Comment by lordnacho
6 hours ago
One very new behavior is the dismissal of someone's writing as the work of AI.
It's sadly become quite common on internet forums to suppose that some post or comment was written by AI. It's probably true in some cases, but people should ask themselves how the cost/benefit to calling it out looks.
Unfortunately it's the correct thing to do. Just like in the past where you shouldn't have believed any stories told on the internet, it's now reasonable to assume any image/text you come across wasn't created by a human, or in the case of images is simply an event that never happened.
The easiest way to protect myself these days is to assume the worst about all content. Why am I replying to a comment in that case? Consider it a case yelling into the void.
1. A bot-generated argument is still an argument. I can't make claims about the truth or falsity based on the enunciator, that's simply ad hominem.
2. A bot-generated image is not a record of photon-emissions in the physical world. When I look at photos, they need to be records of the physical world, or they're a creative work.
I think you can't rationally apply the same standard to these 2 things.
> 1. A bot-generated argument is still an argument. I can't make claims about the truth or falsity based on the enunciator, that's simply ad hominem.
In classical forums arguments are often some form of stamina contest and bots will always win those.
But ye it is like a troll accusation.
Ad hominem may require a human on the receiving end, no?
The problem is the bullshit asymmetry and engaging in good faith.
AI users aren’t investing actual work and can generate reams if bullshit that puts three burden on others to untangle. And they also aren’t engaging in good faith.
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As a person with trust issues, I find this adaptation to the change in status-quo quite natural for me.
My partner has become tiresome about this - even if I was to tell them that I responded to your comment on HN, they'd go "You probably just responded to a bot".
Are bots really infiltrating HN and making constructive non-inflammatory comments? I don't find it at all plausible but "that's just what they want you to think".
I've seen chatgpt output here as comments for sure. In some cases obvious, in other cases borderline. I wouldn't guess that it's a major fraction of comments, but it's there.