This has likely been going on since the first ChatGPT was released.
https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/magazines/panache/reddi...
We all have an expectation that these message boards are like the forums of the 2000s, but that's just not true and hasn't been for a long time. We will never see that internet again it seems, because AI was the atomic bomb on all this astroturfing and engineered content. Educating people away from these synthetic forums is appearing near impossible.
Then stop basing your opinion on issues on personal anecdotes from complete strangers. This is nothing new.
montroser•8h ago
I like Simon's musings in general, but are we not way past this point already? It is completely and totally inevitable that if you try to engage in discussions on the internet, you will be influenced by fake personal anecdotes invented by LLMs. The only difference here is they eventually disclosed it, but aren't various state and political actors already doing this in spades, undisclosed?
gryfft•7h ago
Engineering is fundamentally about exercising the power of intelligence to change something in the physical world. Posts to the effect of "<bad thing> is inevitable and unstoppable, so it isn't worth talking about" strike me as the opposite of the hacker ethos!
drjasonharrison•1h ago
By the way, people die in house fires from toxic smoke inhalation and a lack of oxygen. Engineers created smoke detectors and other devices to lower the risk of fire due to electrical shorts, gas leaks, etc., and to create fire suppression systems.
People still die because they didn't replace batteries, didn't follow electrical cord/device warnings, or left candles or other heat sources unattended. We discuss these events as warnings and reminders that accidents kill when warnings are not followed, when inattentiveness allows failure to propagate, and as a reminder that rarely occurring events still kill innocent people.
Maybe this will motivate people to meet in person, until that is also corrupted with cyber brain augmentation and in-person propaganda actors, rather than relying on only online anecdotes.
simonw•6h ago
drjasonharrison•1h ago
Yes, we know that personal stories can be compelling, and communicating with someone with different experiences from ours can be enlightening. Still, before applying these learnings to larger groups, we should remember that individual experiences do not capture the entire population.