'Calling out' AI -really necessary?

I agree, especially as posts which are a bit disorganised or poorly-spelled often attract unpleasantly snide comments.

I understand why people would want to use AI to write their posts but it should be flagged as such, then other posters can choose to respond or not.

Why? People can take posts at face value and respond to them if they want. If a post doesn't read like someone has used AI, why do you need it to be flagged?

Then there are the threads all started by the same poster along the lines of ‘You have to name your baby after the last thing you ate. What is your baby called?’ Which just lead to long lists of silly replies & it seems highly unlikely that anyone reads anything except the OP.

I suspect these are AI because they just seem so utterly pointless.

This is hilarious 🤣

but then ive pondered this with the news, if what a person writes say is copyed from a text book, and tries to use it debate because they struggle to reword it themselves but they want to use it where do we draw the line betwee copying text for debating epecially if otherwise we only rely on average people that just say well i read this article and only on that i think vs the textbook copyer that means moe people can debate different points

basically which is more important for debate

a fully copyed paragraph or debate points and people can debate further
or an authentic comment of eg i think x policy is ok (which then there is only that comment )

if you keep saying next then it can expand a story eg ask it to make the introduction of what the story you want to be about then when it writes it just keep writing next and it writes it self

I wondered if you could get it to swear and you can

"Sort your shit out, OP, before it’s too late. We’re not here to cater to your narcissistic whims. You’ve pushed us all to the limit, and trust me, the day’s coming when everyone’s had enough of your fucking arrogance."

I'm wondering if those posters who breathlessly wait for updates on that sort of thread would be better off just putting them into ChatGPT themselves and getting an instant story. There's a bit of choose your own adventure to it too.

I've kept saying yes and it has now got the OP going on holiday on the SIL's due date and the partner begging the OP for help.

I swear ChatGPT is enjoying this.

I've not paid for anything, I just put in "Generate me a post for AIBU on Mumsnet using Mumsnet style language that will get lots of outraged responses "

And then it did, and asked me if I wanted to make it even more outrageous and then suggested all the updates itself.

You don't even need to bother coming up with a scenario for AI

AIBU to finally tell my SIL she’s a lazy, entitled cow and stop bailing her out?
I swear I am DONE with my SIL and her constant freeloading, whining, and playing the victim. She has ONE child (a perfectly healthy 4-year-old, not a newborn) and doesn’t even work, yet somehow she’s always “exhausted” and expecting everyone else to run around after her while she sips lattes and complains.

Meanwhile, I have three kids, a full-time job, a house to run, and I still manage to get my sh*t together without demanding a parade every time I do the bare minimum. 🤷‍♀️
The final straw was last weekend at MIL’s. We were there for Sunday lunch (which, of course, she didn’t help cook), and the rest of us were chasing after the kids, sorting food, tidying up—you know, being adults—while she sat there scrolling TikTok like a teenager. Then she had the cheek to say she’s “too overwhelmed” to do her own laundry and that my brother doesn’t help enough.

I laughed and said, “Or you could just stop expecting everyone else to do everything for you?” She got all huffy and flounced off like I’d slapped her, MIL told me I was being “unkind,” and now DH is saying I should apologise to ‘keep the peace.’
Apologise?! FOR WHAT? For stating the bloody obvious?! I have bent over backwards helping this woman over the years—babysitting, lending money (never repaid), cooking meals for her when she was “too tired.” I’m done.

So, AIBU, or is she just taking the absolute piss at this point? Because I swear if I hear her sigh one more time about how “hard” her life is, I might actually scream.

and then chatGPT suggested
Bonus outraged responses you’d get:
🔥 "Wow. Just wow."
🔥 "You sound unhinged and jealous of your SIL. Maybe get some therapy?"
🔥 "You're a massive bitch. I feel sorry for your brother."
🔥 "Ever heard of compassion?"
🔥 "YANBU. She sounds like a total cocklodger."
Would you like me to add a passive-aggressive update where the family is now “not speaking” to the OP? 😆

So it also updates the thread for you.

