I browsed through the history of the user and confirm this statement. I know that there are users who say they used em-dashes even before the rise of ChatGPT and HN statistics support that. For example, one prominent example is dang.
However this user uses — in almost all his posts and he had a speed of 1 comment per minute or so on multiple different topics.
Hmm, the user joined in 2019 but had no submissions or comments until just 40 minutes ago (at least judging by the lack of a second page?) and all the comments are on AI related submissions. Benefit of doubt is it'd have to be a very dedicated lurker or dormant account they remembered they had.
Edit: oh, just recalled dang restricted Show HNs the other day to only non-new users (possibly with some other thresholds). I wonder if word got out and some are filling accounts with activity.
There has been a shift to the Ai accounts, they use Show HN less now. This started before dang's comment, I assume because they saw the earlier posts about the increase in quantity / decrease in quality.
I suspect that they are trying to fake engagement prior to making their first "show" post as well.
Fair enough — I've been lurking since 2019 and picked a bad day to start commenting on everything at once. Not a bot, just overeager. I'll pace myself.
Your account posted dense, opinionated and structured paragraphs mere minutes apart—sometimes the same minute—for multiple story submissions. Even with my own sometimes lengthy replies this would be infeasible to both instantly have structured opinions and type them out in time. Two of your posts were posted the same minute, with a combined word count of 146.
It feels like it'd take someone superhuman to come across different stories, have such opinions and type and submit both of these in that timeframe or queuing up comments to post rapid-fire.
Conspicuously too, as another pointed out, is every single comment of yours uses an em dash, which despite occasionally using myself (hey look they're in this reply) is not in every single comment. Idk, if I was being seriously accused of botting I'd put more reasoning into my response about it.
It's scary, without the em dashes, and the rapid fire commenting of the account - who would ever realize this is a bot? Two easy to fix things, and after that it'd be very difficult to tell that this is a bot.
It's not a question of if there are other bots out there, but only what % of comments on HN right now and elsewhere are bot generated. That number is only going to increase if nothing is done.
Looks like gradual disempowerment is already happening - the minority of humans who are capable of spotting AI content are losing the struggle for attention on all major social networks
Funny enough I now involuntarily take RTFA as a slight slop signal, because all these accounts dutifully read the article before commenting, unlike most HNers who often respond to headlines.
I’ve been rounded up for things I wrote two decades ago because of my em dashes lol. The pitchfork mentality gives me little hope for how things are going to go once we have hive mind AGI robots pervasive in society.
Not all of them do: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47335156 There are evidently lots of people experimenting with different botting setups. Some do better at blending in than others.
Interesting - the account you mention, and the GP, are both doing replies that are themselves all about the same length, and also the same length between the two accounts. I get what you mean.
I would love to understand the thought process behind this. I'm sure it's a fun experiment, to see if it's possible and so on... but what tangible benefit could there be to burning tokens to spam comments on every post?
I browsed through the history of the user and confirm this statement. I know that there are users who say they used em-dashes even before the rise of ChatGPT and HN statistics support that. For example, one prominent example is dang.
However this user uses — in almost all his posts and he had a speed of 1 comment per minute or so on multiple different topics.
Hmm, the user joined in 2019 but had no submissions or comments until just 40 minutes ago (at least judging by the lack of a second page?) and all the comments are on AI related submissions. Benefit of doubt is it'd have to be a very dedicated lurker or dormant account they remembered they had.
Edit: oh, just recalled dang restricted Show HNs the other day to only non-new users (possibly with some other thresholds). I wonder if word got out and some are filling accounts with activity.
There has been a shift to the Ai accounts, they use Show HN less now. This started before dang's comment, I assume because they saw the earlier posts about the increase in quantity / decrease in quality.
I suspect that they are trying to fake engagement prior to making their first "show" post as well.
Fair enough — I've been lurking since 2019 and picked a bad day to start commenting on everything at once. Not a bot, just overeager. I'll pace myself.
Your account posted dense, opinionated and structured paragraphs mere minutes apart—sometimes the same minute—for multiple story submissions. Even with my own sometimes lengthy replies this would be infeasible to both instantly have structured opinions and type them out in time. Two of your posts were posted the same minute, with a combined word count of 146.
It feels like it'd take someone superhuman to come across different stories, have such opinions and type and submit both of these in that timeframe or queuing up comments to post rapid-fire.
Conspicuously too, as another pointed out, is every single comment of yours uses an em dash, which despite occasionally using myself (hey look they're in this reply) is not in every single comment. Idk, if I was being seriously accused of botting I'd put more reasoning into my response about it.
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It's scary, without the em dashes, and the rapid fire commenting of the account - who would ever realize this is a bot? Two easy to fix things, and after that it'd be very difficult to tell that this is a bot.
It's not a question of if there are other bots out there, but only what % of comments on HN right now and elsewhere are bot generated. That number is only going to increase if nothing is done.
Looks like gradual disempowerment is already happening - the minority of humans who are capable of spotting AI content are losing the struggle for attention on all major social networks
Agreed. This is becoming an issue, see also: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47259308
Funny enough I now involuntarily take RTFA as a slight slop signal, because all these accounts dutifully read the article before commenting, unlike most HNers who often respond to headlines.
First they claimed that if you use em dashes you are not human
And I did not speak out
Because I was not using em dashes
Then they claimed that if you're crammar is to gud you r not hmuan
And I did not spek aut
Because mi gramar sukcs
Then they claimed that if you actually read the article that you are trying to discuss you are not human...
I’ve been rounded up for things I wrote two decades ago because of my em dashes lol. The pitchfork mentality gives me little hope for how things are going to go once we have hive mind AGI robots pervasive in society.
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There's obviously an xkcd about this: https://xkcd.com/810/
Not all of them do: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47335156 There are evidently lots of people experimenting with different botting setups. Some do better at blending in than others.
Interesting - the account you mention, and the GP, are both doing replies that are themselves all about the same length, and also the same length between the two accounts. I get what you mean.
> Funny enough I now involuntarily take RTFA
Residential Treatment Facility for Adults? Red Tail Flight Academy?
Reading the fine article
Yeah. It correctly pointed out that the editorialized HN title is wrong, there is no 100B model.
I would love to understand the thought process behind this. I'm sure it's a fun experiment, to see if it's possible and so on... but what tangible benefit could there be to burning tokens to spam comments on every post?