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@mttaggart Makes me want to delete AT from my regular sources, but I'll hold off. They should issue an apology if they haven't.
We have pulled the story over concerns that it may have gone against our content policies. I locked the comments, and I'm going to lock this one too, we need some time.
We are doing an investigation right now to figure out exactly what happened. Given that it's Friday afternoon we probably won't have something to report back until Monday, but we will follow up with an explanation for our readers. Edit: Monday is a holiday, my bad, and I don't know what we'll be able to say, so I don't want to over-promise anything.
Wait until we learn the results (or lack thereof) of this investigation.
Maybe its just CYA, maybe they are seriously looking into this. -
@Sobex @bnys @mttaggart
and while this was a faster response than the trans hit piece of a couple years ago, it's the same playbook: lock comments, promise an investigation, and hope it dies down over the weekend.
A pity really. A place I used to value. For me, the anti-trans piece was the end.@colo_lee What anti-trans piece?
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WILD! Thank you @mttaggart for reporting on this!
❝Okay, an update:
We have pulled the story over concerns that it may have gone against our content policies. I locked the comments, and I'm going to lock this one too, we need some time.
We are doing an investigation right now to figure out exactly what happened. Given that it's Friday afternoon we probably won't have something to report back until Monday, but we will follow up with an explanation for our readers. Edit: Monday is a holiday, my bad, and I don't know what we'll be able to say, so I don't want to over-promise anything.❞
Source: Ars forum https://arstechnica.com/civis/threads/journalistic-standards.1511650/#post-44249741
@dusk @cR0w @mttaggart @iampytest1
"…I don't know what we'll be able to say, so I don't want to over-promise anything…"
You say, 'We won't use AI to write our publication'
There's nothing else to say.
There's no promises to be made.Ars prides itself on technical accuracy. AI slop is a direct hit to their identity. The longer they wait to give a straight answer, the more it *appears* like they're trying to figure out how much they can get away with, instead of just being bluntly transparent.
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@theorangetheme I think the lock might be SOP for a pulled story. And mods tend not to like rampant speculation.
@mttaggart @theorangetheme I'm genuinely confused about how this was allowed to happen. I tend to assume Ars has better editorial processes than some of the places I've worked, and both writers have long-term specialisations. My most charitable explanation is that someone created a version that they though would be funny and that was accidentally published. Very curious to see what their investigation yields.
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@mttaggart @theorangetheme I'm genuinely confused about how this was allowed to happen. I tend to assume Ars has better editorial processes than some of the places I've worked, and both writers have long-term specialisations. My most charitable explanation is that someone created a version that they though would be funny and that was accidentally published. Very curious to see what their investigation yields.
@aliide @mttaggart I think people either simply don't care anymore, or workers are under such corporate pressure to either deliver or use AI (or both), and this is the natural endpoint of that. Probably a little of both (I know genuine enthusiasts, for whom I've lost all respects, but I also know people who are basically being forced to use AI by their corporate overlords). I don't know much, but I do know this: journalists don't run newspapers.
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@aliide @mttaggart I think people either simply don't care anymore, or workers are under such corporate pressure to either deliver or use AI (or both), and this is the natural endpoint of that. Probably a little of both (I know genuine enthusiasts, for whom I've lost all respects, but I also know people who are basically being forced to use AI by their corporate overlords). I don't know much, but I do know this: journalists don't run newspapers.
@theorangetheme @mttaggart oh, we very much don't, and I've even had editors insert mistakes into my stories before, without giving me readbacks. But this isn't the case of a single word or phrase, this is entire quotes being inserted. I don't buy into the idea that there is pressure on journos to use AI though — the point of the profession is original work, which AI by definition cannot do.
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@theorangetheme @mttaggart oh, we very much don't, and I've even had editors insert mistakes into my stories before, without giving me readbacks. But this isn't the case of a single word or phrase, this is entire quotes being inserted. I don't buy into the idea that there is pressure on journos to use AI though — the point of the profession is original work, which AI by definition cannot do.
@aliide @mttaggart I hope you're right. I'm trying not to be too cynical, but it's hard lately.
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@aliide @mttaggart I hope you're right. I'm trying not to be too cynical, but it's hard lately.
@aliide @mttaggart Thank you for the work that you do, by the way. Good journalism is a treasure, and sorely needed.
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What's going on here? The matplotlib maintainer this story is about correctly notes that all the quotes from his post in the article are made up.
UPDATE: Link was pulled; see below.
@mttaggart simply amazing, in the worst possible way.
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2/
Russia & Putin
Putin deluded himself that AI-enabled warfare will solve his manpower problems & population bottlenecks. 1.3 million dead soldiers so far in Ukraine.
https://www.neimagazine.com/news/putin-links-nuclear-buildout-to-russias-ai-ambitions/Look at that picture! This is why you need to figure out how to get control of a robot at distance.
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What's going on here? The matplotlib maintainer this story is about correctly notes that all the quotes from his post in the article are made up.
UPDATE: Link was pulled; see below.
