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I'm tired of it

Red Ochsenbein (he/him) on July 21, 2024

The epidemic It's everywhere on dev.to, and it's everywhere else, too. I'm tired of it. AI generated content. You know, we can spot it....
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fyodorio profile image
Fyodor

Hang in there, dude. It will only get worse. Try woodworking, I found it fulfilling…

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syeo66 profile image
Red Ochsenbein (he/him) • Edited

Yeah, I'm pretty sure it will get worse. I try to stay away wherever possible. Unfortunately we do have to function within the current environment. Woodworking sounds nice, I might also try physical painting or drawing... or anything else which has some actual physical output.

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eddsaura profile image
Jose E Saura

we are definitely shaped by the same algorithm, because I thought THE SAME, tried woodworking and then I want to paint. Everything is cyclic.

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luna_dev profile image
Luna

What's also pretty fun is 3D modeling in blender or some other 3D software and then getting started with 3D printing. :D

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leob profile image
leob • Edited

Great idea, the only fear I have is that we won't be able to escape from AI and its influence anywhere, not even in woodworking ...

I wrote in a comment here "maybe I wouldn't choose a career in IT or development anymore", but I soon realized that that's probably a delusion - in all likelihood there will be far more professions that will be invaded by AI than ones that are totally not impacted by it ...

"Escapism" might not save us in the end, we'll probably need to learn to live with this - echos from the previous 4 or 5 "industrial revolutions":

There was a time some two centuries ago when people were smashing the steam engines in factories because they feared mass unemployment - well, we know how that worked out ... I mean, you can't really stop "progress", you can only try to minimize the downsides of it.

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fyodorio profile image
Fyodor

That’s for sure, we won’t go away from it. It’s just that we all need some distractions from this AI fatigue from time to time. To feel sane (if not safe) again.

And yes, I wouldn’t (and I won’t if I won’t be forced to) ditch my software craft because of the AI invasion. Just like in aikido philosophy: we need to use the power of our enemies against themselves 😅

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leob profile image
leob

Well said ... it will be okay once we move away from the craze and the hype, and it becomes "just" a tool in your toolbox :)

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inn0cent_zer0 profile image
inn0cent_zer0

True

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be_rajeevkumar profile image
Rajeev Kumar • Edited

I was shocked when I read this:
"Yeah, I get it, it's all about those 'likes' and 'followers'... but let me tell you: even those are probably mostly bots."
People are doing it because of likes and followers on Dev Community, tell them, anyone it's not Instagram, It's a platform to share your story or journey in words about something valuable to the community.

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eddsaura profile image
Jose E Saura

Lol I tried this too, I think we are ruled by an algorithm for sure. Our subconscious mind is modeled by it.

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deca profile image
Deca • Edited

Wookworking is nice but get a good N100 half-mask plus a dust collector...expecially if you work with exotic hardwoods

You want another zen-like activity that I find satisfying as a dev even if I don't necessary manage to obtain something?
Gold prospecting in a river or a creek, you still have to use the brain but with an investigative mindset :)

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fyodorio profile image
Fyodor

Wow... I mean, are you really doing that? Kinda regularly? Which rivers/creeks, if you don't mind me asking? 😅 (I honestly will try to keep away from them to avoid competition 🤞)

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giovannimazzuoccolo profile image
Giovanni Mazzuoccolo

The problem is that new developers are forced by bootcamps to build their reputation by writing on dev.to or other platforms. So, the quickest way to do that is to copy and paste from ChatGPT or similar tools.

The issue is that they don't even read what they copy and paste. If you ask a question or add a comment, they copy and paste that too and ask ChatGPT to answer it.

If you are a mod on Dev.to, you can mark it as low quality.

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syeo66 profile image
Red Ochsenbein (he/him) • Edited

Oh, great input. Did not think of that. Seems to be related to the influx of low quality PRs in open source projects.

"If you are a mod on Dev.to, you can mark it as low quality." Yes... am on it. Part of the reason for my rant was the observation that I feel like marking more and more as low quality and it seems to be pretty rare to see something deserving a "high quality" mark. I'd love to use it more often...

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isaiahwp profile image
Isaiah • Edited

I wonder. If Dev.to uplift users who are not using AI but don't have "high quality" postings would this alleviate the problem? Let those users experiment with their content and nudge them towards making improvements. Eventually, they'll be able to post something high quality.

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darkwiiplayer profile image
𒎏Wii 🏳️‍⚧️

The problem of low-quality posts is a very similar one to AI articles. They take more effort to write and don't have as many mistakes, but they're still often just shallow rephrasings of content already available on sites like mdn.

