To think that mumsnet posters should know that anyone can use AI to analyse their posting history

[LostPollypocket]

I understand why a previous thread on this was deleted and suspect another one will be. I did think the thread was doing something very useful though in making people aware that even anonymous posts may not be so anonymous in a world where anyone (or business, crime syndicate, political party, or government) can use AI to pattern match and analyse everything you’ve ever written on the internet, including places like mumsnet where you might post about very personal topics. If you use a particular word frequently, or semicolons in a particular way, or even respond emotionally to certain types of posts, then even with a name change anyone might be able to build a profile on you and connect it to say, archived facebook data, and know who you are, how you think, and what you posted at 3am in the depths of postpartum depression.

I wouldn't deny the speed of progress in mathematics, coding and so on. I have to disagree about it being able to produce good quality literature though. Even the best models aren't immune to all their quirks...they get trained out, but other ones appear to offset them. Reading the AI writing subreddits is interesting...people spend so much time designing prompts and making edits so it doesn't sound like AI, you wonder why they don't just write it themselves.

I think another thing to bear in mind is that a lot of our own writing will change as a result of not wanting to be perceived as AI. Already a lot of people have given up the em dash...I myself now avoid tripartites. On the other hand, some people may unconsciously take on AI habits. That could lead to variation in writing which makes it harder to judge who has written what.

But we all know that we don’t post anything online that we wouldn’t be willing to say on real life surely. Even more so if we are in certain jobs?

I agree, and also think it's too late. Changing usernames is irrelevant, all your usernames are linked to email addresses and previous usernames. Changing opinions won't be effective either. I think people vastly overestimate the intelligence of the human race and how we can outsmart AI (obviously including myself there). We really have unleashed something we have no capabilities of controlling. Scientists working in the industry are saying this themselves.

No I don’t think most people thought ten or even two years ago that there was much risk from posting things anonymously on some random forum that they wouldn’t share in person. Otherwise the internet would be a much nicer place, but also useful resources like STI or addiction or self harm support groups wouldn’t exist.

I’m really not that interesting to anyone who would go to those lengths

I hadn't thought this through before, but what AI will be able to do when we have quantum computing to solve all those weighted relationship graphs at phenomenal scale and speed is terrifying.

I’ve read several AI summaries of conversations with my family and the inaccuracy is astounding. I’m unsure if it’s because we go off in different directions from the main subject (which infuriates one member) or whatever but at this stage it’s far from perfect.

on the flip side another family member has everyone “silenced” and getting them turning on message deletion after 7 days (on messenger) and such like. However she has her own agenda and is isolating her family from the extended branch. That isn’t healthy and I’m more concerned about that.

After the thread that got deleted, and then reading this one, I went and did something I've never done before. Against my better judgment, I used ChatGPT.

I asked it to analyse my posting history to see if I was anyone else. It suggested Jeremy Clarkson, Ben Goldacre, Christopher Hitchens, and Jeremy Paxman. I'm not any of them; in fact, I'd never heard of Ben Goldacre.

I then tweaked it to anyone else on Mumsnet. Needless to say it matched me to complete strangers, and not any of the other usernames I've had over the years.

I'm still not entirely sure whether or not to be flattered by the suggestions.

The whole thing reminds me a bit of when my Aldi blood pressure monitor told me I was dead: don't take it at face value.

I know.
I used it to analyse my own the other day, off the back of a different thread.
It said im a dick.

This was not news to me.

Gah, I asked ChatGPT who it thought I could be and it said "an actual secondary maths teacher"

I would kill for it to have suggested Ben Goldacre btw.

Ah, but are you an actual secondary maths teacher? (My MIL was one; I know the type!)

To be honest, it it had said that I'm a SAHD who spends far too much time reading on the bog, I'd have been a bit more freaked out than being compared to Jeremy Clarkson.

BUPKIS! I like to blibber and BABBLE and toss in some TWADDLE while painting my canvas with the art of misdirection. Sometimes I cock things up even further with some unclockable colloquialisms. For funsies.

If you're feeling daring, you can even play hopscotch on your keyboard to create younique and creattive typos!

There are so many ways to rage against the machine 😂

Prompts matter, have a look at the papers i posted earlier if you’re interested in what is already possible.