I just hit the back button as soon as my "this feels like AI" sense tingles.
Now you could argue but you don't know it was AI it could just be really mediocre writing - it could indeed but I hit the back button there as well so it's a wash either way.
It's insulting but I also find it extremely concerning that my younger colleagues can't seem to tell the difference. An article will very clearly be AI slop and I'll express frustration, only to discover that they have no idea what I"m talking about.
I do like it for taking the hour long audio/video and creating a summary that, even if poorly written, can indicate to me wether I'd like to listen to the hour of media.
People at work have fed me obviously AI generated documentation and blogposts. I've gotten to the point where I can make fairly accurate guesses as to which model generated it. I've started to just reject them because the alternative is getting told to rewrite them to "not look AI".
What amazes me is that some people think I want to read AI slop in their blog that I could have generated by asking ChatGPT directly.
Anyone can access ChatGPT, why do we need an intermediary?
Someone a while back shared, here on HN, almost an entire blog generated by (barely touched up) AI text. It even had Claude-isms like "excellent question!", em-dashes, the works. Why would anyone want to read that?
This assumes the person using LLMs to put out a blog post gives a single shit about their readers, pride, or “being human”. They don’t. They care about the view so you load the ad which makes them a fraction of a cent, or the share so they get popular so they can eventually extract money or reputation from it.
I agree with you that AI slop blog posts are a bad thing, but there are about zero people who use LLMs to spit out blog posts which will change their mind after reading your arguments. You’re not speaking their language, they don’t care about anything you do. They are selfish. The point is themselves, not the reader.
> Everyone wants to help each other.
No, they very much do not. There are a lot of scammers and shitty entitled people out there, and LLMs make it easier than ever to become one of them or increase the reach of those who already are.
I would have written "lexical fruit machine", for its left to right sequential ejaculation of tokens, and its amusingly antiquated homophobic criminological implication.
Recently I had to give one of my vendors a dressing down about LLM use in emails. He was sending me these ridiculous emails where the LLM was going off the rails suggesting all sorts of features etc that were exploding the scope of the project. I told him he needs to just send the bullet notes next time instead of pasting those into ChatGPT and pasting the output into an email.
I've noticed this with a significant number of news articles. Sometimes it will say that it was "enhanced" with AI, but even when it doesn't, I get that distinct robotic feel.
It's similarly insulting to read your AI-generated pull request. If I see another "dart-on-target" emoji...
You're telling me I need to use 100% of my brain, reasoning power, and time to go over your code, but you didn't feel the need to hold yourself to the same standard?
AI makes it a game-theory-wise bad move to not defect and still work effective. Ask your chat gpt on how to docial hack your superior to create a impression of being successful.
My thing is: If you have something to say, just say it! Don't worry that it's not long enough or short enough or doesn't fit into some mold you think it needs to fit into. Just say it. As you write, you'll probably start to see your ideas more clearly and you'll start to edit and add color or clarify.
But just say it! Bypass the middleman who's just going to make it blurrier or more long-winded.
I don't like reading content that has not been generated with care. The use of LLMs is largely orthogonal to that. If a non-native English speaker uses an LLM to craft a response so I can consume it, that's great. As long as there is care, I don't mind the source.
I don't see the objection to using LLMs to check for grammatical mistakes and spelling errors. That strikes me as a reactionary and dogmatic position, not a rational one.
Anyone who has done any serious writing knows that a good editor will always find a dozen or more errors in any essay of reasonable length, and very few people are willing to pay for professional proofreading services on blog posts. On the other side of the coin, readers will wince and stumble over such errors; they will not wonder at the artisanal authenticity of your post, but merely be annoyed. Wabi-sabi is an aesthetic best reserved for decor, not prose.
>No, don't use it to fix your grammar, or for translations, or for whatever else you think you are incapable of doing. Make the mistake. Feel embarrassed. Learn from it. Why? Because that's what makes us human!
Fellas, is it antihuman to use tools to perfect your work?
I can't draw a perfect circle by hand, that's why I use a compass. Do I need to make it bad on purpose and feel embarrassed by the 1000th time just to feel more human? Do I want to make mistakes by doing mental calculations instead of using a calculator, like a normal person? Of course not.
Where this "I'm proud of my sloppy shit, this is what's make me human" thing comes from?
We rised above other species because we learnt to use tools, and now we define to be "human"... by not using tools? The fuck?
Also, ironically, this entire post smells like AI slop.
Is this the case when I put in the effort, spent several hours on tuning the LLM to help me the best possible way and I just use it answer the question "what is the best way to phrase this in American English?"?
I think low effort LLM use is hilariously bad. The content it produces too. Tuning it, giving is style, safeguards, limits, direction, examples, etc. can improve it significantly.
I don’t know. As a neurodivergent person I have been insulted for my entire life for lacking “communication skills” so I’m glad there is something for levelling the playing field.
