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Medium bans AI-generated content from its paid Partner Program

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Re: Medium bans AI-generated content from its paid Partner Program

#51

Post by sebastiennight »

Verdex wrote: post #15
michaelbuckbee wrote: post #10

All publishers are grappling with this where they want generally higher quality content (defined as more engaging, intrinsic quality is something else) and less low effort spam or retreaded concepts. AI-generated content has really dropped the floor on how cheap it is to produce niche blogspam, and they're saying: "Hey if you're pushing out 1000s of articles a day on a topic and we look at it and it's insane gibberis…

I believe this to be the correct take away. They don't actually want to ban AI content. They want to ban garbage content. If they claim that something is AI content, then it's not like there's a good defense a writer can offer. Short of meticulously recording themselves typing the article up on a typewriter in real life ahead of time. In real time so everyone can see them going through revisions. This is AI and we're…

Well someone could easily whip up a prompt-to-video which, given a prompt, outputs an entire article AND a screenrecording of laboriously typing-and-revising from a draft to the final output.

It would probably take a weekend.

Re: Medium bans AI-generated content from its paid Partner Program

#52

Post by sebastiennight »

MSFT_Edging wrote: post #29
michaelbuckbee wrote: post #10

All publishers are grappling with this where they want generally higher quality content (defined as more engaging, intrinsic quality is something else) and less low effort spam or retreaded concepts. AI-generated content has really dropped the floor on how cheap it is to produce niche blogspam, and they're saying: "Hey if you're pushing out 1000s of articles a day on a topic and we look at it and it's insane gibberis…

> use Grammarly Pro to rewrite your sentences into coherence Is it just me or is this a bizarre practice for someone who is actively making money on writing? Like, shouldn't you be expected to at least have competence in your craft? Writing with correct grammar should be the baseline of someone writing for profit. Or even "help with an outline", if you can't write an outline of what you're trying to communicate, and…

I've written a number of books, 3 of them bestsellers, and I've always looked for outside input to help with the outline.

When you're close to a deadline, or too close to the subject, you need some outside guidance to make sure you're not missing some obvious step in getting your point across.

It's not always easy to find someone that knows how to be a great sounding board. They need to be very smart system thinkers, naive about the topic, engaged and interested. I have such friends, but I try to use their time sparingly.

So now I do use AI to either provide a first-draft of an outline for new content, or (my preferred MO) to review my own first draft suggest missing items I should cover.

Re: Medium bans AI-generated content from its paid Partner Program

#53

Post by sebastiennight »

neverokay wrote: post #35
taneq wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The real issue isn't 'insane gibberish', because that's quickly and cheaply discernible. The real issue is eloquent, well written text that looks like a new contribution but is actually a re-hashed mixture of the same six talking points as the other 1000 articles published by the same entity, because you have to actually read and think about it to realise that it's wasted your time. We're not fighting against random…

Even so, if the paradigm shift occurs most of us will be summarizing the manufactured pap via an LLM. Our time won’t be wasted in that case. No clue how this all ends, but I can’t see any reason for websites to exist anymore. We’ll be going from one black prompt screen LLM with a Reddit logo on the top left, to another tab with the same LLM with a Medium logo on the top left. Seems pointless, just combine it and list…

The problem is you're summarizing bland fake information, though.

There are entire categories of searches that I've now given up on. Want to remove stain from fabric? You can only find SEO-optimized results (not just Google ; DuckDuckGo and Qwant are the same) which will always tell you

- use vinegar

- use baking soda

- use both!

- try lemon

- if all fails, try (insert guaranteed epic fail recipe eg ammonia mixed with salt)

There you go, I just "summarized" thousands of those websites for you. Now try it on your real-word stain?

I think we're going back full-circle to calling Mom and do what she'll recommend.

Re: Medium bans AI-generated content from its paid Partner Program

#54

Post by sebastiennight »

barfbagginus wrote: post #16
TuringNYC wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>> Using common sense, probably. You don't need an LLM detector to tell that something is AI generated. This could quickly turn into a witch hunt

Many people now believe things are AI generated the moment the writing says something they disagree with. That's fun!

There's money to make with a Chrome extension that flags comments contrary to your beliefs and tags them as "likely AI-generated misinformation" while highlighting the "report" button.

Re: Medium bans AI-generated content from its paid Partner Program

#55

Post by sebastiennight »

barfbagginus wrote: post #25
aldarisbm wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Honest question... Why? I understand that medium is not absolutely necessary and ideally we would have an open source tool that is easy to deploy. In the meanwhile, I use medium quite a bit.

When we use medium, we tell our audience we don't care if they get bombarded with bad UX, like subscription popups. And we tell our accessibility activist audience that we don't want them to read us at all. I immediately nope out of medium articles. I black list medium on my search engines. And I criticize medium authors on HN instead of reading their articles. This is all with the hope of bringing back more accessib…

Or, for the non-technical audience, Ghost.org seems a solid recommendation, followed by Substack.