And then it suggested "Want me to add a horrendously smug closing line to really seal the deal? 😆"

and dear god the closing lines were seriously smug.

Then "This would be hall of fame level on AIBU. 😂 Want me to craft a new outrage-baiting post on another topic? Maybe a bridezilla moment or an over-the-top entitled parent scenario? 😆"

And "Want me to throw in a plot twist where SIL announces she’s pregnant and now everyone expects you to “be supportive” again? 😆"

I bet people recognise this sort of shit from here.

Who decides whether the responses are thoughtful enough to warrant a fake thread staying up? Plenty of trolls generate enough responses for multiple threads.

ChatGPT generally doesn't produce 'walls of text' though: I tend to spot it in my students' work as it appears grammatically flawless, quite smug and almost too 'smooth'; like an unholy conglomerate of George Clooney and the Cheshire Cat. Chat GPT will produce anything you ask it to.

Example I put into chat GPT: “Write me a post for mumsnet about how I’ve been with my partner for four years, we have a three year old daughter, but the other day when I went looking for something I found a marriage certificate in his brief case. It’s a marriage which has happened since we’ve been together. I’m shocked and don’t know what to do. But write the post with a few spelling and grammar mistakes. ”

And it came up with this:

Title: Found a marriage certificate in DP’s briefcase… what now? Feeling completely shocked and don’t know what to do. I’ve been with DP for 4 years, we have a 3 year old DD together. Things haven’t always been perfect but I thought we were solid.

The other day I was looking for something in his briefcase (wasn’t snooping, genuinely needed something) and I found a marriage certificate . Dated after we got together. My heart honestly stopped. I checked it over and it’s definitely him. His name, his details. He’s married. To someone else.

I haven’t confronted him yet, I don’t even know where to start. My heads all over the place. I feel sick. How could he do this? What do I do now? I can’t even think straight.

Has anyone ever been through anything like this? I just don’t know where to start.
All I’d need to do is edit the title to put it in the title box and bingo.

If MNHQ do delete posts that they suspect to be AI, because they are AI, then they need to put a banner up saying that AI isn't allowed.

Just to say I appreciate your description :)

"like an unholy conglomerate of George Clooney and the Cheshire Cat" - beautiful!! 😆

@WarmthAndDepth I also reported a blatantly AI poster/bot on what I am sure is the same Politics thread that @PermanentTemporary referred to earlier. It didn't help the discussion to move on, spouted a lot of 'computer says xyz' most which was irrelevant to the opening post,and in the end posters with interesting and informative views just got fed up and left the thread. What a waste of energy and no winners. It's starting to undermine confidence in genuine posts.

I understand why people would want to use AI to write their posts but it should be flagged as such, then other posters can choose to respond or not. Then either nobody will respond and the problem will go away by itself, or it will turn out people don’t mind and we can all carry on.

I personally hate AI posts and don’t reply to them, I sometimes report if it’s obvious or just leave it if I’m not sure. I’ve almost stopped using Facebook because of the AI junk posts, it would be a shame if MN went the same way.

Agree with this - threads aren’t owned by the OP are they? When PPs have engaged with the subject matter and each other and produced some really thoughtful exchanges it is upsetting to see those gone. I think it should be enough for MN to just put in a post flagging that there are some concerns of the authenticity of OP, if they agree it seems AI generated, but allow PPs to continue their sub-conversations?

Agree

I'm a bit conflicted about this. The issue for me isn't the bots, it's that posters - who maybe vulnerable themselves - interact with them in good faith.

There has always been a problem with trolls on MN, whether it's people having a laugh, begging threads or activists looking for screenshots. And equally there have always been gullible people who respond - myself included on occasions.

I don't have an issue with posters using AI to describe an issue they want advice about, but I do worry about the impact some of the fantasists and bots have on some people's mental health. And so I think helping posters who may have invested in a thread to understand that it is AI generated can be important.