@mttaggart
I don't know what is real anymore, holy shit.If I'm reading things correctly Ars hallucinated the quotes in the article but still linked to this blog post correctly, right?
https://theshamblog.com/an-ai-agent-published-a-hit-piece-on-me/
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@dusk @cR0w @mttaggart @iampytest1
"…I don't know what we'll be able to say, so I don't want to over-promise anything…"
You say, 'We won't use AI to write our publication'
There's nothing else to say.
There's no promises to be made.Ars prides itself on technical accuracy. AI slop is a direct hit to their identity. The longer they wait to give a straight answer, the more it *appears* like they're trying to figure out how much they can get away with, instead of just being bluntly transparent.
@rusty__shackleford @dusk @cR0w @mttaggart @iampytest1
This is bad enough that a serious company that wanted to salvage their reputation properly might wanna consider putting in some weekend overtime.
But if they were being conscientious and diligent none of this would've happened in the first place. So of course instead it's, oops oh well I guess we'll deal with it sometime next week or something...
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@mttaggart
I don't know what is real anymore, holy shit.If I'm reading things correctly Ars hallucinated the quotes in the article but still linked to this blog post correctly, right?
https://theshamblog.com/an-ai-agent-published-a-hit-piece-on-me/
Yep, that's about the size of it!
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@theorangetheme @mttaggart oh, we very much don't, and I've even had editors insert mistakes into my stories before, without giving me readbacks. But this isn't the case of a single word or phrase, this is entire quotes being inserted. I don't buy into the idea that there is pressure on journos to use AI though — the point of the profession is original work, which AI by definition cannot do.
@aliide @theorangetheme @mttaggart
You would think that your point about original work would apply to software engineering too (I think it does), but there seemingly are managers out there - or at least directors applying pressure - who want their engineers to use it. -
@tankgrrl @mttaggart I mean, I assume that's what an internal investigation was about?
They probably want to properly call the author and ask them if they used AI or not, what were their sources, etc.
I don't think it's fair to mock them for wanting to conclude an investigation. -
@aliide @theorangetheme @mttaggart
You would think that your point about original work would apply to software engineering too (I think it does), but there seemingly are managers out there - or at least directors applying pressure - who want their engineers to use it.@GerardThornley @theorangetheme @mttaggart
I think the pressure on SWEs is *considerably* higher given the institutional pressure to make AI work! I'm sure many engineers want to write original code too, though.
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@GerardThornley @theorangetheme @mttaggart
I think the pressure on SWEs is *considerably* higher given the institutional pressure to make AI work! I'm sure many engineers want to write original code too, though.
@GerardThornley @theorangetheme @mttaggart
A bigger problem with AI and journalism is probably the volume of writers who have written about it who don't seem to understand that the fearmongering about it is part of the hype. Like the "AI could take over the world" spiel is definitely perpetuated by companies and individuals that want it venerated as some out-of-control force beyond human comprehension. It's just another side of the AI hype coin.
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@addison @mttaggart It‘s in the Internet Archive.
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@iampytest1 @implementcontrols wow that’s insane. I read arstechnica every day, not anymore, big loss in credibility.
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@GerardThornley @theorangetheme @mttaggart
A bigger problem with AI and journalism is probably the volume of writers who have written about it who don't seem to understand that the fearmongering about it is part of the hype. Like the "AI could take over the world" spiel is definitely perpetuated by companies and individuals that want it venerated as some out-of-control force beyond human comprehension. It's just another side of the AI hype coin.
@aliide @theorangetheme @mttaggart
Yeah, I do get a little frustrated with the big "skynet" doom scenario stories that for the time being are unlikely, when things like obfuscation of responsibility, (at least attempted) manipulation of populations, and drastic economic shifts are pretty much here already and certain to cause harm.
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@iagomago
Non ho mica capito :)
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@oxyhyxo oh no 😔
Get well soon!
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@oblomov Yep. Kind of "flows naturally" from the big brouhaha about Palestinian tunnels.
Btw, fun fact: North Korea is known to have high-level expertise for tunnel construction, and also known to actively trade in humans with Russia recently. Coincidence? Could be. Why didn't it come up in this article's speculative attribution section? I submit, it's most likely because the bog-standard Western xenophobe is not as used to thinking of North Koreans as Designated Bad People as they're used to so thinking about Muslims, especially Middle Eastern looking ones.
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@peterkotrcka OMG - what did you find? 😆 Albano e Romina 😆
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@falken @furicle @graydon @cstross Speaking of parking sensors, my mother bought a new car 3 years ago. The model she chose included parking sensors, and had to be sold with them – except thanks to the shortages, Opel couldn't actually include them, so the dealership had to add aftermarket sensors to the car.
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@mwk wait what, I was still only at the ai girlfriend, there was more after?
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@mbpaz @cstross There is so much untapped wealth in all the old tech collecting dust all over the world. Commercial software steals this wealth from us by dropping support but free software unlocks it all back.
I'm writing this on a laptop from 2010 that I've been using as my only personal computer for about two years. It's running linux and can stream video in 720p when the website isn't too bloated, 480p otherwise, and I can use it to work on my godot game.
