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Hi, it's me, Wikipedia, and I am ready for your apology

mcsweeneys.net

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Re: Hi, it's me, Wikipedia, and I am ready for your apology

#21

Post by embedding-shape »

babblingfish wrote: post #5

Especially relevant today with the release of grokipedia

> The articles in Grokipedia indicate that they have undergone fact-checking by the Grok model.[3] Visitors to Grokipedia cannot make edits, though they can suggest edits via a pop-up form for reporting wrong information.[5] Musk positioned Grokipedia as an alternative to Wikipedia that would "purge out the propaganda" in the latter.[1] Articles have been described as manipulated to promote right-wing perspectives and Elon Musk's views,[4][7] medical misinformation,[7] and for removing content disfavored by Musk.[8][9] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grokipedia

Seems like a great platform, here's to hoping it costs a lot to run and doesn't influence too many humans to drink bleach.

Re: Hi, it's me, Wikipedia, and I am ready for your apology

#23

Post by GaryBluto »

brightball wrote: post #15
babblingfish wrote: post #5

Especially relevant today with the release of grokipedia

It’s so good. I spent 2 hours reading articles on there last night and the consistency was excellent, although a little verbose at times.

If it works, it works.

Re: Hi, it's me, Wikipedia, and I am ready for your apology

#24

Post by IAmBroom »

vuggamie wrote: post #10
Imustaskforhelp wrote: post #3

Can someone give me a deeper understanding of what this post means or the backstory behind it?

It is satire. You don't need to know the writer to get it. McSweeney's publishes these type of pieces from time-to-time. Laugh or don't. I found this one amusing. Wikipedia, a generation ago, was considered controversial. It is now more accepted as a legitimate encyclopedia and the criticisms appear quaint when compared to the post-truth atmosphere of our current media. The footnotes and the "citation needed" annotat…

> It is now more accepted as a legitimate encyclopedia

To be fair, it is easily 10x better as a source than any encyclopedia, even disregarding the scope and quantity of entries.

I loved Encyclopedia Britannica, and probably read the set in its entirety as a kid (nonsequentially), but it was like learning biology from Disney specials. Wikipedia is often updated and corrected by multiple experts, and importantly includes biblio endnotes. The latter alone sets it far above mere encyclopedias.

I remember an early advertisement for EB, masquerading as a research article that compared EB and WP. They found that while WP contained a bit more articles, EB was a bit more accurate (in their totally unbiased sampling). They did not mention that WP was growing exponentially at the time, while EB was not, nor did they mention that WP was continuously updated with corrections, while EB was effectively never ever updated (users bought a static copy).

Re: Hi, it's me, Wikipedia, and I am ready for your apology

#25

Post by mapontosevenths »

marcellus23 wrote: post #2

I love Wikipedia, but Wikimedia does not need your donations at all, as much as its misleading ads try to convince you it's on the brink of death. As far as this particular article goes, it just comes off as kind of cringeworthy to me. This is a style of internet humor that went out of fashion about 10 years ago.

> This is a style of internet humor that went out of fashion about 10 years ago.

You know what else has happened in the last 10 years? People got stupid.

Between 2017 and 2023, the percentage of U.S. adults at the lowest levels of illiteracy increased from 19% to 28%. Some studies show that the US's peak literacy was around 2015 and has been decreasing ever since.

Re: Hi, it's me, Wikipedia, and I am ready for your apology

#26

Post by kreetx »

embedding-shape wrote: post #20
kreetx wrote: post #18

What is there to apologize for, what do you think LLMs use for cheating?

"Cheating" is not something LLMs do, LLMs are something a human could use for cheating. But what's your point?

I'm continuing the satire. Did you read the article?

Re: Hi, it's me, Wikipedia, and I am ready for your apology

#28

Post by exasperaited »

embedding-shape wrote: post #20
kreetx wrote: post #18

What is there to apologize for, what do you think LLMs use for cheating?

"Cheating" is not something LLMs do, LLMs are something a human could use for cheating. But what's your point?

Yes. Cheating is not something LLMs do.

It is only what they are.

Re: Hi, it's me, Wikipedia, and I am ready for your apology

#29

Post by IAmBroom »

GaryBluto wrote: post #23
brightball wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s so good. I spent 2 hours reading articles on there last night and the consistency was excellent, although a little verbose at times.

If it works, it works.

Unsupervised Source of Truth(tm), what could possibly go wrong?

Re: Hi, it's me, Wikipedia, and I am ready for your apology

#30

Post by djeastm »

brightball wrote: post #15
babblingfish wrote: post #5

Especially relevant today with the release of grokipedia

It’s so good. I spent 2 hours reading articles on there last night and the consistency was excellent, although a little verbose at times.

Nevermind the Grok-ness of it, I can't seriously believe a thinking human being would spend 2 hours knowingly reading something written by AI.
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