I personally don’t think I care if a blog post is AI generated or not. The only thing that matters to me is the content. I use ChatGPT to learn about a variety of different things, so if someone came up with an interesting set of prompts and follow ups and shared a summary of the research ChatGPT did, it could be meaningful content to me.
> No, don't use it to fix your grammar, or for translations, or for whatever else you think you are incapable of doing. Make the mistake. Feel embarrassed. Learn from it. Why? Because that's what makes us human!
It would be more human to handwrite your blog post instead. I don’t see how this is a good argument. The use of tools to help with writing and communication should make it easier to convey your thoughts, and that itself is valuable.
I would personally find it insulting if i ask someone something and they gave me ChatGPT output, i would rather then say idk and I look for answers else where. If I wanted to ask ChatGPT I would have done so myself.
Generative AI tends to be very sure of itself. It doesn’t say, it doesn’t know when it doesn’t know. Sometimes when it doesn’t it won’t engage in the premise of the question and instead give an answer to an easier question
I don't mind either, I have way too few time to write blogposts, but I have some things that I want to share. So I focus on the content extensively, and use the llm to help with the style and the phrasing and grammar..
But I often correct the result and change some wording.
Maybe at the beginning, when I was less experienced with llms, I used more llm style, but now I find it a good compromise to convey what I think without hindering the message behind my awful writing :)
Agreed. This short target piece is an amusing Luddite rant. No true content other than to bemoan our first stumbling steps toward using AI to write and think.
I am a reasonably good (but sloppy) writer and use Claude to help improve my text, my ideas, and the flow of sentences and paragraphs. A huge help once I have a good first draft. I treat Claude like a junior editor who is useful but requires a tight leash and sharp advice.
This thoughtless piece is like complaining about getting help from professional human editors: a profession nearly killed off over the last three decades.
Who can afford $50/hr human editorial services? Not me. Claude is a great “second best” and way faster and cheaper.
I agree. I remember back in the days when facebook came out around mid 2000s or so my mentor started an online open-source academic journal. that was frowned upon by his colleagues. if it wasn't printed, it wasn't considered authentic. And then he went ahead and asked me (a helper, a volunteer) to create a facebook and Twitter accounts to spread the word. and that was frowned upon, too. it was considered like a really crass move among his respectable colleagues. Now social media has become a given.
Why do I need to spend hours on formatting when AI can help clean them up in seconds? Or typos? grammar inconsistencies? Clarifying sentences? I'd rather much read writings cleaned up by an AI than some incoherent fluff that really says nothing and wasting space.
And frankly, in my experience, writing with AI is no more easier than writing on your own. It's just that my priority shifts from being distracted on those externalities (like fixing typos and formatting) to the subject matter of writing itself. So I go deep dive researching topics and contents at hand with AIs and try to figure out the best way to communicate the ideas to the audience with an AI. It takes time and it's a work of its own. It takes hours depending on what I am doing.
And you probably wished I have cleaned this comment up with an AI, too! (I tried in my best human way given time I'm allowed).
> read something spit out by the equivalent of a lexical bingo machine because you were too lazy to write it yourself.
Ha! That's a very clever spot on insult. Most LLMs would probably be seriously offended by this would thy be rational beings.
> No, don't use it to fix your grammar, or for translations, or for whatever else you think you are incapable of doing. Make the mistake.
OK, you are pushing it buddy. My mandarin is not that good; as a matter of fact, I can handle no mandarin at all. Or french to that matter. But I'm certain a decent LLM can do that without me having to resort to reach out to another person, that might not be available or have enough time to deal with my shenanigans.
I agree that there are way too much AI slop being created and made public, but yet there are way too many cases where the use is fair and used for improving whatever the person is doing.
Yes, AI is being abused. No, I don't agree we should all go taliban against even fair use cases.
It’s a clever post but people that use so to write personal blogposts ain’t gonna read this and change their mind. Only people who already hate using llms are gonna cheer you on.
But this kind of content is great for engagement farming on HN.
Just write “something something clankers bad”
While I agree with the author it’s a very moot and uninspired point
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[ 2.6 ms ] story [ 94.2 ms ] threadNow you could argue but you don't know it was AI it could just be really mediocre writing - it could indeed but I hit the back button there as well so it's a wash either way.
Anyone can access ChatGPT, why do we need an intermediary?
Someone a while back shared, here on HN, almost an entire blog generated by (barely touched up) AI text. It even had Claude-isms like "excellent question!", em-dashes, the works. Why would anyone want to read that?
I agree with you that AI slop blog posts are a bad thing, but there are about zero people who use LLMs to spit out blog posts which will change their mind after reading your arguments. You’re not speaking their language, they don’t care about anything you do. They are selfish. The point is themselves, not the reader.
> Everyone wants to help each other.