The real problem might just be that, although the content is the same, people read dev articles proactively, while going to websites like mdn specifically to look things up as they need them, so even just copying the same information into a platform like dev might help by bringing it to people's attention. This is just a hypothesis, of course.

Regardless of how exactly, for many users these borderline-plagiaristic articles do still seem to provide some form of utility, so maybe the solution isn't necessarily to keep them away from people's eyes but, ironically, maybe just promote good explainers of that sort separately to prevent a new post listing off the Array.prototype methods with one paragraph explaining them from appearing every other week.

Other than that, dev just seems to lack a solid concept for promoting creativity and expertise above repetitive content, so when people do write a short post about some cool thing they're doing, it usually just disappears in the sea of listicles and beginner tutorials.

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joelbonetr profile image
JoelBonetR 🥇

Guys I've been reading your comments and posts for a long time and I'm sure you've read some of mine, too. @syeo66, @jonrandy, @darkwiiplayer and many more, each one with its own way to see the world and getting together discussing technical terms to find what's objectively best on a given use case, or what are the key points to find the best tool for a given job, or the preferred skills or go-to profiles for certain jobs or... plenty of other things.

I don't think AI could help us even half the way we can help each other, honestly. And I know cuz I've tried and GPT4 is no better than 3.5 in most things.
There's has to be a hard limit to it I'm pretty sure, and I'll be doing a specialisation in ML and Big Data starting on September because I really want to know all the details.

I agree on that the drama we have today -since a year and a half ago- is the broad availability of these tools plus the huge investment on marketing plus free tier... altogether did bring the tools to the wrong hands, and I don't believe that a dislike button would fix it in any way.
A proof of that is that we had the dislike button on youtube for ages and what people did? they liked the most dumb sh*t possible while disliking anything that's against their beliefs.

I am a defendant on the idea that kids shouldn't be on the internet. I would even bring it to the next level and say that you gotta have 25 years old -when the brain develops no more- before you can access the public Internet. In the meantime it's just direct messaging similar to Whatsapp without stories, and an educative secured network, wouldn't that be heavenly? Both because they won't get the head full of sh*t mixing social media and reality while growing up and because I doubt a 26 years old that has not been grown up in a toxic environment would suddenly begin to post copy-pasted stuff and insulting people 😅 (oh and big tech companies could not take advantage of kids and teenagers anymore nor shape their preferences, what a pity) but for that.. good luck finding honest politicians!

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jonrandy profile image
Jon Randy 🎖️ • Edited

I wonder how many mods are actually trying to uphold the guidelines that the site has for AI generated content? Almost every comment I see that refers the 'writer' to the guidelines seems to come from a non-mod. I'm curious to know what guidance, if any, moderators have been given on this

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ezpieco profile image
Ezpie

Hey I am a mod here too, and as a matter of fact, there is nothing that is done... by me but that's a different thing, I read the dev.to mod guide, and they seem to focus on saying things but not implementing it. I believe they should not pick random people as mods, such as me, I also applied as a mod here just to see how exactly they select, and the funny thing is, they don't even seem to check on whom they are selecting, now this is my personal opinion, but let's be honest here, I applied just 6 months after I joined dev.to, and I had only 1 great article, yet they selected me as a mod, that's a crucifixion. And for the cherry on top, I some how(I have no idea how) deleted my dev.to account, and once I re-made one, I still have the mod feature, which might just be a normal save user profile thing, but who on earth really does that? It's an HTTP delete method, why don't just delete it?

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kurealnum profile image
Oscar

I'm also a mod, and as @ezpieco has said, I have no idea why I was selected. I think it was something about "bringing positivity to the community". To be fair, I do like this idea; if you give a bunch of people moderator permissions instead of a select few, you're much less likely to have gatekeeping, and you generally get a more diverse group of mods. All that being said, there is certainly a bit of gatekeeping seeing that there's a discord server only for mods :p.

I got off topic. Anyways, as a mod, I've been told to flag posts that are AI generated and/or leave a template comment for AI generated content. Past that, we haven't been told anything else. I've had to come up with my own methods for proving that someone's content is AI generated or assisted (because sites like GPTZero aren't always accurate).

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ezpieco profile image
Ezpie

Hey, why didn't I get no discord? Well like it doesn't even matters it was just for testing and look, now I am a mod for absolutely no reason, the exact definition of javascript... yeah I sure love making fun of that guy theo and JS. No connection between the two just that both suck.

