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Comment by jsheard

3 hours ago

Since the commit history is public, there's a much easier way to tell that AI had a hand in writing that list.

https://github.com/a16z-infra/reading-list/commit/93bc3abb04...

> opus descriptions in cursor, raw

18 comments

jsheard

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mtlynch  2 hours ago

That version is more sensible. Opus generated:

> Warning: his endings are notoriously abrupt, like a segfault in the middle of your favorite function.

In commit e4d022[0], the wording changed to:

> Fair warning: most of these books famously don't have endings (they literally stop mid-sentence during a normal plot arc).

It's unclear what led to that change, as the commit message is just "stephenson".

It went through a few more minor edits to get to what's currently published.

https://github.com/a16z-infra/reading-list/commit/e4d022d592...

  • ilikehurdles  2 hours ago

    matt-bornstein's commits in that repo do often start off with ai-generated descriptions which he then edits down. there are notes on some commits that say things like "AI GENERATED NEED TO EDIT". the other contributors' changes don't have these tells.

    while it should come as no surprise to have software written by llms, if these books are in fact just picked by llms then what's the point of this list?

    • cowsandmilk  2 hours ago

      I don’t see any evidence the LLM picked the list of books, it instead was used to update/add descriptions of the books and series.

andy99  3 hours ago 

   Stephenson doesn't just write sci-fi, he writes operating manuals for the future. His books predicted cryptocurrency, the metaverse, and distributed computing before most of us knew what TCP/IP stood for. Warning: his endings are notoriously abrupt, like a segfault in the middle of your favorite function.

This really is a study in AI slop. At least they had the good sense to change it.