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How much of HN is AI?

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Re: How much of HN is AI?

#71

Post by CharlesW »

gibspaulding wrote: post #32
jdw64 wrote: post #2

Is Pangram's detection capability considered to be on the higher side? This post seems to be written under the assumption that Pangram's detection is highly effective. Is it actually considered to be on the higher side in English-speaking circles?

Pangram links several third party evaluations [1] that all seem to agree with 90+% detection, and very close to 0% false positives. Obviously those could be cherry picked, but I’ve yet to see arguments to the contrary that actually include any supporting data. (E.g here’s a prompt that will get Claude to spit out text that pangram doesn’t detect or here’s an article authored in 2018 that pangram says is AI.) Detectio…

> Obviously those could be cherry picked…

The "could" isn't required here, since Pangram calls many of the evals "collaborations", and some received direct support. Results that don't favor Pangram as being among the least-worst of a questionable product category* surely wouldn't be featured.

* https://mitsloanedtech.mit.edu/ai/teach/ai-detectors-dont-wo...

Re: How much of HN is AI?

#72

Post by add-sub-mul-div »

brabel wrote: post #34
falsemyrmidon wrote: post #3

It's not just HN, have you seen mainstream news recently? It's just a hot topic and I think it's normal for people to talk about those a lot. If quantum computing ever goes mainstream, I'm sure you'll see a lot of articles about that as well.

The programming Reddit forbade AI posts. Unfortunately the result is NOT better level posts, but a wasteland instead.

Reddit had become a wasteland before the LLM era began.

Re: How much of HN is AI?

#73

Post by hn_submit »

I'm deeply disappointed that many of the stories on HN are directly or indirectly about A.I. and LLMs. To me this is a complete turn-off. OTOH this seems to be the case everywhere in the IT landscape these days.

Many people interested in technical stories have mostly stopped reading computing related news. I know people that used to host talks about .NET software development quit because they hated all .NET developments pushed by Microsoft were related to Azure or A.I. These are developers that want to build software, not scream to/plead with an LLM to do it for them. It simply takes the fun out of being a software developer. It wouldn't surprise me in the least that in a couple of years many people will leave the sector because it's no fun anymore. Management is forcing you to use your (supposed) future replacement.

Re: How much of HN is AI?

#74

Post by pton_xd »

jerf wrote: post #11

"At the same time, it has a fair number of toxic commenters, making it a dependable source of insults hurled in my general direction; if you want a taste, {another article by same author} has been called “watered-down” and “slop”." We have gotten to the point where it is virtually guaranteed that some commenter to almost any given article will have an oversensitive AI detector and accuse the author of it being AI. I…

The truth is, writing is hard and time consuming, and most people are uncomfortable with the process. AI is a very easy shortcut to lucid, logical, authoritative text. Like sugary drinks and snacks, people can't resist. Add in the pressure to keep up with everyone else and the choice is easy -- spend a few days drafting and editing, or a few minutes chatting with an LLM before hitting post?

AI has rapidly destroyed, completely destroyed, the remaining authenticity on the internet. The majority of articles are AI generated. And yeah at this point its futile to keep pointing it out. Human prose has been eliminated.

Re: How much of HN is AI?

#75

Post by jrflo »

pydry wrote: post #23
jrflo wrote: post #10

My reaction is: that's an appropriate amount. AI is probably the biggest thing to happen (in tech) in the last two decades, so I think it's fair that it's taking up a lot of the discourse.

Feels more like another blockchain hype cycle to me. Especially the part where we're always on the cusp of the entire world changing while the biggest change is just that huge sums of money changed hands, inducing psychosis in a large group of investors.

I know what you're saying, there is a lot of speculation going on in AI right now. The difference is there is hard evidence of AI capabilities accelerating now: we've gone from toy chatbots to sort-of useful coding helpers to agents solving novel math problems in 3.5 years. We could plateau any day and a lot of investors would be stuck holding the bag, or we could continue on that trajectory and they'll make crazy profits. With crypto, the bet was always "how much money will people keep sticking in this market?" which seems a lot more flawed to me.

Re: How much of HN is AI?

#76

Post by writtenone »

rapnie wrote: post #61
mgl wrote: post #14

Democratization of access has its victims. I miss the old newsgroups. I wish we could land again in that weird, colorful oceans of geeky individuals with their quirks and interesting nerdy takes. 15 years ago, HN was about bootstrapping and early YC stars. 10 years ago, HN was in full VC-enterprise sauce. 5 years ago, it was crypto and NFTs, and how I switch jobs every quarter. Now it is a blurry view into the future…

Matrix works fine for the friend to friend, small community things. Discourse forums too. Use Signal for family and friends, perhaps work. Fediverse and Atmosphere (Bluesky) for your microblog needs, and RSS to keep track of blogs.

Having used Matrix for almost a decade, it's hot garbage.

Sync is barely working, "unable to decrypt" still exists, the encryption is flawed [0] and the whole thing is effectively just Element and everyone else follows their lead.

[0]: https://soatok.blog/2026/02/17/cryptographic-issues-in-matri...

Re: How much of HN is AI?

#77

Post by reaperducer »

netdevphoenix wrote: post #40
totalconfusion wrote: post #18

Not everyone here is AI. I can't tell the difference so what does it matter? If I learn something or get inspired by a person or a bot, great. AI tools are incredibly powerful, new and rapidly evolving, you shouldn't be surprised that everyone on HN is all over it.

> I can't tell the difference so what does it matter? Eternal September. Just like the usenet groups

Eternal September. Just like the usenet groups

And CB radio before that.

Re: How much of HN is AI?

#78

Post by philipkglass »

hugs wrote: post #8

there was one glorious day years ago when every story on the hn front page was about erlang. that was fun. (anyone else remember that?)

The Erlang day was on 2009-03-11. You can still see how the front page looked that day:

https://news.ycombinator.com/front?day=2009-03-11

Re: How much of HN is AI?

#79

Post by jklinger410 »

mgl wrote: post #14

Democratization of access has its victims. I miss the old newsgroups. I wish we could land again in that weird, colorful oceans of geeky individuals with their quirks and interesting nerdy takes. 15 years ago, HN was about bootstrapping and early YC stars. 10 years ago, HN was in full VC-enterprise sauce. 5 years ago, it was crypto and NFTs, and how I switch jobs every quarter. Now it is a blurry view into the future…

I think you answered your own question, simply un-democratize access. Go places with high barriers of entry.

Re: How much of HN is AI?

#80

Post by latexr »

totalconfusion wrote: post #18

Not everyone here is AI. I can't tell the difference so what does it matter? If I learn something or get inspired by a person or a bot, great. AI tools are incredibly powerful, new and rapidly evolving, you shouldn't be surprised that everyone on HN is all over it.

> Not everyone here is AI.

That’s not the argument.

> I can't tell the difference so what does it matter?

It matters because you’re not the only human on HN and others have difference preferences. “I don’t care about this particular issue” is not the same thing as “this particular issue isn’t important”.

> you shouldn't be surprised that everyone on HN is all over it.

Not the argument either. No one is “surprised” this happens, people (obviously not all, but a significant number) are annoyed by it.

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