So, “Please write a one-liner comment manually to replace these 5 lines of AI generated comment” is a common refrain in my PR reviews to colleagues.
"There's an ongoing discussion of whether humans are good at recognizing AI-generated text. While most research claims that humans don't really do a good job there, I disagree. "
And I wonder if those of us in tech are the only ones who really care?
I think they may just be to trusting and/or naive. People in tech right now are hyper aware of this and are actively looking while people outside of that bubble barely give it a second thought.
Despite seeing a lot of them, I cannot think of one AI-generated photo that I can picture clearly in my mind; a few are partial but elusive. Whereas I can recall a whole bunch of traditional photographs.
The same is true of AI generated text. Only the annoyances stick.
I don't think this is about ephemerality either. If we assume it's about celebrated/famous/infamous images, there are definitely non-ephemeral, cultural moments in AI generated in particular, like Boris Eldagsen's Sony Prize winner:
https://petapixel.com/2023/04/14/artist-refuses-prize-after-...
This really should be memorable, but isn't. I had forgotten the second person is in the image.
Or Jason Allen's fake painting:
https://petapixel.com/2022/09/01/ai-generated-artwork-wins-f...
The difference between these things and real pieces of art in my memory is what surprises me. I can only remember the most basic elements of these.
For example in the Jason Allen case I had already forgotten there's more than one figure in it, and I only looked at it a few weeks back. I remember the colour, the bright circle, some vague hints of texture; one figure. And that is it. Only the crudest shape elements.
For me, something about AI-generated text and images confounds recall. It is really peculiar.
There's no real edge to it. Same as with the writing. The stuff that you'd latch onto is simply not there, precisely because those image or word choices would be just outside its latent probability space.
This is also why I think human output will actually increase in value. When any AI can just "phone it in", something genuinely human will stand out (to US, not the AI) and become a bellwether.
Which might even make sense, because there were always (still are?) those horrible ads in the chumbox area of news sites that used trypophobia and other creepy body-horror stuff to get you to click. [1] So maybe the hope is that you don't really look closely at the quiche, but some reptilian party of the brain gets oddly activated and drives you towards the restaurant?
1. https://medium.com/the-awl/a-complete-taxonomy-of-internet-c...
josefritzishere•24m ago