On the one hand, this is egregious and should not happen. People should not be stalked and lied to, and communities should not be manipulated at this scale.
On the other hand, it certainly already happens as it is incredibly easy for any group to use LLMs and do this. So the process and effectiveness should be studied and reported to the public... There might be a better way to do it though?
More seriously now, the Zurich researchers were very creepy. I'm reading the article further and saw that they stalked some of the past history of redditors first before trying to influence them in r/change my views or whatever it is called.
I wouldn't want to be a guinea pig for that purpose.
Seems more likely to me. Reddit has a far broader userbase, whereas HN is primarily made up of the sort of people who would post with AI. And HN has a non rate-limited API (even though most people here probably use Algolia.)
And people already do paste comments from AI, it's becoming more and more common. At least they have the courtesy of pointing it out but I expect that will stop before the AI comments do.
While I do love seeing the comments starting with "I asked ChatGPT..." get absolutely eviscerated in the replies and negatively voted, it is probably sending the wrong signal.
I'm of two minds about this.
On the one hand, this is egregious and should not happen. People should not be stalked and lied to, and communities should not be manipulated at this scale.
On the other hand, it certainly already happens as it is incredibly easy for any group to use LLMs and do this. So the process and effectiveness should be studied and reported to the public... There might be a better way to do it though?
Reddit is furious, understandably.
I wonder if other groups are using AI to post on Reddit too?
More seriously now, the Zurich researchers were very creepy. I'm reading the article further and saw that they stalked some of the past history of redditors first before trying to influence them in r/change my views or whatever it is called.
I wouldn't want to be a guinea pig for that purpose.
you already are
I wonder if other groups are using AI to post on HN too?
(Seems less likely than on reddit... TBQH)
Seems more likely to me. Reddit has a far broader userbase, whereas HN is primarily made up of the sort of people who would post with AI. And HN has a non rate-limited API (even though most people here probably use Algolia.)
And people already do paste comments from AI, it's becoming more and more common. At least they have the courtesy of pointing it out but I expect that will stop before the AI comments do.
While I do love seeing the comments starting with "I asked ChatGPT..." get absolutely eviscerated in the replies and negatively voted, it is probably sending the wrong signal.
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