plenty that are free for all uses.
minimaxir
It just replaces one overly-generic aesthetic with another.
ghaff
Yeah. The reality is that many templates, etc. more or less require an image of some sort however generic.
K0nserv
Or just don't use a photo at all if it doesn't add something substantial. A nice photo from Unsplashed is much better than AI slop, but it's often largely superfluous.
i80and
It's severely off-putting to me, and gives all the technical blogs which do this a real sense of homogeneity.
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onionisafruit
ai images are the current version of those word clouds that used to be on so many blog posts.
minimaxir
One article header image I made was a word cloud style-transfered into an AI image, making absolutely no one happy except me.
XenophileJKO
You made me happy. What all these comments miss is it gives the author a way to be creative. AI image generators are amazing at what they can create. Be creative and go wild.
hotep99
Yes, it's a flag that the text of the post itself will be AI slop.
drivingmenuts
Tell that to Boing-Boing, with their AI-generated images of politicians ...
tobr
I don’t think this is specific to technical posts. Using a cheap illustration makes the rest of the content look cheap too.
recursivedoubts
Your concern is valid, as AI-generated feature images can indeed affect the perception of technical posts. The use of AI-generated images can lead to a subconscious assumption that the text is also generated by an AI Language Model (LLM) rather than a human expert. This can undermine the credibility and authority of the writer, potentially diminishing the value of the content.
thierrydamiba
I think pretty soon in the future your LLM writing(prompting) style will be a differentiator.
recursivedoubts
;) i'm not sure some folks got the joke
ben_w
I was wondering. Trouble is, you can't see a cheeky grin in someone else's writing, so the alternative is that it wasn't a joke but a bot.
bloopernova
I wonder what symbol or emoji could indicate "I am using genAI as a joke"?
ben_w
I suggest 鐵, because it's iron-y.

Could also have 矽 to indicate that you think AI is just a "silly con".

viraptor
That's an awesome suggestion. Especially the second one for the pun and easier readability.
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rapsacnz
Haha wondered who was going to be the first
GaggiX
If you notice that they are AI images, it means that there is something distracting in the first place.
baggy_trough
I don't really like it when it's obvious. Many of them have the same style, which gets tiresome.
Animats
Yes. Any technical post with an irrelevant image indicates a lack of real results.
setsewerd
Irrelevant images definitely cheapen the perceived quality of an article, but let's not conflate "AI image" with "irrelevant image."

AI images are often at least as relevant as a stock photo, if not more so (assuming the creator spent the extra 30 seconds to make a prompt that's more tailored to the content)

JohnFen
> AI images are often at least as relevant as a stock photo

That's damning with faint praise, as stock photos are rarely very relevant or add to the writing they're tacked onto.

setsewerd
I agree, I just don't understand this newfound hatred of AI-generated stock photos, when stock photos have always been bland and almost never a value-add for content.

I'm especially confused about this for feature images, because I would expect in most cases any helpful image (like a graph or diagram) would make for a really unattractive or incomprehensible thumbnail, and thumbnails are where featured images get the most exposure (social media previews etc).

exe34
I don't judge the book by its cover - I'll give an article a quick skim to decide if I want to read it. if it seems useful, I'll read it more carefully. if it's rubbish, I'll close it.
konsalexee
Its impossible though to be unbiased.

And I reflectm on my own biases, thus this observation.

exe34
I don't need to be unbiased, I read mostly for pleasure, and whatever I read for work, is stuff I can test objectively whether or not it works.
tandav
Yes, dystopian soulless vibe of AI images is unpleasant.
jfvinueza
soullessness

that's ai generated content main trait

bloopernova
I wish Kagi could downrank results that use genAI for text, images, or both.
viraptor
We don't have the tech yet. It would have massive amount of false positives/negatives.
elpocko
Oh look, someone has managed to mention Kagi casually on an unrelated post at HN; that doesn't happen very often.
bloopernova
I first wrote out, instead of "Kagi", "a search engine that allowed user control of ranking" but it looked too clunky.

I'm not affiliated with Kagi, apart from being a subscriber.

some_random
No not really, they definitely increase the risk of slop but not by _that_ much in my experience
romanows
Any examples? I can't say I've noticed them in particular; I think my brain probably ignores AI, stock photo, and advertisements, equally.
gffrd
Not so much ruin, as make me ask questions.

I'll admit, I feel a certain cruelty to using AI-generated imagery alongside writing or information: it's disrespectful to the audience, and it cheapens the work.

rapsacnz
When I see an AI generated image, I just think of the digital artist / photographer who missed out on a cut because of this image. That in itself is a pretty big turn off.
ghaff
If someone uses an AI generated image, the alternative is almost always going to be a CC-licensed or otherwise free image. Almost no one is paying for photography for a non-commercial blog post.
rapsacnz
The OP mentioned technical blogs, which are commercial a lot of the time. I should know, I've written a lot of them.
ghaff
They're "commercial" often but that doesn't mean someone necessarily has a budget (other than being paid a salary) to do them.
drivingmenuts
In many cases, I think it's far more likely that an image would not be included if it required paying an artist. It could be stock art or photos almost as easily and with that, not many people are getting paid for it.
123yawaworht456
how is their labor any more valuable than thousands of other occupations that were replaced or made redundant by technology already?

besides, all those shitty blogs were using shitty stock images and bland twitter memes. budding artists generate revenue primarily by drawing risque pictures (primarily of someone else's copyright protected characters, but no one likes when this is brought up)

fragmede
Keep in mind that website comments section are filled with a special brand of people and aren't actually representative of the population at large.

People who can't stand AI generated pictures and get triggered by the very idea of it are going to rush in here to complain about it, people who are like "meh, it's fine" aren't even gonna bother loading the post.

elpocko
I'm tired of all the AI hate here. It ruins HN for me.
rpigab
Sounds like something a replicant would say.
pixelpoet
Eh, every place is going to have its biases. HN just happens to not be the place to discuss solutions to the trustless distributed ledger problem, for example.
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talldayo
I've heard people say this defending everything from Theranos to cryptocurrency. HN isn't going to change.
krapp
Tell an AI to build you a Hacker News with blackjack and hookers and blind uncritical faith in the e/acc AI cult, then.
elpocko
I've had a lot of fun running generative AI, and continue to do so. It's a lot more fun than paying attention to, or talking to shitty trolls like you.
krapp
And yet here you are.
lxe
No. Let authors have fun. To me they have the same vibe as gifs or badges of the early 2000s internet: just something that people add to their content just for fun. In spirit, this is great.
acheron
No? Why would it matter if it’s an AI image or a stock photo?