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kurealnum profile image
Oscar

If you're getting the monthly (or bi-monthly, I forget) mod email, there's an invite link in there.

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ezpieco profile image
Ezpie

OK thanks for the info.

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valvonvorn profile image
val von vorn

How can a bootcamp literally force them to do anything? to obtain a certificate?
The boot camp students are the customers, arent't they? The customer is king, is he not?

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syeo66 profile image
Red Ochsenbein (he/him)

Ideally a bootcamp is more than "pay the fee, get a certificate". So, there should be some requirements to get a passing grade... I'm not saying requiring students to post on dev.to is a good requirement, but it sounds possible.

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valvonvorn profile image
val von vorn

Why do boot camps issue certificates at all, that does not make sense after such a short period the alumni are not experienced yet, but that would be another discussion!
I get the point;
so the people use public collaboration platforms for practicing but they forget to clean up their garbage after they are done.

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joelbonetr profile image
JoelBonetR 🥇

Yep, I've been thinking on writing about that but I am tired even for that 😅 I didn't mostly because I know it won't have any impact at all. I am aware of the reason behind; it's the same reason for people to share memes and jokes they've found on the internet: "look ma! Got 23 likes 🤡" (20 of which probably bots if we get realistic).

Oh and I've not figured out what could be a non-completely-utopical way of fixing this, either...

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syeo66 profile image
Red Ochsenbein (he/him) • Edited

Yeah, I don't have any illusions about my impact. Honestly, I do not care about that. I'm not even on any (other) social media platform and could not care about "reach" or likes, or something. I feel like I had to write this just to not feel completely alone, to feel like I'm not crazy and everyone else is just fine. I don't know... something like that.

Yeah, and I don't know any solution. I mean, there seems not even to be a solution for all the problems of social media... and that has been around for about 2 decades now...

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adkissonp profile image
Peter Adkisson

You're not alone by a long shot. This article (rant?) was cathartic enough to read that I created an account just to say thanks for writing it.

Personally I don't care if social media becomes 99% gpt by volume and chokes itself out. It might even solve a few problems. But, god, has it become tiring to have this nuclear wasteland of ultra low effort, ultra high volume content bleeding out everywhere else on the internet. Places one could typically go to get useful resources, information, or even opinion are becoming more of a chore to browse every day - unless they are religiously moderated.

I don't know that there ever will be a practical solution. But it's nice, at least, to know that other people are feeling the same way. Thanks for shouting at the void.

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leob profile image
leob

That's the spirit, I think it's time to take a break from the stars and the views and the clicks and all that ...

I don't hate social media, not at all - hey look at what we're doing here, this comments section is social media, and it's very much alright - but I want to be in control of how I use it, and not "be controlled by how it's using me" ;-)

I do like social media, to interact with the people and the content that I want to interact with - but I think it would be a good thing, for society and for our own mental wellbeing, if we could get off the craze bandwagon of clicks/views/stars and "going viral".

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syeo66 profile image
Red Ochsenbein (he/him)

To be completely honest I feel quite uncomfortable with the amount of attention my little rant gets...

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leob profile image
leob

That's because this touches a raw nerve with many people - I don't want to sound dramatic, but I think it's really a philosophical or even an existential question which many people are grappling with at the moment.

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darkwiiplayer profile image
𒎏Wii 🏳️‍⚧️

The solution exists, and the reason not to implement it is less a matter of possibility and more about weighing its own impact on the community against the harm it would fix.

But whether you think it's worth it or not, a dislike button would quickly fix this problem.

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jonrandy profile image
Jon Randy 🎖️

A review process would also fix it, but that brings the inevitable accusations of gatekeeping - and is obviously labour intensive.

Automating AI content detection and flagging suspect content would also help.

Manually trying to help enforce the AI content guidelines appears to be a non-starter and can even get you threatened with 'action' by the site 😑

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syeo66 profile image
Red Ochsenbein (he/him)

"Automating AI content detection and flagging suspect content would also help."
If only this would be accurate enough. It's something currently not even giants like Google are able to do reliably.

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jonrandy profile image
Jon Randy 🎖️

Yeah, it's not 100% but it might be a help to moderators. I find at least some detectors (zerogpt.com and chatgptzero.com) are fairly reliable indicators.

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syeo66 profile image
Red Ochsenbein (he/him)

Image description

At least my article would go through. :-D

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srt_a7166d126 profile image
srt_a7166d126

I've been waiting for a dislike button. Imagine the garbage it would take out.

