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Decline of Indian vultures

bbc.com

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Re: Decline of Indian vultures

#11

Post by eminent101 »

>The authors estimated that between 2000 and 2005, the loss of vultures caused around 100,000 additional human deaths annually, resulting in more than $69bn (£53bn) per year in mortality damages or the economic costs associated with premature deaths.

Isn't this a giant leap of faith to claim that the increase in the number of deaths must be caused by loss of vultures? Correlation is not causation! How did they rule out other confounding factors? How are they so sure that this increase is definitely due to loss of vultures? Some more details on the research methodology and these technical details would be nice!

Re: Decline of Indian vultures

#12

Post by sumedh »

4ggr0 wrote: post #8

It's fascinating and tragic how AI generated comments are obviously present in this comment section. Anyone else find it unsurprising that this happens? https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41078496 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41095522

What did those comments say, they are flagged now.

Re: Decline of Indian vultures

#13

Post by jauco »

4ggr0 wrote: post #8

It's fascinating and tragic how AI generated comments are obviously present in this comment section. Anyone else find it unsurprising that this happens? https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41078496 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41095522

Maybe to establish a ring of accounts that duck underneath the vote ring detection metrics and that you can then use to upvote people’s stories? (For a small fee of course)

This attempt probably will be flagged by dang since you called it out, but given enough effort they may even construct bots that generate the proper curious discussion that we like here, and have a small (but lucrative) rounding error in voting behavior.

Re: Decline of Indian vultures

#14

Post by Sayrus »

gala8y wrote: post #9
4ggr0 wrote: post #8

It's fascinating and tragic how AI generated comments are obviously present in this comment section. Anyone else find it unsurprising that this happens? https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41078496 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41095522

Oh... why... oh why... I will never understand such behavior. What are incentives here?

I'd imagine there are monetary incentives to having many accounts able to boost you and keep your post on the front page. Doing that with brand new accounts who have no comments and no karma is probably harder. In the cases listed, all the comments were heavily downvoted but there are other bots out there who have a positive karma.

Re: Decline of Indian vultures

#15

Post by jauco »

sumedh wrote: post #12
4ggr0 wrote: post #8

It's fascinating and tragic how AI generated comments are obviously present in this comment section. Anyone else find it unsurprising that this happens? https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41078496 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41095522

What did those comments say, they are flagged now.

“Interesting, ”+ a summary of the article, both really similar.

Re: Decline of Indian vultures

#16

Post by grumple »

gala8y wrote: post #9
4ggr0 wrote: post #8

It's fascinating and tragic how AI generated comments are obviously present in this comment section. Anyone else find it unsurprising that this happens? https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41078496 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41095522

Oh... why... oh why... I will never understand such behavior. What are incentives here?

Gain reputation, use the account to manipulate us at a later time. HN is a high value target for the same regimes that use Reddit and other social media platforms to manipulate the US and Europe.

Re: Decline of Indian vultures

#17

Post by defrost »

sumedh wrote: post #12
4ggr0 wrote: post #8

It's fascinating and tragic how AI generated comments are obviously present in this comment section. Anyone else find it unsurprising that this happens? https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41078496 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41095522

What did those comments say, they are flagged now.

Goto your profile: https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=sumedh and choose "YES" for ShowDead.

There's been a wave of AI(?) generated "cookie cutter" template comments from new user accounts attempting to establish an astroturfing botnet.

Once you 'see' the pattern it's hard to unsee it .. and they're now being rapidly flagged to death.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41024612

Re: Decline of Indian vultures

#18

Post by jna_sh »

eminent101 wrote: post #11

>The authors estimated that between 2000 and 2005, the loss of vultures caused around 100,000 additional human deaths annually, resulting in more than $69bn (£53bn) per year in mortality damages or the economic costs associated with premature deaths. Isn't this a giant leap of faith to claim that the increase in the number of deaths must be caused by loss of vultures? Correlation is not causation! How did they rule o…

You’re reading a summary of a working paper published in a mainstream news outlet. The submitted article links through to the full 95 page paper that has the methodology https://epic.uchicago.edu/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/The-Soc...
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