Re: Medium bans AI-generated content from its paid Partner Program

#56

Post by speedylight »

rany_ wrote: post #6
felideon wrote: post #5

How is this policy enforceable? There aren’t any reliable ways to detect LLM-generated text, are there?

Using common sense, probably. You don't need an LLM detector to tell that something is AI generated.

That strategy works for lazy publishers; with a bit editorializing and prompt refinement you can make a AI generated text indistinguishable from written text. Believe me it’s easier than it has any business being.

Re: Medium bans AI-generated content from its paid Partner Program

#57

Post by Verdex »

sebastiennight wrote: post #51
Verdex wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I believe this to be the correct take away. They don't actually want to ban AI content. They want to ban garbage content. If they claim that something is AI content, then it's not like there's a good defense a writer can offer. Short of meticulously recording themselves typing the article up on a typewriter in real life ahead of time. In real time so everyone can see them going through revisions. This is AI and we're…

Well someone could easily whip up a prompt-to-video which, given a prompt, outputs an entire article AND a screenrecording of laboriously typing-and-revising from a draft to the final output. It would probably take a weekend.

I would love to see something like that. I think it would be really neat. (Any takers? I hear it probably won't even take that long.)

[Of course if you were creating and uploading these videos as you create your content over time. And the upload site was either relatively well known or sufficiently third party that you can trust the timestamps, then I think it wouldn't matter if it was AI or not. "Hey, this person isn't using AI, they've been uploading videos of their process for years. Who in the world would do that just so they can get away with using AI five years later?"

It's not really a proof so much as it is a social proof. The person under fire needs a socially acceptable way to fight back against a socially acceptable ban-able offense. At least in my experience, lots of paper work normally does the trick.]

Re: Medium bans AI-generated content from its paid Partner Program

#58

Post by the_snooze »

sebastiennight wrote: post #53
neverokay wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even so, if the paradigm shift occurs most of us will be summarizing the manufactured pap via an LLM. Our time won’t be wasted in that case. No clue how this all ends, but I can’t see any reason for websites to exist anymore. We’ll be going from one black prompt screen LLM with a Reddit logo on the top left, to another tab with the same LLM with a Medium logo on the top left. Seems pointless, just combine it and list…

The problem is you're summarizing bland fake information, though. There are entire categories of searches that I've now given up on. Want to remove stain from fabric? You can only find SEO-optimized results (not just Google ; DuckDuckGo and Qwant are the same) which will always tell you - use vinegar - use baking soda - use both! - try lemon - if all fails, try (insert guaranteed epic fail recipe eg ammonia mixed wit…

>I think we're going back full-circle to calling Mom and do what she'll recommend.

In a sense, the old-fashioned way works so well because it relies on actual human connections and trust. Your mom isn't trying to sell you Miracle Cleaner 2000. Your friends don't get a commission for recommending a book they think you'd like.

On the internet, the whole world is trying to sell you something, and they have little incentive to STFU. There's no connection, only transaction for fractions of pennies.

Re: Medium bans AI-generated content from its paid Partner Program

#59

Post by wvalurejr »

Is this story not AI-generated? Every sentence feels like it's just repeating the same thing and some of them are... like what is this: 'With the banning of AI-generated content from the Paid Partner program, Medium has further cracked down on distributing this type of content.'

With the posting of this post, I am making people more aware that there are posts on HN, further cracking down on not posting.

Re: Medium bans AI-generated content from its paid Partner Program

#60

Post by barfbagginus »

lelandfe wrote: post #43
barfbagginus wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is not very clear about the case where the text is AI generated and substantially edited, fact checked, and improved by a human co-author. I think that kind of writing is perfectly valid. AI contexts can now include primary references, and with human critique, AI can fix a lot of its own style and factuality issues. A good author writing this way will end up writing in their own voice, but spend less time drafti…

I believe that would be, from my link, "AI-assistive." Such text would need "a disclosure at the beginning of the story (within the first two paragraphs)." The reason given is, "in practice, AI-assist is often a way to insert small snippets of AI-generated content that often suffers from the same problems as fully AI- generated stories." In other words, readers need a heads up that, no matter how well-edited the text…

I feel it's fair to filter out writing that is fully AI without human proofing. That's because that writing is awful.

However, assuming an author competently edits and proofs the final work, I don't need or want to know if they used AI. Just like I don't need to know if they used a human intern, editor, or other co-author - assuming the co-author did not demand attribution.

Let's stick to worrying about lazy and incompetent authors. There is no reason to penalize otherwise competent authors for co-authoring with AI.

Prediction: This is going to hurt medium, by driving off competent AI assisted writers. They will find inclusive platforms.

And frankly I'm glad. Medium is a plague on the internet, and needs to die horribly. This is the way.

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