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Does Reddit have an astroturfing problem? What the data suggests

312 points · 408 comments · p-s-v

  1. robotresearcher · · focus · HN ↗
    > This article was drafted with AI from my outline

    Maybe just post your human outline and the data, where the data processing and viz is AI assisted if you like.

    The synthetic prose is not a value-add over your outline. It takes time to read, and reduces the bit-rate over your intentions.

    1. tomrod · · focus · HN ↗
      AI loopity. Where AI is used to generate unnecessary prose that others summarize via AI. This exacerbates lossy communication.
      1. elcritch · · focus · HN ↗
        Inverse compression.
        1. DaiPlusPlus · · focus · HN ↗
          If compression is intelligence, then is this kind of LLM use a sign of dumbness?
          1. [deleted] · · focus · HN ↗

            [deleted]

        2. sterlind · · focus · HN ↗
          expansion?
          1. isoprophlex · · focus · HN ↗
            Expansive confabulation
            1. kridsdale1 · · focus · HN ↗
              Filling with hot air
      2. [deleted] · · focus · HN ↗

        [deleted]

    2. paweladamczuk · · focus · HN ↗
      I think the same. I appreciate the effort put into research, but the AI tone is unbearable to me.
    3. IshKebab · · focus · HN ↗
      Yeah I immediately left at that point. I appreciate that he was up front about it though, so at least I could leave immediately.

      OP there isn't a word length requirement on blog posts. You put all the information you learned into your instructions for the LLM. Just post that.

    4. ricardobeat · · focus · HN ↗
      This kind of dense sentence is extremely tiring to read:

          > I wanted to know whether the knife subreddits I read, and scrape for New 
    Knife Day, show any sign of that. Not a hunch about one suspicious comment, 
    but something I could count and someone else could recount.
      Everyone should adopt this rule: if the author didn't take the time to write it, you shouldn't take the time to read it.
      1. kridsdale1 · · focus · HN ↗
        I spotted Claude here:

        > The practical check is the one the data endorses

    5. spinachsalad · · focus · HN ↗
      You're absolutely right! ;)

      The language is so obfuscated that the crude draft would really be better than this. I've just realized that one of the telltale signs of LLMs is: inventing a new terminology like here - tail accounts, never giving a direct definition what it really is, and then going with it, like it's obvious.

    6. solaire_oa · · focus · HN ↗
      Does the Internet have a trust problem? What the slop suggests...

      This is the 7th submission on HN in the last week which has entered my RSS feed, which has AI-tell slop right in the title. It's really discouraging.

    7. rglynn · · focus · HN ↗
      > The corpus, and the refresh that changed the answer

      I audibly went "ah!", as if in pain from a muscle twinge and immediately came back to the thread to find this comment.

      Ain't no way I'm gonna spend my free time reading Claude-isms.

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