No, they very much do not. There are a lot of scammers and shitty entitled people out there, and LLMs make it easier than ever to become one of them or increase the reach of those who already are.
I think that's the best use case and it's not AI related as spell-checkers and translation integrations exist forever, now they are just better.
Especially for non-native speakers that work in a globalized market. Why wouldn't they use the tool in their toolbox?
I would have written "lexical fruit machine", for its left to right sequential ejaculation of tokens, and its amusingly antiquated homophobic criminological implication.
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/fruit_machine
You're telling me I need to use 100% of my brain, reasoning power, and time to go over your code, but you didn't feel the need to hold yourself to the same standard?
# Minimal Reprex (Correct)
(unintelligible nonsense here)
And here is the correct, minimal fix, guaranteed to work:
# Correct Fix (Correct)
(same unintelligible nonsense, wrapped in a try/catch block)
Make this change and your code should work perfectly!
No, they're expecting you to half-ass it too, and just use AI to review the PR.
But just say it! Bypass the middleman who's just going to make it blurrier or more long-winded.
Anyone who has done any serious writing knows that a good editor will always find a dozen or more errors in any essay of reasonable length, and very few people are willing to pay for professional proofreading services on blog posts. On the other side of the coin, readers will wince and stumble over such errors; they will not wonder at the artisanal authenticity of your post, but merely be annoyed. Wabi-sabi is an aesthetic best reserved for decor, not prose.
Fellas, is it antihuman to use tools to perfect your work?
I can't draw a perfect circle by hand, that's why I use a compass. Do I need to make it bad on purpose and feel embarrassed by the 1000th time just to feel more human? Do I want to make mistakes by doing mental calculations instead of using a calculator, like a normal person? Of course not.
Where this "I'm proud of my sloppy shit, this is what's make me human" thing comes from?
We rised above other species because we learnt to use tools, and now we define to be "human"... by not using tools? The fuck?
Also, ironically, this entire post smells like AI slop.
I think low effort LLM use is hilariously bad. The content it produces too. Tuning it, giving is style, safeguards, limits, direction, examples, etc. can improve it significantly.
> No, don't use it to fix your grammar, or for translations, or for whatever else you think you are incapable of doing. Make the mistake. Feel embarrassed. Learn from it. Why? Because that's what makes us human!
It would be more human to handwrite your blog post instead. I don’t see how this is a good argument. The use of tools to help with writing and communication should make it easier to convey your thoughts, and that itself is valuable.
Generative AI tends to be very sure of itself. It doesn’t say, it doesn’t know when it doesn’t know. Sometimes when it doesn’t it won’t engage in the premise of the question and instead give an answer to an easier question
If you are not an expert, you'll think the AI is amazing, without realizing the slop.
I'll rather do without the AI slop, thanks.
But I often correct the result and change some wording.
Maybe at the beginning, when I was less experienced with llms, I used more llm style, but now I find it a good compromise to convey what I think without hindering the message behind my awful writing :)
I am a reasonably good (but sloppy) writer and use Claude to help improve my text, my ideas, and the flow of sentences and paragraphs. A huge help once I have a good first draft. I treat Claude like a junior editor who is useful but requires a tight leash and sharp advice.
This thoughtless piece is like complaining about getting help from professional human editors: a profession nearly killed off over the last three decades.
Who can afford $50/hr human editorial services? Not me. Claude is a great “second best” and way faster and cheaper.
Why do I need to spend hours on formatting when AI can help clean them up in seconds? Or typos? grammar inconsistencies? Clarifying sentences? I'd rather much read writings cleaned up by an AI than some incoherent fluff that really says nothing and wasting space.
And frankly, in my experience, writing with AI is no more easier than writing on your own. It's just that my priority shifts from being distracted on those externalities (like fixing typos and formatting) to the subject matter of writing itself. So I go deep dive researching topics and contents at hand with AIs and try to figure out the best way to communicate the ideas to the audience with an AI. It takes time and it's a work of its own. It takes hours depending on what I am doing.
And you probably wished I have cleaned this comment up with an AI, too! (I tried in my best human way given time I'm allowed).
Ha! That's a very clever spot on insult. Most LLMs would probably be seriously offended by this would thy be rational beings.
> No, don't use it to fix your grammar, or for translations, or for whatever else you think you are incapable of doing. Make the mistake.
OK, you are pushing it buddy. My mandarin is not that good; as a matter of fact, I can handle no mandarin at all. Or french to that matter. But I'm certain a decent LLM can do that without me having to resort to reach out to another person, that might not be available or have enough time to deal with my shenanigans.
I agree that there are way too much AI slop being created and made public, but yet there are way too many cases where the use is fair and used for improving whatever the person is doing.
Yes, AI is being abused. No, I don't agree we should all go taliban against even fair use cases.
But this kind of content is great for engagement farming on HN.
Just write “something something clankers bad”
While I agree with the author it’s a very moot and uninspired point