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jonrandy profile image
Jon Randy 🎖️

+100

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leob profile image
leob • Edited

Great article ... I have serious doubts if a career in IT or development will ever be as fun, delightful and rewarding as it HAS been (in my opinion) over the last few decades ... if were to start right now, I'm doubting if I'd even choose it again!

But, maybe we're all a bit too gloomy and we should let go off our "obsessions" (both negative and positive) with AI, and get on with our lives - focusing on the things we DO like, and ignore the rest.

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syeo66 profile image
Red Ochsenbein (he/him)

Yeah, well, I started coding when I was 9 years old. I can't not do it (I think). But I'm very intentional with what I use, what I subscribe to and what I want to have in my life.

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leob profile image
leob

Oh, it could still be a hobby, regardless of AI and all that - point is, would it still be enjoyable as a career (to earn your bread & butter) ...

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rivea0 profile image
Eda

I agree, it's disappointing that this epidemic is everywhere else like you said, not just on dev.to.
It also sucks the joy out of people who are actually interested in writing and enjoy being the editor of their own articles.

On the flip side, encouraging people to not care too much about things like grammatical correctness or typos makes it hard for people who genuinely care about those kinds of things (I was an English major, don't blame me) to express that what they write is written by an actual human being. For example, I want the series I'm working on to have a structure and be as grammatically correct as possible, but in this case it's hard to convey the human effort that goes into crafting those articles. There's this peril that they can be easily assumed to be AI generated content.

I don't know, it's a catch-22 situation, and unfortunately it's all the creative fields that are affected the most, not just writing.
I really think it'll get worse, so maybe the solution is to try woodworking indeed.

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syeo66 profile image
Red Ochsenbein (he/him) • Edited

I get what you are saying. I just wanted to make clear I wasn't advocating people should write bad texts, but rather I prefer them to be genuine. Sure I enjoy a well written witty and passionate article... but typos and grammatical correctness (also, not everyone is native english speaking, I'm sure not) should not be what drives you to just resort to let AI generate everything.

Also, I have no problem with the opposite: Sure, use AI to get started, or improve what you have... just make sure you know what the article is about and at least check the content for wrong info and hallucinations.

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nmitic profile image
Nikola Mitic

I wrote series of articles about how to make your CV speak. I used various of open source tools as well as paid platforms with minimal investments.

I explained the big picture and went into details of a common issues people might be facing.

End result is a personal CV which can answer questions in your real voice based on your CV.

I have also asked people to give me feedback as I, well need it. To create sort of a loop. As I'm sure many people can do it on their own. It serves as a inspiration more than my a in depth instructions HOW TO.

Would you say something like this brings no value?

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nmitic profile image
Nikola Mitic

I also make sure examples works. Used LLM only for spelling issues. And like to think it's authentic.

And somehow nobody cares. Which is fine but I don't understand what can I offer now?

I have about 7 years experience working in (way too many) start-ups. And somehow I struggle with providing value to others in this form of an article. Any suggestions?

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syeo66 profile image
Red Ochsenbein (he/him) • Edited

I don't think I'm the right person to answer this. Take a look at my history of articles. They mostly 'do not work' in terms of reach, and I never cared about that. Do I always add value? I'm not sure. I hope so, if the value is only my own perspective, that's seems to be fine. Usually I do not feel like I have much to say anyways... but when i do, I have certainly thought about it for quite a while already.

I struggled with feeling like not being able to add value since forever. Less as coder (at least there I can see the code), but most certainly when I look at the products I was working on. And the feeling was particularly strong when I was working as a music composer: "Why should people listen to my music, when there is so much out there already, and there are the big masters, who were already better than me a few centuries ago."

I think the only thing I can suggest: Your own perspective is unique, it adds value, no matter how little it seems to be.

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nmitic profile image
Nikola Mitic

I understand your view. After all the value seems to increase if quality is high and less people are interested. But quality is the name of the game. I think to add to your comment. Value, as you seem to suggest is each person interpretation of whatever is that the person consumes. But quality seems to be less of an interpretation and more of a fact.

Now what seems to be missing is people not seeing value in quality. Which is sooo strange to me.

This goes beyond dev.to.

But that's for another discussion I guess.

Have a good one 🙏

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syeo66 profile image
Red Ochsenbein (he/him) • Edited

I believe people will appreciate quality, but if you take a look at anything happening on social media it's seems to be way more important to connect with the people (at least to gain traction). As Ludwig van Beethoven apparently once said "To play a wrong note is insignificant; to play without passion is inexcusable."

