We're losing our voice to LLMs • Hacker News Board

Re: We're losing our voice to LLMs

#61

Post by [deleted] » Thu, Nov 27, 2025, 4:25 PM UTC

femiagbabiaka wrote: post #29

ricardo81 wrote: post #6

I deleted my Facebook account a couple of years ago and my Twitter one yesterday. It's not just LLMs, it's how the algorithms promote engagement. i.e. rage bait, videos with obvious inaccuracies etc. Who gets rewarded, the content creators and the platform. Engaging with it just seems to accentuate the problem. There needs to be algorithms that promote cohorts and individuals preferences. Just because I said to someo…

I know that some folks dislike it, but Bluesky and atproto in particular have provided the perfect tools to achieve this. There are some people, largely those who migrated from Twitter, who mostly treat Bluesky like a all-liberal version of Twitter, which results in a predictably toxic experience, like bizarro-world Twitter. But the future of a less toxic social media is in there, if we want it. I've created my own f…

[deleted]

Re: We're losing our voice to LLMs

#62

Post by chemotaxis » Thu, Nov 27, 2025, 4:26 PM UTC

CityOfThrowaway wrote: post #13

In a lot of ways, I'm thankful that LLMs are letting us hear the thoughts of people who usually wouldn't share them. There are skilled writers. Very skilled, unique writers. And I'm both exceedingly impressed by them as well as keenly aware that they are a rare breed. But there's so many people with interesting ideas locked in their heads that aren't skilled writers. I have a deep suspicion that many great ideas have…

> In a lot of ways, I'm thankful that LLMs are letting us hear the thoughts of people who usually wouldn't share them.

I could agree with you in theory, but do you see the technology used that way? Because I definitely don't. The thought process behind the vast majority of LLM-generated content is "how do I get more clicks with less effort", not "here's a unique, personal perspective of mine, let's use a chatbot to express it more eloquently".

Re: We're losing our voice to LLMs

#63

Post by homeonthemtn » Thu, Nov 27, 2025, 4:26 PM UTC

For those of us not constantly online, we're doing just fine.

I suppose when your existence is in the cloud, the fall back to earth can look scary. But it's really only a few inches down. You'll be ok.

Re: We're losing our voice to LLMs

#64

Post by truelson » Thu, Nov 27, 2025, 4:27 PM UTC

It's still an editor I can turn to in a pinch when my favorite humans aren't around. It makes better analogies sometimes. I like going back and forth with it, and if it doesn't sound like me, I rewrite it.

Don't look at social media. Blogging is kinda re-surging. I just found out Dave Barry has a substack. https://davebarry.substack.com/ That made me happy :) (Side note, did he play "Squirrel with a Gun??!!!")

The death of voice is greatly exaggerated. Most LLM voice is cringe. But it's ok to use an LLM, have taste, and get a better version of your voice out. It's totally doable.

Re: We're losing our voice to LLMs

#65

Post by LogicFailsMe » Thu, Nov 27, 2025, 4:27 PM UTC

ricardo81 wrote: post #6

I deleted my Facebook account a couple of years ago and my Twitter one yesterday. It's not just LLMs, it's how the algorithms promote engagement. i.e. rage bait, videos with obvious inaccuracies etc. Who gets rewarded, the content creators and the platform. Engaging with it just seems to accentuate the problem. There needs to be algorithms that promote cohorts and individuals preferences. Just because I said to someo…

One could absolutely push algorithms that personalize towards what the user wants to see. I think LLMs could be amazing at this. But that's not the maximally profitable algorithm, so nobody does it.
As so many have said, enragement equals engagement equals profit.
All my social media accounts are gone as well. They did nothing for me and no longer serve any purpose.

TBF Bluesky does offer a chronological feed, but the well-intentioned blocklists just became the chief tool for the mean girls of the site.

Re: We're losing our voice to LLMs

#66

Post by codeflo » Thu, Nov 27, 2025, 4:28 PM UTC

WD-42 wrote: post #5

Where are these places where everything is written by a LLM? I guess just don’t go there. Most of the comments on HN still seem human.

The HN moderation system seems to hold, at least mostly. But I have seen high-ranking HN submissions with all the subtler signs of LLM authorship that have managed to get lots of engagement. Granted, it's mostly people pointing out the subtle technical flaws or criticizing the meandering writing style, but that works to get the clicks and attention.

Frankly, it only takes someone a few times to "fall" for an LLM article -- that is, to spend time engaging with an author in good faith and try to help improve their understanding, only to then find out that they shat out a piece of engagement bait for a technology they can barely spell -- to sour the whole experience of using a site. If it's bad on HN, I can only imagine how much worse things must be on Facebook. LLMs might just simply kill social media of any kind.

Re: We're losing our voice to LLMs

#67

Post by AstroBen » Thu, Nov 27, 2025, 4:28 PM UTC

There's something unique about art and writing where we just don't want to see computers do it

As soon as I know something is written by AI I tune out. I don't care how good it is - I'm not interested if a person didn't go through the process of writing it

Re: We're losing our voice to LLMs

#68

Post by zavg » Thu, Nov 27, 2025, 4:29 PM UTC

In one of the WhatsApp communities I belong to, I noticed that some people use ChatGPT to express their thoughts (probably asking it to make their messages more eloquent or polite or whatever).

Others respond in the same style. As a result, it ends up with long, multi-paragraph messages full of em dashes.

Basically, they are using AI as a proxy to communicate with each other, trying to sound more intelligent to the rest of the group.

Re: We're losing our voice to LLMs

#69

Post by LogicFailsMe » Thu, Nov 27, 2025, 4:29 PM UTC

chemotaxis wrote: post #48

ricardo81 wrote: post #6

I deleted my Facebook account a couple of years ago and my Twitter one yesterday. It's not just LLMs, it's how the algorithms promote engagement. i.e. rage bait, videos with obvious inaccuracies etc. Who gets rewarded, the content creators and the platform. Engaging with it just seems to accentuate the problem. There needs to be algorithms that promote cohorts and individuals preferences. Just because I said to someo…

> It's not just LLMs, it's how the algorithms promote engagement. i.e. rage bait, videos with obvious inaccuracies etc. I guess, but I'm on quite a few "algorithm-free" forums where the same thing happens. I think it's just human nature. The reason it's under control on HN is rigorous moderation; when the moderators are asleep, you often see dubious political stuff bubble up. And in the comments, there's often a fair…

I would be intrigued by using an LLM to detect content like this and hold it for moderation. The elevator pitch would be training an LLM to be the moderator because that's what people want to hear, but it's most likely going to end up a moderator's assistant.

Re: We're losing our voice to LLMs

#70

Post by rdtsc » Thu, Nov 27, 2025, 4:29 PM UTC

ricardo81 wrote: post #6

I deleted my Facebook account a couple of years ago and my Twitter one yesterday. It's not just LLMs, it's how the algorithms promote engagement. i.e. rage bait, videos with obvious inaccuracies etc. Who gets rewarded, the content creators and the platform. Engaging with it just seems to accentuate the problem. There needs to be algorithms that promote cohorts and individuals preferences. Just because I said to someo…

> I deleted my Facebook account a couple of years ago and my Twitter one yesterday.

I never signed up for Facebook or Twitter. My joke is I am waiting until they become good. They are still shitty and toxic from what I can tell from the outside, so I'll wait a little longer ;-)