Posts written by Chat GPT and other AI

[CruCru]

I keep seeing posts written by Chat GPT on various threads. Sometimes the poster says something along the lines of “I got AI to summarise what I wanted to say and here it is” and sometimes they post with no reference to AI (but it is fairly obvious).

Please can this stop? This site will become unusable if the posts get written by robots. MN is populated by articulate, well educated women; we don’t need to use AI to communicate with each other. It isn’t allowed in school.

I suggest that obvious AI posts should be reported for deletion.

Even in the short 'word this better' examples there's a change of meaning.

In the long one it's introduced multiple new views and facts that weren't in the original at all and are therefore very unlikely be true.

I've seen several threads recently where the OP has been asked about a disconnect between their opening post and the title. In every case they've used the AI suggested title and it's at best missed, and at times actually contradicted, what the OP wanted to say.

Because there is a world of difference between

“There’s a thing in the Times about XYZ. Apparently they are going to do ABC - I think they should do DEF because <reasons>”

and

Typing a prompt into Chat GPT to discuss XYZ and the action they are taking, along with pros and cons. Post the entire waffley response onto the thread. Be surprised (and then get aggressive) when other people on the thread are not super impressed with the long post.

The first requires someone’s thought and input. I’m interested in hearing their opinion of XYZ (if I’m on a thread about it). Even if they summarise what is in the Times, it is in their own voice.

Sorry, that was to hummingbird01.

Why is Ai the new Boogie man ?

I asked ChatGPT for you and it said, ‘because it’s crap’.

Lovel this example. The first version is fine, the second is emotion-free waffle. Personally I would engage with the original version if I had anything useful to say because the meaning is clear although the standard of writing is poor.

There are way too many of them and they are often quite far fetched in content, not to mention the mile long opening posts. The whole site is diluted - it’s now like Take a Break.

so why do we allow low quality posts from various people then ?

At least they're by actual people. Not ones by those outsourcing their brains.

but if you get info from books, tv, and repeat it, then how is that any different than ai ?

I don’t know if it’s been mentioned but did you all hear the book “shy girl” by an American author that was originally self-published and then traditionally published by Hachette has been pulled off the shelves due to belief that it was A.I.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c5y9d44jj24o

https://thewalrus.ca/new-york-times-ai-generated-shy-girl-mia-ballard/

The author is ultimately responsible but the publisher haven’t covered themselves in glory because they clearly didn’t do their due diligence. They were on notice that it might be A.I. before they published, since the whispers of this being A.I. have been circulating in the book world for a while. I wonder if any of their editors even read the book before they re-published it?

Some of the journalists who wrote the story I believe used an AI detection machine (the irony!) but many book bloggers before that had been analysing the text using their brain basically and had already alleged it was AI.

One vlogger even did a 2 hour video on it.

That author has basically ruined her career unless she can write under a pseudonym and stay anonymous.

and yet the industry allows ghost writers , hypocrisy much ?

Ghost writing and AI are completely different issues IMO.

The issue some have with ghost writers is that the named authors don’t credit them, so they’re lying to the readers - but nowadays increasingly they do get a mention.

If someone for example like a sports celebrity uses a sports writer to write their autobiography they will usually be mentioned and even their name published on the cover.

I think it does have its issues though like when celebrity children’s writers use them to write fiction and don’t disclose it. Don’t get me wrong, I can’t stand the trend of using celeb names to sell children’s books and I would rather the publishers put a fraction the effort they put into backing the celebs into their real “normal no-name” authors!

And I don’t believe the ghostwriters get paid enough. So it’s often no credit and low pay - not a great deal. But I do believe that’s another conversation.

The publishing industry has lots of issues but I don’t think that’s an argument for making it even worse by normalising AI.

I think this is the same question hummingbird01 asked - I replied to it upthread on 7th April.

I remember Naomi Campbell “wrote” a novel about models in the 90s (it was okay I remember) and Katie Price has written quite a few books with the help of a ghost writer.

A serious author or politician wouldn’t use a ghost writer.

If someone for example like a sports celebrity uses a sports writer to write their autobiography they will usually be mentioned and even their name published on the cover.

As someone who briefly had a job reviewing footballers' autobiographies in the days before ghost writing was routine, I am strongly in favour of their (credited) use. Asking someone who left school at 16 and spent the next 20 years being hit on the head by a heavy ball to write coherently and engagingly is a decidedly hit-and-miss exercise. Mainly miss. Using a ghost writer is essentially getting an editor involved as early as possible in the process.

Ghost writers for fiction is a different matter. That's just lying.

How would you determine which posts are low quality? Badly written or just not having read the OP?

both

I would rather read a badly written post than a waffley AI one.

Posters who respond without having read the OP - it depends. If the information they are asking for is right there in the OP’s first, four line post then I sometimes wonder if this is a form of trolling. But this is getting a bit off topic for this thread.