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Stack Overflow questions are being flooded with answers from ChatGPT

news.ycombinator.com

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Re: Stack Overflow questions are being flooded with answers from ChatGPT

#71

Post by patneedham »

fouric wrote: post #51
ChrisMarshallNY wrote: post #16

I assume that this is by folks wanting to up their scores. That's a huge problem with "gamification." I'm not especially a fan of the concept, in a venue like SO. I think it has led to a rather nasty community, and I hardly ever go there, anymore. I assume that we'll be seeing a lot of robotic HN content (I would not be surprised if it is already here, but has been sidelined by the mods).

> I would not be surprised if it is already here, but has been sidelined by the mods I can virtually guarantee you that there's been a nontrivial amount of GPT-generated content on HN that has not been caught by mods since ChatGPT, and likely since GPT-2/3, as well. Dang (and the other one whose tag I can't recall) already have their hands full trying to keep the tone civil across thousands (tens of thousands?) of co…

> some humans actually do write like these newer language models, after all

Wouldn't it be more accurate to say these newer language models actually write like humans? Or is there a subset of the population intentionally trying to write in the way that these language models write.

Re: Stack Overflow questions are being flooded with answers from ChatGPT

#72

Post by Areading314 »

brindidrip wrote: post #26

It seems like there are a few potential negative consequences of using AI-generated answers on Stack Overflow. For one, the quality of the answers may be lower than if they were written by a human. Additionally, if these AI-generated answers become too common, it could potentially lead to a more impersonal and less supportive community on Stack Overflow. Finally, if the AI is able to search the internet and "inbreed"…

Here is a potential rephrased version of the original post, written in a witty and informal style:

"Yo, AI-generated answers on Stack Overflow sound like a real bummer. First of all, the quality might suck compared to human-written answers. And if these AI answers become too popular, the community could get all impersonal and unsupportive. Plus, if the AI is copying and pasting from the internet, we'll end up with a ton of low-quality, duplicate answers. In short, using AI on Stack Overflow could really suck."

Re: Stack Overflow questions are being flooded with answers from ChatGPT

#73

Post by mdaniel »

avivo wrote: post #55

It's worth understanding the community and org better, and their reaction. Relevant links: - https://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/421778/how-do-you-p... - https://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/412696/is-it-accept... - https://meta.stackexchange.com/questions/384355/could-chatgp...

> Sure, but that's irrelevant. Whether or not the user understands the answer they posted is not the concern of the site.

Well, that's unfortunate. Then again, I guess that's a logical conclusion of the "safe harbor" for serving any user-submitted content: Stack Exchange only does the most cursory moderation, and the rest is caveat readator

Re: Stack Overflow questions are being flooded with answers from ChatGPT

#74

Post by mdaniel »

tenebrisalietum wrote: post #25
ChrisMarshallNY wrote: post #16

I assume that this is by folks wanting to up their scores. That's a huge problem with "gamification." I'm not especially a fan of the concept, in a venue like SO. I think it has led to a rather nasty community, and I hardly ever go there, anymore. I assume that we'll be seeing a lot of robotic HN content (I would not be surprised if it is already here, but has been sidelined by the mods).

Smaller StackExchange communities don't have this problem from what I can tell. Stack Overflow maybe should be split up into smaller communities.

There already are plenty of smaller communities, but no one enforces the on-topic rules as they exist today, making SO into the "I haz computer problem" dumping ground it has become

Re: Stack Overflow questions are being flooded with answers from ChatGPT

#75

Post by egypturnash »

Well, guess the genie's out of the bottle and we can never stop this. Bow down to the inevitability of technological progress, Luddites! Good luck retraining into a new job, I hear "prompt engineer automation" is the new hotness.

Or at least that's what all of you kept telling me when I was expressing my unhappiness at the way corporate-sponsored image generating black boxes are built atop a shaky moral foundation that sure feels like it's ignoring anything anyone talking about "fair use" ever dreamed of, and at the way I fear it's going to hollow out a ton of the beginner-pro jobs of my industry by making it super easy for anyone to generate stuff that is kinda fundamentally shitty in a lot of important ways, but "good enough" if you just have a space to fill with some decoration that you don't really give a crap about.

Re: Stack Overflow questions are being flooded with answers from ChatGPT

#76

Post by ycombobreaker »

zone411 wrote: post #36
arkitaip wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can kinda tell it's ChatGPT by how verbose and repetitive the writing is.

That's just its default setting. If you do some prompt engineering to tell it to be to the point or concise, it can do better. E.g. I got: The repercussions of ChatGPT flooding Stack Overflow with answers could include decreased quality and relevance of answers, decreased user engagement, damage to the platform's reputation, and potential loss of revenue.

Still sounds too formal. To me, it reads like the intro to a high school paper. The next four paragraphs would elaborate on each of the points listed.

Re: Stack Overflow questions are being flooded with answers from ChatGPT

#77

Post by ravenstine »

josephcsible wrote: post #56

I wouldn't even mind so much if the answers were right. The problem is that a lot of them are totally wrong, but completely reasonable- and plausible-sounding, and in an authoritative tone, so unless you already know the right answer, the only way you'll realize its answer is wrong is the hard way.

What you said may sum up the current state of AI. People's minds are continually being blown, but will there be a realization that these AIs are specialized to provide specious output and nothing else? There's a canyon of difference between something that sounds correct and a thing that is actually correct.

Re: Stack Overflow questions are being flooded with answers from ChatGPT

#78

Post by ilaksh »

brindidrip wrote: post #3
hxugufjfjf wrote: post #2

Any examples?

Here is an example that I noticed: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/74678832/change-text-col...

It looks like it will work, although haven't tested the exact code. Has anyone tested it and if so, this really shouldn't be downvoted.

If the SO users start downvoting bot-generated answers that are correct and working, I think that's a sign that SO is much less relevant. They should definitely downvoted them if the code doesn't work though.

Re: Stack Overflow questions are being flooded with answers from ChatGPT

#79

Post by wizeman »

closeparen wrote: post #59
ethanbond wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Gotta love it. Akin to Silicon Valley-ites ensuring their own children don’t have access to the technologies they go into the office to create and propagate every day.

I would expect most automotive engineers don't let their children drive the cars they go to the office to create and propagate every day. Because... they're children.

> I would expect most automotive engineers don't let their children drive the cars they go to the office to create and propagate every day. Because... they're children.

On the other hand, most parents don't let their children drive cars either and yet they let their children access those technologies.

Another way in which that analogy doesn't work is that it's illegal for children to drive cars, but it's not illegal for children to access those technologies.

Furthermore, these technologies are being created and modified in a way that are specifically attractive and addictive for children (as well as adults) and they are constantly being further optimized for that criteria as well, almost every day (in a manner of speaking).

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