Edit: But, what do I know: I don't even believe I'm providing particularly much value or quality, and don't think I am good at connecting with people...

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syeo66 profile image
Red Ochsenbein (he/him) • Edited

Why would I say this does not add value? You do something more than just lining up prompts and copy/paste. My point has nothing to do with the availability of tools, but has everything to do with the value a human can and should bring to the table.

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carnes profile image
Carnes

Many billions have been spent on ai and the ROI is currently negative. It won't be long before the most free ai stuff disappears as the vc money dries up and companies stop paying 3rd party vendors for llm access.

It's not going away but people will realise it's a quality indicator that is locked lower than what a human could do. Most companies will be 100% fine with lower quality as long as it makes money (or saves money by firing humans that cost more than the API sub to the llm)

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z2lai profile image
z2lai

On the plus side, the barrier of entry for new developers will be greater than ever, thus protecting our jobs. My career development was based on finding golden nuggets of articles online written by people who really know their stuff to bring my skills to the next level. It was extremely hard to sift through all the less in-depth articles to find these golden nuggets. Now with the help of AI, finding these golden nuggets will be like finding a needle in the haystack of low quality or even wrong information. Good luck to new developers!

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g1itcher profile image
G1itcher

Nail on the head man. But I'd go even further; I'm tired of AI as a product. Who wants a product that randomly makes stuff up? Why is that a selling point for your new phone?

This is just Web3 again; a nonsense product that no one actually wants.

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ezpieco profile image
Ezpie • Edited

The real problem is none other then those humans who don't know about tech, that CEO guy has no prior knowledge about how tech works, so when the team came up with something like AI, he just said, "This is the next big thing, if not, make it at what ever cost". Of course the cost over here is human knowledge, I mean, isn't just using GPT the same as google searching? Just that it's more easier to use and doesn't require using a brain? Let's be real no developer here uses GPT, but those new guys and those non-tech guys who have no idea how it works just tend to use it like it's the next big thing after iPhone.

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dave_scott_3276172b66dac9 profile image
Dave Scott

On the plus side. I found this article after finishing work at 2:30am after working all day. Quick swipe over to news and top of feed is big "I'm tired of it" on stark black background. Dev.to

Gave me a chuckle.

These AI are getting scarily good, even reading minds now.

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syeo66 profile image
Red Ochsenbein (he/him)

😂

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ai4rv profile image
ai4rv

I disagree that you won't have any impact.
I believe that AI will get better, but it will never create. There are certain things that AI will never be able to do, human things, and likely we won't even find them until we do. (In other words, we won't predict them.)
Remember that AI is ONLY a tool! It is not an entity, even if some people treat it as such.
People now can tell the difference between an article written by a person vs an AI, and while at this point, they may read the article because they're amazed by the AI, but they will soon tire of it.
Meanwhite, these save people, all people, will appreciate anything she by a human. They'll appreciate the nuances, the emotion, anything that makes a person a human.
So, don't fret. There's still a place for all of us, and we most certainly CAN make a difference! Practice writing your unique voice, your unique humor, etc. All the things that make you human. In the AI-enhanced future, more will crave what you have to offer.

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johanmynhardt profile image
Johan Mynhardt 🇿🇦

Delightful article! Sometimes it feels like we're in the minority, people getting fed up with all the AI hype.

Granted, there may be situations where it is really useful, for example bridging the gap when one tries to do something using a certain skill that you have not mastered yet. So used as a stepping stone may be useful. But building one's career on it is a red flag.

I've seen some code produced, and it irks me. It's of lower quality than when a skilled craftsman created the same solution. I guess because it learned from available code, it's guaranteed to only be on similar standard.

Not for me thank you. I may not be the 10x developer everyone supposedly should try to be, but at least I'm keeping my own skills sharp.

Keep on fighting the good fight 👌

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webmasterexit1 profile image
webmaster-exit-1

Funny how with AI around. The way we'll adapt to knowing who else is human is by acting crass or vulgarity. Since an AI's T.O.S. wouldn't "allow" such behavior. What was once seen as uncouth will now be seen as proof. Anyway, that's what I took away from this. Good job voicing your opinion and emotion on the fact. It was refreshing.

