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The Internet Is Full of AI Dogshit

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Re: The Internet Is Full of AI Dogshit

#211

Post by chasd00 »

austinjp wrote: post #106
TrackerFF wrote: post #65

Makes me wonder how the advertisement industry is going to cope with the ever-growing influx of non-human users. What happens when the conversion rates plummet to zero? Maybe I'm cynic, but a completely walled-off / paid internet doesn't seem too unrealistic. You'll have to pay a subscription to every website you want to visit. On one side you have the open internet wasteland, filled to the brim with AI bots / genera…

I've not really considered this before, but I might actually be interested in a 'white-listed' web. This is obviously possible entirely client-side with a plug-in that white-lists domains and allows you to edit the list. I'm wondering if there's a genuine opportunity here to go further. A client-side browser plug-in, plus a SaaS which automatically vets pages on-the-fly to guesstimate the chance they're AI-generated,…

> plus a SaaS which automatically vets pages on-the-fly to guesstimate the chance they're AI-generated,

the problem is that would create another SEO like arms race. If it takes off everyone will be working 24x7 to defeat the vetting process and gain entry to the walled garden just like they did to gain entry to the first page of Google search results.

Re: The Internet Is Full of AI Dogshit

#213

Post by bluGill »

ToucanLoucan wrote: post #186
mewpmewp2 wrote: post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, there's this weird stigma about making typos, but in the end writing online is about communication and making yourself understandable. Typos here and there don't make a difference and thinking otherwise seems like some needless "intellectual" superiority competition. Growing up people associate it with intelligence so many times, it's hard to not feel ashamed when making typos.

> Growing up people associate it with intelligence so many times, it's hard to not feel ashamed when making typos. I mean, maybe you should? Like... everything has a spell checker now. The browser I'm typing this comment in, in a textarea input with ZERO features (not a complaint HN, just an observation, simple is good) has a functioning spellcheck that has already flagged for me like 6 errors, most of which I have g…

Not everything has a spell checker. Even when it exists, my dysgraphia means I often cannot come close enough to the correct spelling the spell check can figure out what the right spelling is.

Re: The Internet Is Full of AI Dogshit

#214

Post by tonymet »

ravenstine wrote: post #118

Although I agree with the title, I also don't think the internet is that significantly different from before GPTs 4, 3, or 2. Articles written by interns or Indian virtual assistants about generic topics are pretty much as bad as most AI generated material and isn't that distinguishable from it. It doesn't help that search engines today sort by prestige over whether your query matches text in a webpage. People aren't…

Yes but the content from the web flows into social media, news, “books” (now e-books) in an intangible cyclone of fabricated information.

If sewage gets into the water supply no one is safe. You don’t get to feel better for having a spigot away from the source.

Re: The Internet Is Full of AI Dogshit

#215

Post by wharvle »

jprete wrote: post #128
erellsworth wrote: post #4

I'm old enough to remember when the Internet was full of organic dog shit.

Human shitposting is at least entertaining.

I think there's actually some deep insight here into why we tend not to like too much AI in our art.

Consider: TimeCube.

Created by a human? It's nonsense, but... it's fascinating. Engaging. Memorable. Thought-provoking (in a meta kind of way, at any rate). I dare say, worthy of preservation.

If TimeCube didn't exist, and an AI generated the exact same site today? Boring. Not worth more than a glance. Disposable. But why? It's the same!

------

Right or wrong, we value communication more when there's a human connection on the other side—when there's a mind on the other side to pick at, between the lines of what's explicitly communicated, and continuity for ongoing or repeated communication that could reveal more of what's behind the veil. There's another level of understanding we feel like we can achieve, when a human communicates, and expectation, an anticipation of more, of enticing mystery, of a mind that may reflect back on our own in ways that we find enlightening, revealing, or simply to grant positive familiar-feeling and a sense of belonging.

What's remarkable is this remains true even when the content of the communication is rather shit. Like TimeCube.

All of that is lost when an LLM generates text. I think that's also why we feel deceived by LLM use when it masquerades as human, even if what's communicated is identical: it's because we go looking for that other level of communication, and if that's not there, giving the impression it might be really is misleading.

This may change, I suppose, if "AI" develops rather a lot farther than it is now and we begin to feel like we're getting a window into a true other when it generates output, but right now, it's plainly far away from that.

Re: The Internet Is Full of AI Dogshit

#216

Post by bluefirebrand »

j0hnyl wrote: post #127
asylteltine wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That’s true. I thought I missed the internet before ClosedAI ruined it but man, I would love to go back to 2020 internet now. LLM research is going to be the downfall of society in so many ways. Even at a basic level my friend is taking a masters and EVERYONE is using chatgpt for responses. It’s so obvious with the PC way it phrases things and then summarizes it at the end. I hope they just get expelled.

I don't see how this points to downfall of society. IMO it's clearly a paradigm shift that we need to adjust to and adjustment periods are uncomfortable and can last a long time. LLMs are massive productivity boosters.

Do you remember when email first came around and it was a useful tool for connecting with people across the world, like friends and family?

Does anyone still use email for that?

We all still HAVE email addresses, but the vast majority of our communication has moved elsewhere.

Now all email is used for is receiving spam from companies and con artists.

The same thing happened with the telephone. It's not just text messaging that killed phone calls, it's also the explosion of scam callers. People don't trust incoming phone calls anymore.

I see AI being used this way online already, turning everything into untrustworthy slop.

Productivity boosters can be used to make things worse far more easily and quickly than they can be used to make things better. And there will always be scumbags out there who are willing and eager to take advantage of the new power to pull everyone into the mud with the.

Re: The Internet Is Full of AI Dogshit

#217

Post by chasd00 »

blackhaz wrote: post #176
sssilver wrote: post #163

Tongue in cheek: is public key cryptography the solution to verifying content authorship on the internet? Should all major OSes establish and bundle proof of authenticity for every phrase and image created in them using an input device attached to them?

That's an interesting idea. Until AIs will get access to keyboard drivers to type their dogshit.

yeah it doesn't seem much of a hurdle to take the output of an LLM and feed it to a device that mashes the buttons on a keyboard and then presses enter.

Re: The Internet Is Full of AI Dogshit

#218

Post by letitbeirie »

pavel_lishin wrote: post #101
peppermint_gum wrote: post #89

One aspect of the spread of LLMs is that we have lost a useful heuristic. Poor spelling and grammar used to be a signal used to quickly filter out worthless posts. Unfortunately, this doesn't work at all for AI-generated garbage. Its command of the language is perfect - in fact, it's much better than that of most human beings. Anyone can instantly generate superficially coherent posts. You no longer have to hire a co…

We should start donating more heavily to archive.org - the way back machine may soon be the only way to find useful data on the internet, by cutting out anything published after ~2020 or so.

It will be like salvaging pre-1945 shipwrecks for their non-irradiated metal.
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