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Don't post generated/AI-edited comments. HN is for conversation between humans
721–730 of 1001 posts
Re: Don't post generated/AI-edited comments. HN is for conversation between humans
#722Don’t be afraid to make grammar mistakes or misspell stuff. Others will understand. You’re a human after all. That’s okay to make mistakes and feel uncomfortable with that.
I recently had to tell the same thing to a coworker who ran his text through ChatGPT, changing the meaning subtly (in the wrong direction) and the tone completely. I'd rather read his honest opinion in ESL-grade English than something an LLM "polished".
Re: Don't post generated/AI-edited comments. HN is for conversation between humans
#723[flagged]
Dang - there's already a "showdead" toggle. Do you think we could also get a "showgreen" toggle to filter out this kind of noise? I'd probably find myself toggling it more often but I'd still appreciate it.
Re: Don't post generated/AI-edited comments. HN is for conversation between humans
#724I'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…
I know the thing you are describing, but the real bitch is that you're actually just describing the lowest effort default outputs. The help-desk assistant persona.
Sometimes speedbumps that deter the lowest effort infractions are sufficient but I don't think this is that time.
On a per-prompt basis, or via a persistent system prompt or SKILL, or - god help us - via community-specific fine tuning, LLMs can convincingly affect insane variations in prose styling.
Re: Don't post generated/AI-edited comments. HN is for conversation between humans
#725[dead]
Re: Don't post generated/AI-edited comments. HN is for conversation between humans
#726I'm sure someone's working on a way to tell the difference programmatically. Maybe a combo of tone, grammar, and some way of telling how fast it was typed using metadata (which may not exist). Even if there was a "probable AI" filter, that would be helpful because it would be a starting point to improve upon.
Lots of companies have products to that effect. They're all prone to false-positives, and are therefore worse than worthless.
This notion that AI-generated writing is something that's detectable is in and of itself flawed and really has no business in a community that alleges to have the technical aptitude necessary to know better.
Re: Don't post generated/AI-edited comments. HN is for conversation between humans
#727I use AI for the elements I feel are weak or unclear in the transcription. Sometimes I copy-paste a paragraph into ChatGPT or whatever, to ensure my (aging) thoughts are being communicated in a crystal clear manner. I cannot always point out why I think they are unclear or jumbled. I don't feel this is an imposition on others. I think it's the opposite. It enhances signal by reducing nitpicking, spelling/grammar erro…
Your “unclear or jumbled” but authentic comment is always better than “feels like chewing sand”, normalised and calibrated LLM outs
Re: Don't post generated/AI-edited comments. HN is for conversation between humans
#728I would enjoy a "block user" feature, to help this. I personally want to live in an online bubble of interesting thoughts. This seems close (or better, since people I enjoy can contradict my own flags) [1]. [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47141119
Excellent thanks, I've been looking for something like this. Now just need more people using it to get the friend-of-friends feature useable
Re: Don't post generated/AI-edited comments. HN is for conversation between humans
#729AI has made it easier for me not to worry about how pretty or polished my comments are. What used to be a sign you cared has now been devalued nearly completely by AI. This is freeing and allows me to think about the substance. I still do read it, but don't care too much about the typos. It's now a a proud badge for artisanal thinking!
Re: Don't post generated/AI-edited comments. HN is for conversation between humans
#730Lot of folks on here saying they only want to converse with other humans, for various reasons.
But here's the funny thing. I'm pretty sure the frontier models are now smarter than I am, more eloquent, and definitely more knowledgeable, especially the paid versions with built-in search/research capability. I'm also fairly certain that the number of original thoughts in a given discourse on the Internet is fairly small, I know that's certainly the case for me.
So whither humans now?
If I'm looking for human engagement, forums make sense. But for an informed discussion, I'm less certain that it's wise to be exclusionary. There is a case to be made that lower quality comments should be hidden or higher quality comments should be surfaced, but that's true regardless of the source, innit?