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Warranty Void If Regenerated

nearzero.software

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Re: Warranty Void If Regenerated

#181

Post by dirkc »

donatj wrote: post #61

I'm trying to sort out my own emotions on this. I did not realize this was AI generated while reading it until I came to the comments here... And I feel genuinely had? Like "oh wow, you got me"... I don't like this feeling. It's certainly the longest thing (I know about) I've taken the time to read that was AI generated. The writing struck me as genuinely good, like something out of The New Yorker. I found the story…

I can't remember the exact phrasing, but I read somewhere long ago that what you read now, you become in 5 years from now. As in, right after reading something, you think and deliberate about it, but in 5 years from now that becomes part of your subconscious and you can't activity filter it.

Re: Warranty Void If Regenerated

#182

Post by yaur »

> Tom pulled up the tool’s specification on his diagnostic display. This was always the first step: read the spec, not the code. Clearly this writer has never felt the frustration of CC telling them a feature was never a part of the plan, because it overwrote the plan and then compacted.

Re: Warranty Void If Regenerated

#183

Post by zem »

robot-wrangler wrote: post #46
girvo wrote: post #41

I will say this is one of the few pieces of prose I've read that was AI generated that didn't immediately jump out as it (a couple of inconsistencies eventually grabbed me enough to come to the comments and see your post details which mention it - I'd clicked through from the HN homepage), so your polishing definitely worked! Quite a neat little story

I think this passes the sniff test only if you're not too familiar with this neighborhood of the training set. Not that the writing is bad but it's just derivative. I listen to stuff like "Lost Scifi" podcast almost daily for example, but there are many similar ones which are focused on reading classic stuff from the golden-age zines because it's all public domain. The premise/structure/flavor of TFA is an almost pit…

i'm very familiar with that genre of story, and also not a great fiction writer, so i could well see myself consciously imitating the style if i wanted to tell this sort of story.

Re: Warranty Void If Regenerated

#184

Post by xyzal »

donatj wrote: post #61

I'm trying to sort out my own emotions on this. I did not realize this was AI generated while reading it until I came to the comments here... And I feel genuinely had? Like "oh wow, you got me"... I don't like this feeling. It's certainly the longest thing (I know about) I've taken the time to read that was AI generated. The writing struck me as genuinely good, like something out of The New Yorker. I found the story…

Yup. There should be a disclaimer or a "food tag". The implicit assumption in society is some human had written the text you read.

Re: Warranty Void If Regenerated

#185

Post by cluckindan »

idiotsecant wrote: post #155
y0eswddl wrote: post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

hard to form an emotional connection with the emotionless

Says parent post, while thinking a stack of rocks that looks a little like a fat raccoon is kind of cute. Humans are designed to form emotional connections with non emotional things. Its sort of our whole deal.

Humans are definitely not designed.

Re: Warranty Void If Regenerated

#186

Post by taneq »

CamperBob2 wrote: post #127
devin wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What is your understanding of the luddite movement? I ask because I don't believe many are aware that luddites were not anti-technology. It was a labor movement which was targeted at exploitation by factory owners. Their issue was with factories forcing the use of machines to produce inferior products so owners could use cheaper, low skill labor. https://www.vice.com/en/article/luddites-definition-wrong-la...

[flagged]

I think two sane things.

1) It’s good in the long run that they didn’t prevail at that time.

2) They did actually, in fact, have a point.

Re: Warranty Void If Regenerated

#188

Post by paul_h »

Awesome that LLM generated and still an engaging account. Automated testing (as a software improvement technique) is an AI blind spot. That tweak of spec is the iterative cycle, with no mention of additional automated tests is telling.

Re: Warranty Void If Regenerated

#189

Post by guitarlimeo »

nikkwong wrote: post #175
lubujackson wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Stories are particularly troubling because we have the concept of "suspending disbelief" and readers tend to take a leap of faith with longwinded narratives because we assume the author is going somewhere with the story and has written purposefully. When AI can write convincingly enough, it is basically a honeypot for human readers. It looks well-written enough. The concept is interesting and we think it is going som…

Right, but in the present case we have exactly what you're describing—a story, almost fully written by AI but with some human cherry-picking in the mix. And readers are finding it a phenomenal story and then wanting to vomit retrospectively in learning about the authorship. It just seems patently obvious to me that this is not where the sentiment is going to stay—it will hit the margin, like the people who decide to…

You're talking about content. Only content can be "perfect" as you say.

When I'm listening to music, looking at art, seeing a play or a short film I want to feel connection to the humans behind it. AI is by definition missing that connection. That's what makes me retrospectively vomit at AI writings like these. That connection requires that the humans behind it are imperfect, the solo can have one or two sloppy notes, but at least it's genuine interaction. We have seen this same yearning for connection with all the "Don't use LLM to comment, use your true style of writing with its flaws" rules.

I'm 100% certain mainstream studios will be producing "perfect" content with AIs just like current mainstream pop stars have 10 ghost writers working on each song to create "perfect" songs. The good stuff will exist in the fringes as always and I'm ok with that as I've already been for years.

And the future may not be as settled as you think it is. Leaders try to sell you their vision of the future by saying it is settled and that things are certain, but that is because they want you to believe that, because if you and the masses believe so, it's more certain for the future to settle the way the leaders want. But you can also actively refuse that future and find a different future that's worth believing in yourself.

Re: Warranty Void If Regenerated

#190

Post by bostik »

Stwerner wrote: post #81
furyofantares wrote: post #62

I guess I'm an expert on LLM-isms somehow, I thought they were still plentiful. They're plentiful at the start but get significantly worse near the end, so I'm guessing you spent more time polishing up the first 2/3rds or so. But I was able to get through the text, it's pretty good, you did great work cleaning it up. There's just a bit more to do to my taste. The story is good.

Thanks! Yeah there were a couple I decided to leave in rather than try to rework as I wasn't trying to hide that it was written with AI, more trying to add more variety to the storytelling. I'm sure as I do more of these I'll be able to recognize them a lot easier. I have been toying with the idea of working them more into character's dialogue in the future, as I've already noticed some people I know speaking in LLMi…

I would have preferred to see a disclaimer at the top about how this story was Put Together[tm], but I also agree that it is a pretty fine piece of writing overall. Which brings me to my initial point...

> Over the last couple months, I've been building world bibles, writing and visual style guides, and other documents for this project [...] about two weeks of additional polish work to cut out a lot of fluff and a lot of the LLM-isms.

The amount of work and walltime expended sounds about right. You have discovered / stumbled upon the relatively well known but little appreciated job of a publishing editor. It takes a lot of nitty-gritty work and built up domain knowledge ("world bibles") to direct a piece of writing - and its author - to a level where you confidently believe that you have captured the intent and desired tone of the piece, while keeping it sufficiently tight, engaging and interesting / non-patronising enough for its audience.

Disclosure: did ~decade of freelance writing around the turn of the millennium, and have had the privilege of being schooled by a small group of good old-school journalists. And then had a publishing editor assigned for a separate project, from whom I learned even more about writing.

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