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ai;dr

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Re: ai;dr

#91

Post by jama211 »

acedTrex wrote: post #41
raincole wrote: post #10

> AI-generated code feels like progress and efficiency, while AI-generated articles and posts feel low-effort I've noticed that attitude a lot. Everyone thinks their use of AI is perfectly justified while the others are generating slops. In gamedev it's especially prominent - artists think generating code is perfectly ok but get acute stress response when someone suggests generating art assets.

Ya i hate the idea that theres a difference, Code to me has always been as expressive about a person as normal prose. LLMs you lose a lot of vital information about the programmers personality. It leads to worse outcomes because it makes the failures less predictable.

Code _can_ be expressive but it also can not, it depends on its purpose.

Some code I cobbled together to pass a badly written assignment at school. Other code I curated to be beautiful for my own benefit or someone else’s.

I think the better analogy in writing would be… using an LLM to draft a reply to a hawkish car dealer you’re trying to not get screwed by is absolutely fine. Using it to write a birthday card for someone you care about is terrible.

Re: ai;dr

#92

Post by weinzierl »

"Growing up, typos and grammatical errors were a negative signal. Funnily enough, that’s completely flipped for me."

For me too and for writing it has the upside that it's sooo relaxing to just type away and not worry about the small errors much anymore.

Re: ai;dr

#93

Post by ravirajx7 »

AI has kind of ruined internet for me.

I no longer feel joy in reading things as almost most of the writing seem same and pale to me as if everyone is putting thoughts in the same way.

Having your own way of writing always felt personal in which you expressed your feelings most of the time.

The most sad part for me is I no longer am able to understand someone's true feelings (which anyway was hard to express in writing as articulation is hard).

We see it being used from our favourite sports person in their retirement post or from someone who has lost their loved ones or someone who just got their first job and it's just sad that we no longer can have that old pre AI days back again.

Re: ai;dr

#94

Post by jama211 »

raincole wrote: post #10

> AI-generated code feels like progress and efficiency, while AI-generated articles and posts feel low-effort I've noticed that attitude a lot. Everyone thinks their use of AI is perfectly justified while the others are generating slops. In gamedev it's especially prominent - artists think generating code is perfectly ok but get acute stress response when someone suggests generating art assets.

Generating art is worse than generating code though IMO. It’s more personal. Everything exists on a spectrum, even slop.

Re: ai;dr

#95

Post by tkzed49 »

ssiddharth wrote: post #50
losvedir wrote: post #6

I really like Oxide's take on AI for prose: https://rfd.shared.oxide.computer/rfd/0576 and how it breaks the "social contract" where usually it takes more effort to write than to read, and so you have a sense that it's worth it to read. So I get the frustration that "ai;dr" captures. On the other hand, I've also seen human writing incorrectly labeled AI. I wrote (using AI!) https://seeitwritten.com as a bit of an exp…

My biggest sorrow right now is the fact that my beloved emdash is a major signal for AI generated content. I've been using it for decades now but these days, I almost always pause for a second.

I've gone back to using two dashes--LLMs typically don't write them that way.

Re: ai;dr

#96

Post by AnimalMuppet »

steveBK123 wrote: post #72
losvedir wrote: post #6

I really like Oxide's take on AI for prose: https://rfd.shared.oxide.computer/rfd/0576 and how it breaks the "social contract" where usually it takes more effort to write than to read, and so you have a sense that it's worth it to read. So I get the frustration that "ai;dr" captures. On the other hand, I've also seen human writing incorrectly labeled AI. I wrote (using AI!) https://seeitwritten.com as a bit of an exp…

The problem with Ai writing is that its a waste of everyones time. It’s literal content expansion, the opposite of gzip’ing a file. It’s like a kid who has a 500 word essay due tomorrow who needs to pad their actual message up to spec.

Well, LLMs can be either side of that. They can also be used to turn something verbose into a series of bullet points.

I agree that reading an LLM-produced essay is a waste of time and (human) attention. But in the case of overly-verbose human writing, it's the human that's wasting my time[1], and the LLM is gzip'ing the spew.

[1] Looking at you, New Yorker magazine.

Re: ai;dr

#97

Post by benatkin »

Don't worry, author, I don't think you're a luddite. You make that quite clear with this:

> I can't imaging writing code by myself again

After that, you say that you need to know the intention for "content".

I think it's pretty inconsistent. You have a strict rule in one direction for code and a strict rule in the opposite direction for "content".

I don't think that writing code unassisted should be taken for granted. Addy Osmani covered that in this talk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FoXHScf1mjA I also don't think all "content" is the sort of content where you need to know the intention. I'll grant that some of it is, for sure.

Edit: I do like intentional writing. However, when AI is generating something high quality, it often seems like it has developed an intention for what it's building, whether one that was conceived and communicated clearly by the person working with the AI or one that emerged unexpectedly through the interaction. And this applies not just to prose but to code.

Re: ai;dr

#98

Post by unglaublich »

losvedir wrote: post #6

I really like Oxide's take on AI for prose: https://rfd.shared.oxide.computer/rfd/0576 and how it breaks the "social contract" where usually it takes more effort to write than to read, and so you have a sense that it's worth it to read. So I get the frustration that "ai;dr" captures. On the other hand, I've also seen human writing incorrectly labeled AI. I wrote (using AI!) https://seeitwritten.com as a bit of an exp…

This can only be fixed by authors paying humans to read instead of the other way around.

Re: ai;dr

#99

Post by jama211 »

pwillia7 wrote: post #80

I am 100% right there with you. Writing in my voice is maybe the last thing I have that I can do differently and 'better' than an LLM in a couple years time, or even right now if I'm really being honest. I haven't even really tried to use LLMs to write anything from a work context because of the ideas you talk about here.

Writing to express yourself sure. Using an llm for a birthday card would be a terrible sin. However if someone used it for, I dunno, drafting an email because you’re in a dispute with an evil real estate agent and you’re trying not to get screwed, I wouldn’t have any qualms about it.

IMO it’s lazy and bad for expressive writing, but for certain things it’s totally fine.

Re: ai;dr

#100

Post by nate »

i am absolutely on the fence here. I do like the ai cleanup of my rambling can do. but yes, i'm tempted to just leave it rambly, misspelled, etc. i find myself swearing more in my writing, just to give it more signal that: yeah, this probably aint an ai talking (writing) like this to you :) and yes, caps, barely.
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