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An AI agent published a hit piece on me – more things have happened

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Re: An AI agent published a hit piece on me – more things have happened

#261

Post by ReptileMan »

episode404 wrote: post #246
anthonj wrote: post #236

I have very strong, probably controversial, feeling on arstechnica, but I believe the acquisition from Condé Nast has been a tragedy. Ars writers used to be actual experts, sometimes even phd level, on technical fields. And they used to write fantastical and very informative articles. Who is left now? There are still a couple of good writers from the old guard and the occasional good new one, but the website is flood…

> they used to write fantastical and very informative articles > Still a very good website These are indeed quite controversial opinions on ars.

[flagged]

Re: An AI agent published a hit piece on me – more things have happened

#262

Post by JPKab »

Springtime wrote: post #5

Ars Technica being caught using LLMs that hallucinated quotes by the author and then publishing them in their coverage about this is quite ironic here. Even on a forum where I saw the original article by this author posted someone used an LLM to summarize the piece without having read it fully themselves. How many levels of outsourcing thinking is occurring to where it becomes a game of telephone.

I just wish people would remember how awful and unprofessional and lazy most "journalists" are in 2026.

It's a slop job now.

Ars Technica, a supposedly reputable institution, has no editorial review. No checks. Just a lazy slop cannon journalist prompting an LLM to research and write articles for her.

Ask yourself if you think it's much different at other publications.

Re: An AI agent published a hit piece on me – more things have happened

#263

Post by suddenlybananas »

cratermoon wrote: post #98
zahlman wrote: post #22

> The hit piece has been effective. About a quarter of the comments I’ve seen across the internet are siding with the AI agent. This generally happens when MJ Rathbun’s blog is linked directly, rather than when people read my post about the situation or the full github thread. Its rhetoric and presentation of what happened has already persuaded large swaths of internet commenters. > It’s not because these people are…

People were emotionally compelled by ELIZA

Which was foolish.

Re: An AI agent published a hit piece on me – more things have happened

#264

Post by tapoxi »

anthonj wrote: post #236

I have very strong, probably controversial, feeling on arstechnica, but I believe the acquisition from Condé Nast has been a tragedy. Ars writers used to be actual experts, sometimes even phd level, on technical fields. And they used to write fantastical and very informative articles. Who is left now? There are still a couple of good writers from the old guard and the occasional good new one, but the website is flood…

> I have very strong, probably controversial, feeling on arstechnica, but I believe the acquisition from Condé Nast has been a tragedy.

For the curious, this acquisition was 18 years ago.

Re: An AI agent published a hit piece on me – more things have happened

#266

Post by moomin »

Springtime wrote: post #5

Ars Technica being caught using LLMs that hallucinated quotes by the author and then publishing them in their coverage about this is quite ironic here. Even on a forum where I saw the original article by this author posted someone used an LLM to summarize the piece without having read it fully themselves. How many levels of outsourcing thinking is occurring to where it becomes a game of telephone.

Ironically, if you actually know what you’re doing with an LLM, getting a separate process to check the quotations are accurate isn’t even that hard. Not 100% foolproof, because LLM, but way better than the current process of asking ChatGPT to write something for you and then never reading it before publication.

Re: An AI agent published a hit piece on me – more things have happened

#267

Post by JKCalhoun »

anonymous908213 wrote: post #84
JKCalhoun wrote: post #72

I was surprised to see so many top comments here pointing fingers at Ars Technica. Their article is really beside the point (and the author of this post says as much). Am I coming across as alarmist to suggest that, due to agents, perhaps the internet as we know it (IAWKI) may be unrecognizable (if it exists at all) in a year's time? Phishing emails, Nigerian princes, all that other spam, now done at scale I would sa…

I don't think it's besides the point at all. The Ars Technica article is an exact example of what you go on to talk about for the rest of the comment: the public internet as we knew it is dead and gone. Not in the future, it is already gone. When so-called journalists are outsourcing their job to LLM spam, that's a pretty clear indicator that the death knell has been tolled. The LLMs have taken over everything. HN is…

I think it's the bad actors and at scale that makes the Ars Technica gripe in the noise. Say what you want, but I don't think Ars writers are on the level of the actors behind phishing scams. And it is one outfit.

Oh well, I suppose cosplaying Cassandra is pointless anyway. We'll all find out in a year or so whether this was the beginning of the end or not.

Re: An AI agent published a hit piece on me – more things have happened

#268

Post by JKCalhoun »

bombcar wrote: post #200
JKCalhoun wrote: post #72

I was surprised to see so many top comments here pointing fingers at Ars Technica. Their article is really beside the point (and the author of this post says as much). Am I coming across as alarmist to suggest that, due to agents, perhaps the internet as we know it (IAWKI) may be unrecognizable (if it exists at all) in a year's time? Phishing emails, Nigerian princes, all that other spam, now done at scale I would sa…

The Internet is dead, long live the Internet. LLMs are just revealing the weaknesses inherent in unsecured online communications - you have never met me (that we know of) and you have no idea if I'm an LLM, a dog, a human, or an alien. We're going to have to go back to our roots and build up a web of trust again; all the old shibboleths and methods don't work.

Sure, and that will likely be a very different internet. It's possible I'll like the internet again then. If however it is the gauntlet of captchas that we're already beginning to see, or worse…

Re: An AI agent published a hit piece on me – more things have happened

#269

Post by armchairhacker »

fennecbutt wrote: post #231
armchairhacker wrote: post #216

Earlier quoted context omitted.

- There’s a difference. Users don’t see code, only its output. Writing is “the output”. - A rough equivalent here would be Windows shipping an update that bricks your PC or one of its basic features, which draws plenty of outrage. In both cases, the vendor shipped a critical flaw to production: factual correctness is crucial in journalism, and a quote is one of the worst things to get factually incorrect because it’s…

Tbf I'm fine with it only one way around; if a journalist has tonnes of notes and data on a subject and wants help to condense those down into an article, assistance with prioritising which bits of information to present to the reader then totally fine. If a journalist has little information and uses an llm to make "something from nothing" that's when I take issue because like, what's the point? Same thing as when I…

Another good use of an LLM is to find primary sources.

Even an (unreliable) LLM overview can be useful, as long as you check all facts with real sources, because it can give the framing necessary to understand the subject. For example, asking an LLM to explain some terminology that a source is using.

Re: An AI agent published a hit piece on me – more things have happened

#270

Post by embedding-shape »

lapcat wrote: post #256
embedding-shape wrote: post #250

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Ars writers used to be actual experts, sometimes even phd level, on technical fields. And they used to write fantastical and very informative articles. Who is left now? What places on the internet remains where articles are written by actual experts? I know only of a few, and they get fewer every year.

> What places on the internet remains where articles are written by actual experts? The personal blogs of experts.

Examples? :)
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