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I am definitely missing the pre-AI writing era

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

#61

Post by xnorswap »

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.

An awful lot of stuff in the "hand made" aesthetic are made by machine and factory too, and I suspect a similar thing will happen to any popular writing aesthetic that attempts to avoid being automated away.

Personally, I'll just continue to use my own voice. I try to correct spelling and grammar mistakes, and proof-read my writing before posting.

It's not perfect, and my writing can at times be idiosyncratic, but it's my voice and it's all I've got left.

But don't be mistaken in thinking that those mistakes make it better, it just makes it mine.

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

#62

Post by vixen99 »

watwut wrote: post #28
Cthulhu_ wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because they're self-aware perfectionists and are actively working to stop it, because they reach for all kinds of tools like grammar checkers and AI, but they're aware that using those will make the post lose "their" voice, or the human element of the post. And that's, I think, a valid choice; you can choose to use all the tools and make something gramatically and stylistically as close to perfect, but who would wan…

If you use grammar checker as a grammar checker, it wont make you loose your voice. It will make you use correct grammar. > you can choose to use all the tools and make something gramatically and stylistically as close to perfect, but who would want to read something as dry If it is dry, then it is not stylistically perfect. Per definition, dry writing is just an imperfect writing. Stylistically perfect writing does…

lose!

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

#63

Post by jychang »

surgical_fire wrote: post #39
Cthulhu_ wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because they're self-aware perfectionists and are actively working to stop it, because they reach for all kinds of tools like grammar checkers and AI, but they're aware that using those will make the post lose "their" voice, or the human element of the post. And that's, I think, a valid choice; you can choose to use all the tools and make something gramatically and stylistically as close to perfect, but who would wan…

Reading what you write for editing does not make a text lose your voice. If anything, it amplifies it, you get to ensure that what you intended to say was said. Not reading what you write smells more like laziness. Same thing for spell checks, grammar checks, and even AI usage. If you use things lazily, the result will be lazy as well. Instead of asking for an AI tool to write your thoughts in your place, you can wri…

Great! That's a good thing. Embrace being human sometimes.

Plus, "lazy" would actually be just using AI to edit the writing.

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

#64

Post by rozab »

simianwords wrote: post #34
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".

Definitely think it is. It will be glorious. We will focus more on content than on just aesthetic as people try to signal that they are not llm

I see loads of LLM articles where it's been prompted to never capitalise, avoid full stops, pepper in spelling mistakes, etc. it sucks.

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

#65

Post by xtajv »

dude250711 wrote: post #9

There is no grandiose "AI era". Or it started like in 1950s already. What it is going to be is a 'Slop Decade' - a much better label if you insist on having one.

I remember taking a machine learning course in which the instructor explicitly warned us to make wise fiscal decisions, based on the assumption that ML funding follows a hype-driven boom/bust cycle.

"Save during the summers and you'll make it through the winters".

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

#66

Post by tosti »

eloisant wrote: post #30
andai wrote: post #11

> This post, is written without any tools assistance I just wrote what my brain is instructing to type (might not reread it before posting). How is the author complaining about the quality of their own writing while admitting to not even bothering reading what they wrote, let alone editing it? (Also, why would using a LLM based grammar checker trigger an AI writing detector? Did it end up rewriting substantial parts…

There is no reliable way to detect AI writing. It probably trains on texts known to be AI, on texts known to be written by humans, then classify the text according to this training. The problem is that it has a pretty high false positive rate. Maybe it thinks it's AI because there are absolutely no spelling mistakes. Or maybe you're French and you use latin-roots words in English that are considered "too smart" for t…

Exactly. Depending on what nutrians I've been consuming, the Indians/intelligence in my head could also be artificial. Perhaps that's why I fail those captcha tests most of the time.

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

#67

Post by watwut »

surgical_fire wrote: post #39
Cthulhu_ wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because they're self-aware perfectionists and are actively working to stop it, because they reach for all kinds of tools like grammar checkers and AI, but they're aware that using those will make the post lose "their" voice, or the human element of the post. And that's, I think, a valid choice; you can choose to use all the tools and make something gramatically and stylistically as close to perfect, but who would wan…

Reading what you write for editing does not make a text lose your voice. If anything, it amplifies it, you get to ensure that what you intended to say was said. Not reading what you write smells more like laziness. Same thing for spell checks, grammar checks, and even AI usage. If you use things lazily, the result will be lazy as well. Instead of asking for an AI tool to write your thoughts in your place, you can wri…

> instruct it to not rewrite anything, only give you an overall picture of text clarity, sentiment, etc.

LLM cant really do that. It can help you produce correct sentence where you struggle to create own, but it does not have capabilities to do what you suggest.

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

#68

Post by Kye »

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.

This is an interface, not an LLM. Do they say which LLM they use? Many of these are interfaces to one of the big three model providers. Others run through OpenRouter to use one of the better open models, all of which have their own quirks.

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

#69

Post by beej71 »

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".

When writing letters of recommendation now, I write in a more human tone to avoid sounding like a bot with a line of explanation at the start. Not an error in the sense you mean, but an error in tone for a letter of recommendation, certainly.

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

#70

Post by beej71 »

I feel like asking it to polish or rewrite is going too far. Using it for a grammar/spell checker or thesaurus is fine, though. At least that preserves ones voice.

And I've definitely used it when I can't remember that one stinking word that I know exists and is perfect for this occasion.

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