Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Don't post generated/AI-edited comments. HN is for conversation between humans

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

531–540 of 1001 posts

Re: Don't post generated/AI-edited comments. HN is for conversation between humans

#531

Post by ordersofmag »

tyg13 wrote: post #409
jedberg wrote: post #359

I'm absolutely 100% for this policy. My only caution is that good writers and LLMs look very similar, because LLMs were trained on a corpus of good writers. Good writers use semicolons and em-dashes. Sometimes we used bulleted lists or Oxford commas. So we should make sure to follow that other HN rule, and assume the person on the other end is a good faith actor, and be cautious about accusing someone of using AI. (I…

I don't really think that good writing and LLM writing looks all that similar. It's not always easy to spot (and maybe HN users aren't always doing a great job at it), but even the best LLM output tends to have an "LLM smell" to it that's hard to avoid. Like, sure, LLM writing is almost always grammatically correct, spelled correctly, formatted correctly, etc., which tends to be true of good writing. But there's a ce…

Seems like the ability to distinguish LLM versus 'good human' writing depends on the size of the writing sample you have to look at (assuming you think it can be done). And that HN-scale posts are unlikely to be a long enough for useful discernment.

Re: Don't post generated/AI-edited comments. HN is for conversation between humans

#532

Post by kelnos »

GMoromisato wrote: post #272

I'm here to read what actual humans think. If I wanted to read what an LLM thinks, I could just ask it. But here's where it gets tricky: Do I prefer low-effort, off-the-top-of-my-head reactions, as long as it is human? Or do I want an insightful, well-thought-out response, even if it is LLM-enhanced? Am I here to read authentic humans because I value authenticity for its own sake (like preferring Champagne instead of…

> Do I prefer low-effort, off-the-top-of-my-head reactions, as long as it is human? Or do I want an insightful, well-thought-out response, even if it is LLM-enhanced?

Neither. I want insightful, well-thought-out, human comments.

It's a little sad that this might be too much to ask sometimes...

Re: Don't post generated/AI-edited comments. HN is for conversation between humans

#533

Post by SchemaLoad »

wasmitnetzen wrote: post #527
iammjm wrote: post #15

I believe the issue of proving who is and who isn't really human on the Internet will be a really important issue in the coming years, especially without sacrificing people's right to privacy and anonymity in the process.

We will just have to fucking swear all the time. The corporate-speak LLM won't do that.

Grok will post CP on twitter, you think it won't swear?

Re: Don't post generated/AI-edited comments. HN is for conversation between humans

#534

Post by zahlman »

schappim wrote: post #51

I have a kid with severe written language issues, and the utilisation of STT w/ a LLM-powered edit has unlocked a whole world that was previously inaccessible. What is amazing is it would have remained so just a couple of years ago!

Does your kid post here?

Re: Don't post generated/AI-edited comments. HN is for conversation between humans

#535

Post by AndriyKunitsyn »

What if there was a voluntary indication of LLM content? Like, you press a checkbox "yes, I'm going to post some content that is partially or fully created by AI", and there would be a visible mark "slop" next to a post/comment.

Re: Don't post generated/AI-edited comments. HN is for conversation between humans

#536

Post by GMoromisato »

altairprime wrote: post #364
GMoromisato wrote: post #272

I'm here to read what actual humans think. If I wanted to read what an LLM thinks, I could just ask it. But here's where it gets tricky: Do I prefer low-effort, off-the-top-of-my-head reactions, as long as it is human? Or do I want an insightful, well-thought-out response, even if it is LLM-enhanced? Am I here to read authentic humans because I value authenticity for its own sake (like preferring Champagne instead of…

> Do I prefer low-effort, off-the-top-of-my-head reactions, as long as it is human? Or do I want an insightful, well-thought-out response, even if it is LLM-enhanced? This is an artificial dichotomy. HN’s guidelines specify thoughtful, curious discussion as a specific goal. One-off / pithy / sarcastic throwaway comments are generally unwelcome, however popular they are. Insightful responses can be three words, ten se…

But what if it turns out that human+LLM can produce more "thoughtful, curious discussion" than human alone?

That's the dichotomy: Do we prefer text with the right "provenance" over higher quality text?

[Perhaps you'll say that human+LLM text will never be as high-quality as human alone. But I'm pretty sure we've seen that movie before and we know how it ends.]

That said, you're right that because human+LLM is so much more efficient, we'll be drowning in material--and the average quality might even go down, even if the absolute quantity of high-quality content goes up.

I think, in the long term, we will have to come up with more sophisticated criteria for posting rather than just "must be unenhanced human".

Re: Don't post generated/AI-edited comments. HN is for conversation between humans

#537

Post by [deleted] »

nkh wrote: post #286

What a welcome post. The whole reason I come here is to get thoughtful input from smart people, and not what I could get myself from an LLM. While we are at it; Think your own thoughts as well :) I know how easy it is to "let it come up with a first draft" and not spend the real effort of thinking for yourself on questions, but you'll find it's a road to perdition if you let yourself slip into the habit. Thanks to al…

[deleted]

Re: Don't post generated/AI-edited comments. HN is for conversation between humans

#538

Post by arendtio »

But where is the line? Is a spell checker okay? How about one that also suggests alternative wording?

I think, in the end, it is less about the tool you use and more about the purpose you use it for. It is more like when you use certain tools, you should be cautious about whether you are using them for the right purpose.

Re: Don't post generated/AI-edited comments. HN is for conversation between humans

#539

Post by paganel »

GMoromisato wrote: post #272

I'm here to read what actual humans think. If I wanted to read what an LLM thinks, I could just ask it. But here's where it gets tricky: Do I prefer low-effort, off-the-top-of-my-head reactions, as long as it is human? Or do I want an insightful, well-thought-out response, even if it is LLM-enhanced? Am I here to read authentic humans because I value authenticity for its own sake (like preferring Champagne instead of…

> well-thought-out response, even if it is LLM-enhanced?

There's no insight nor well-thought-out response once a person decides to "LLM-enhance" their response. The only insight that the person using the LLM is too limited to have a decent conversation with.

Re: Don't post generated/AI-edited comments. HN is for conversation between humans

#540

Post by nitwit005 »

Kim_Bruning wrote: post #60
smy20011 wrote: post #21

Agree, AI generated articles & comments provide little to none value other than the original prompt. Please just post the original prompt instead.

Here is where I'd like to push back just a little. Not all AI prompting is expanding the prompt. What if the original prompt is 1000 words, includes 10 scientific articles by reference (boosting it up to 10000) , and the AI helps to boil it down to 100 words instead? I'd argue that this is probably a rather more responsible usage of the tools. And rather more pleasant to read besides. Whether it meets the criterion i…

Push the idea past a single comment. Someone decides they have a great method for getting summaries, and adds it as a comment to every post they look at. Other people have similar ideas. Is that fine? It doesn't take a lot for the whole site to feel like useless spam.

It'd be far better to just have a thread about the best way to get good summaries.

Post reply on HN