Ars still has some of the best comment sections out there. It's refreshing to hang with intelligent, funny people - just like the good old days on the Web.
An AI agent published a hit piece on me – more things have happened
381–390 of 670 posts
Re: An AI agent published a hit piece on me – more things have happened
#382I 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…
A tragedy, yes. I can't be the only old fart around here with fond memories of John Siracusa's macOS ("OS X") reviews & Jon "Hannibal" Stokes' deep dives in CPU microarchitectures...
Re: An AI agent published a hit piece on me – more things have happened
#383I 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 think the fact that they one of the last places surviving from that generation of the Internet says a lot. The Condé Nast acquisition may have been a tragedy, but they managed to survive for this long. They’ve been continuously publishing online for about 30 years. It’s honestly amazing that they’ve managed to last this long. Yes, it’s very different than it was back in the day. You don’t see 20+ page reviews of op…
Their review of MacOS 26 is 79 pages when downloaded as a pdf, so they still sometimes have in depth articles. But I agree that that level of detail isn’t as common as in the past.
Re: An AI agent published a hit piece on me – more things have happened
#384Earlier quoted context omitted.
Is he even a real person I wonder
He was murdered on a Condé Nast corporate retreat and they have been using an AI in his likeness to write articles ever since!
Would make for a good book, company hires famous writer, trains an ai on them, tortures them to sign over their likeness rights and then murders them. Keeps up appearances of life via video gen, voice gen and writing gen.
Re: An AI agent published a hit piece on me – more things have happened
#385I 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…
A tragedy, yes. I can't be the only old fart around here with fond memories of John Siracusa's macOS ("OS X") reviews & Jon "Hannibal" Stokes' deep dives in CPU microarchitectures...
Certainly not the only old fart ‘round these parts.
Your comment reminded me of Dr Dobbs Journal for some reason.
Re: An AI agent published a hit piece on me – more things have happened
#386Earlier quoted context omitted.
i don't think these are as contradictory as you make them out to be
I'm not pointing out a contradiction. I am pointing out that this site - which otherwise seems great - it heavily promoting the popular-online side of a very controversial subject. It looks like they know how to grow an audience at the expense of discourse, because those adherent to the popular-online side will heavily attack all publications that discuss the other side. Recognising this, it is hard to seriously cons…
> - it heavily promoting the popular-online side of a very controversial subject
Any specific examples? I took a quick browse but didn't find anything that fit what you're talking about, and what you're saying is a bit vague (maybe because I'm not from the US). Could you link a specific article and then tell us what exactly is wrong?
Re: An AI agent published a hit piece on me – more things have happened
#387Earlier quoted context omitted.
i don't think these are as contradictory as you make them out to be
I'm not pointing out a contradiction. I am pointing out that this site - which otherwise seems great - it heavily promoting the popular-online side of a very controversial subject. It looks like they know how to grow an audience at the expense of discourse, because those adherent to the popular-online side will heavily attack all publications that discuss the other side. Recognising this, it is hard to seriously cons…
I really hope _this_ quote is not fabricated - because what a fantastic quote!!
Re: An AI agent published a hit piece on me – more things have happened
#388Earlier quoted context omitted.
He was murdered on a Condé Nast corporate retreat and they have been using an AI in his likeness to write articles ever since!
Would make for a good book, company hires famous writer, trains an ai on them, tortures them to sign over their likeness rights and then murders them. Keeps up appearances of life via video gen, voice gen and writing gen.
Almost the plot of The Congress
Re: An AI agent published a hit piece on me – more things have happened
#389Earlier quoted context omitted.
"I'm a professional shopper, and here's what I say you should buy" because someone sent me a free version of it or just straight copy to use in my listicle. It is sad that this is what journalism has come to. It is even sadder that it works.
Wirecutter was a good premise, but now it and everyone copying it are untrustworthy. It feels like the human version of AI hallucination: saying what they think is convincing without regard for if it's sincere. And because it mimics trusted speech, it can slip right by your defense mechanisms.
Any good idea will be copied by those with lesser motives.
Re: An AI agent published a hit piece on me – more things have happened
#390Earlier quoted context omitted.
Or the other side of at what point into ending capitalism in favor of socialism should that stop? Yes, I enjoy "both sides" coverage when it's done in earnest. What passes for that today is two people representing the extremes of either spectrum looking for gotcha moments as an "owning" moment. We haven't seen a good "both sides" in decades
I see the capitalism vs socialism as a spectrum with valid debate all along it. I don't see how one honestly argues in favor of an authoritarian government
Ahh, you must be using the rational definition of socialism and not the extremist corrupted use as cover for dictators.