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We're losing our voice to LLMs

tonyalicea.dev

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Re: We're losing our voice to LLMs

#91

Post by boxerab »

glitchc wrote: post #38
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…

Do LinkedIn as well. I got rid of it earlier this year. The "I am so humbled/blessed to be promoted/reassigned/fired.." posts reached a level of parody that I just couldn't stomach any longer. I felt more free immediately. N.B. Still employed btw.

This. Linkedin is garbage, yet I still use it because there are no competitors. This is what happens in a monoculture.

Re: We're losing our voice to LLMs

#92

Post by Propelloni »

LogicFailsMe wrote: post #69
chemotaxis wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

It would just become part of the shitshow, cf. Grok.

Re: We're losing our voice to LLMs

#93

Post by SoftTalker »

cinntaile wrote: post #50
LaGrange wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I hate when people hijack progressive language - like in your case the language of accessibility - for cheap marketing and hype. Writing is one of the most accessible forms of expression. We were living in a world where even publishing was as easy as imaginable - sure, not actually selling/profiting, but here’s a secret, even most bestselling authors have either at least one other job, or intense support from their c…

It's probably true that it reduces the barrier to entry, you don't refute that point in your post. You just call it cheap marketing and hype.

Barriers to entry can be a good thing. It’s a filter for low effort content.

Re: We're losing our voice to LLMs

#94

Post by isoprophlex »

glitchc wrote: post #38
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…

Do LinkedIn as well. I got rid of it earlier this year. The "I am so humbled/blessed to be promoted/reassigned/fired.." posts reached a level of parody that I just couldn't stomach any longer. I felt more free immediately. N.B. Still employed btw.

Sorting the feed by "recent" at least gives you a randomized assortment of self aggrandizement, instead of algorithmically enhanced ragebait

Re: We're losing our voice to LLMs

#95

Post by LaGrange »

cinntaile wrote: post #50
LaGrange wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I hate when people hijack progressive language - like in your case the language of accessibility - for cheap marketing and hype. Writing is one of the most accessible forms of expression. We were living in a world where even publishing was as easy as imaginable - sure, not actually selling/profiting, but here’s a secret, even most bestselling authors have either at least one other job, or intense support from their c…

It's probably true that it reduces the barrier to entry, you don't refute that point in your post. You just call it cheap marketing and hype.

It doesn’t. You’re not entering anything with an LLM.

Re: We're losing our voice to LLMs

#96

Post by Aurornis »

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…

> Just because I said to someone 'Brexit was dumb', I don't expect to get fed 1000 accounts talking about it 24/7. It's tedious and unproductive.

I’m not the biggest Twitter user but I didn’t find it that difficult to get what I wanted out of it.

You already discovered the secret: You get more of what you engage with. If you don’t want to hear a lot of Brexit talk, don’t engage with Brexit content. Unfollow people who are talking a lot about Brexit

If you want to see more of something, engage with it. Click like. Follow those people. Leave a friendly comment.

On the other hand, some people are better off deleting social media if they can’t control their impulses to engage with bait. If you find yourself getting angry at the Brexit content showing up and feeling compelled to add your two cents with a comment or like, then I suppose deleting your account is the only viable option.

Re: We're losing our voice to LLMs

#97

Post by embedding-shape »

erwincoumans wrote: post #84
femiagbabiaka wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

I tried Bluesky and wanted to like it. My account got flagged as spam, still no idea why. Ironically it could be another way of loosing ones voice to an LLM :)

> My account got flagged as spam, still no idea why.

This happened to me too, 3 weeks ago. The email said why I got flagged as spam, I replied to the email explaining I actually was a human, and after some minutes they unflagged my account. Did you not receive an email saying why?

Re: We're losing our voice to LLMs

#98

Post by alt227 »

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…

I personally dont feel like an ultra filtered social media which only shows me things I agree with is a good thing. Exposing yourself to things you dont agre with is what helps us all question our own beliefs and prejudeces, and grow as people. To me, only seeing things you know you are already interested in is no better than another company curating it for me.

Re: We're losing our voice to LLMs

#99

Post by coffeecoders »

I actually think we’re overestimating how much of "losing our voice" is caused by LLMs. Even before LLMs, we were doing the same tweet-sized takes, the same medium-style blog posts and the same corporate tone.

Ironically, LLMs might end up forcing us back toward more distinct voices because sameness has become the default background.

Re: We're losing our voice to LLMs

#100

Post by LaGrange »

CityOfThrowaway wrote: post #78
LaGrange wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I hate when people hijack progressive language - like in your case the language of accessibility - for cheap marketing and hype. Writing is one of the most accessible forms of expression. We were living in a world where even publishing was as easy as imaginable - sure, not actually selling/profiting, but here’s a secret, even most bestselling authors have either at least one other job, or intense support from their c…

I'm anon, but also the farthest thing from a progressive, so I find this post amusing. I don't disagree with a lot of what you're saying but I also have a different frame. Even if we take your claim that LLMs don't make people better writers as true (which I think there's plenty to argue with), that's not the point at all. What I'm saying is people are communicating better. For most ideas, writing is just a transport…

> I'm anon, but also the farthest thing from a progressive, so I find this post amusing.

Oh I know. I called it hijacking because the result is as progressive as a national socialist is a socialist.

> What I'm saying is people are communicating better.

Actually they’re no longer communicating at all.

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