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I am definitely missing the pre-AI writing era

lesswrong.com

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Re: I am definitely missing the pre-AI writing era

#41

Post by annie511266728 »

Arainach wrote: post #6
asdff wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don't want to sound like an llm? Don't read llm content. Remove yourself from places where you might be liable to read it.

It's not that simple. LLMs were trained on lots of writing, and the "LLM voice" resembles in many ways good English prose, or at least effective public communications voice. For years, even before LLMs, there have been trends of varied popularity to, for lack of a better word, regress - intentionally omitting capitalization, punctuation, or other important details which convey meaning. I rejected those, and likewise…

The bad part is that people may start writing a bit worse on purpose, just so they don't get read as AI.

Re: I am definitely missing the pre-AI writing era

#42

Post by raincole »

asdff wrote: post #5
radimm wrote: post #4

This is exactly same struggle for me. Writing technical content about PostgreSQL and balancing my voice without sounding like LLM written is genuinely difficult. As English is not my first language, I do run into problem where the line between fix my clumsy sentence and rewrite my thought is very thin. Same with writing "boring" technical explanation and more approachable content. I'm getting pushed back for both.

Don't want to sound like an llm? Don't read llm content. Remove yourself from places where you might be liable to read it.

If you strictly read printed books only and am never exposed to online content, you'd think em-dash is a signal for human writing.

Re: I am definitely missing the pre-AI writing era

#44

Post by raincole »

asdff wrote: post #19
Arainach wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not that simple. LLMs were trained on lots of writing, and the "LLM voice" resembles in many ways good English prose, or at least effective public communications voice. For years, even before LLMs, there have been trends of varied popularity to, for lack of a better word, regress - intentionally omitting capitalization, punctuation, or other important details which convey meaning. I rejected those, and likewise…

Well that isn't what I am suggesting. I'm suggesting people ditch x. Reddit. Probably also ditch hn in the next couple months. If you can run a headless agent to post somewhere, just don't bother visiting that site, honestly a great rule of thumb right there. That should leave you with media sources like nyt and your local library, which seems healthier to me. And maybe it might encourage a new type of forum to emerg…

On HN o Reddit you can occasionally read genuine opinions from real people. On newspaper 100% of text is trying to manipulate you.

Re: I am definitely missing the pre-AI writing era

#45

Post by GuB-42 »

stabbles wrote: post #33

Are grammatical errors and typos fashionable now? Reading this post it seems the anti-thesis in the LLM era is not to edit at all, but rather write down a stream of consciousness to make it "personal".

Maybe it is.

Just like hand made items are popular for their imperfections.

Re: I am definitely missing the pre-AI writing era

#46

Post by amelius »

shaoner wrote: post #21
amelius wrote: post #15

Are there any good writing LLMs out there? I get that the mainstream ones have been RLHF'd to death, but surely there must be others that are capable?

https://hemingwayapp.com/ gives you advice about your writing. This is called Hemingway because he was apparently good at communicating efficiently which made him a popular author.

What happens if you take the output of a mainstream LLM and send it through this app? Would that solve the issue of the original article?

Re: I am definitely missing the pre-AI writing era

#48

Post by incognito124 »

shafyy wrote: post #43
everdrive wrote: post #35

Not joking, buy and read books. Old books are only written by people. (and the help of an editor)

Fun fact: Editors are usually also people. Except for that one dog I met during a cold winter's day in 1987 in a run-down London pub.

On the internet, no one knows you're an editor

Re: I am definitely missing the pre-AI writing era

#49

Post by defrost »

GuB-42 wrote: post #45
stabbles wrote: post #33

Are grammatical errors and typos fashionable now? Reading this post it seems the anti-thesis in the LLM era is not to edit at all, but rather write down a stream of consciousness to make it "personal".

Maybe it is. Just like hand made items are popular for their imperfections.

And because hands can still make things that machines cannot.

eg: https://ids.si.edu/ids/deliveryService?id=SAAM-2011.6_1

from: https://americanart.si.edu/artwork/mandara-79001 https://www.museumofglass.org/ltlg

Re: I am definitely missing the pre-AI writing era

#50

Post by KeplerBoy »

raincole wrote: post #42
asdff wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don't want to sound like an llm? Don't read llm content. Remove yourself from places where you might be liable to read it.

If you strictly read printed books only and am never exposed to online content, you'd think em-dash is a signal for human writing.

No you'd not think that. The thought of something not being human written didn't even occur to anyone before decent LLMs came around.
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