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tobleron profile image
Arto Kalishian • Edited

I have been isolated from everything since 2 years. I came out of this isolation seeing everyone talking about AI. In 2022, it wasn't that good. But now, I can converse hours with chatGPT and have a hard time to believe that it's pretty close to a human conversation and make sense why people are overwhelmed. That said, I kept wondering... I wanted to learn Rust programming language and web-assembly all the safely performant tools of my nerdy choice, but when I saw that AI can generate most of the code I wanted to learn I started searching for value. Is this really what I want? To code something a computer can do? Or should I better sort the thousands of digital books on my computer into folders and start learning them myself to summarize it to the "robot's rebellion" or "AI zombies" out there. I asked myself, wouldn't that be a better way to spend my time and add more value from humans to humans? AI can't understand spiritual issues. I loved the comment down there about the "wood work", needless to say Jesus was a carpenter <3

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brense profile image
Rense Bakker

I'm kinda sad this wasn't written with AI... The irony would last for days ;p

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syeo66 profile image
Red Ochsenbein (he/him)

Yeah, that's something I might have done just for the giggles. :-D but alas, not this time

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jonrandy profile image
Jon Randy 🎖️
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art_ptushkin profile image
Artem Ptushkin • Edited

It's interesting to read about the issues surrounding AI-generated content. As a developer, I can see the potential benefits of using AI for certain tasks, but I also understand the importance of human input, creativity, and expertise. AI might help with efficiency, but it can't replicate the genuine passion and unique perspective that comes from personal experience and effort. Let's strive to use AI as a tool to enhance our work, not replace the value we bring as humans.

🧌

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scottishyorkshireman profile image
geoffhirst

Hey fella, Photography (and flying drones) is a great outlet. There has been the odd YT'er who has said that AI will change photography, especially paid photography. Well, I am not paid for mine, its an outlet away from the pish that swirls around social media and the internet in general. AI is the channel for those without talent, for those with only the motivation for the accolades, rather than the work. Sure, human hybrid AI where the AI provides some kind of starting position for a piece, but to just take words that an AI has vomited to your screen without any form of moderation, just about sums up this world. Can't see it changing for the better anytime soon, there is after all no human value any more, only shareholder value. Sad world really. Now, where's my drone, I am off flying.

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cihanyakar profile image
Cihan Yakar • Edited

Although I am not sure how well it would work, we need platforms similar to academic journals where only content of a certain quality (whether AI-generated or not, is irrelevant), reviewed by peers and referees, is published. This should apply not only to written content but also to audio and visual content.

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ajaxdono profile image
Ajax Donovan

TLDR version;
AI-generated content on dev.to is bland and inaccurate. Let's value real human effort and authenticity over AI-created stuff. Using AI to generate and then summarize emails is silly. Be human, embrace imperfection, and share genuine stories.

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larwri profile image
Larwri

Hang in there. We made it through the PLR and generated content epidemics of the 2000s/2010s. We'll survive the GPT generated content of the 2020s.

After all, it's not hard to tell what's generated if you've read enough of the stuff.

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nelcapetown profile image
Nel Prinsloo

I guess "made by a real human" is going to become more precious (and harder to spot) as we are gallivanting around the new AI circus in town. Don't get me wrong - it definitely has value and I use it throughout my day, but as a sound board and fact checker (ironic, hey.)
I've been lead on a meandering journey through one or two technical facts where, in our conversational tone, I felt like saying to it at the end of it all after finding the documentation and checking the facts and learning that it was very helpfully leading me completely astray.
Personally I have a huge problem with AI speech synthesis and the plethora of YouTube content that screams no sanity checks anywhere from concept to execution to publication.
Perhaps my decidedly not technical friend had a better idea: when I told her about the capabilities of ChatGPT 4 many months ago, her first enthusiastic idea was - so let's ask it for the lotto numbers.

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kurealnum profile image
Oscar • Edited

I understand. I check in every day and do my best to make at least 1 positive interaction or give a thumbs up to a post (moderator thingy that boosts posts for those who aren't aware). And yeah, there are a quite a few posts every day that are either AI generated, AI assisted, a "listicle", or posts that are made by paraphrasing off of documentation. I try and find the positive aspects though! There's normally at least 1 or 2 posts or comments every day that are really well written or completely imperfect -- which is what makes them so good.

Back to the more gloomy side of things, I have considered hosting my own blogging site that completely disallows AI of any sort. As @jonrandy said, it's a lot of work to moderate this many posts, and something like that would of course lead to "inevitable accusations of gatekeeping". Perhaps if that site started with 50-some like minded people that all wanted to see imperfect writing make a comeback, then maybe it would be feasible. Perhaps if that site disallowed any sort of pasting, then maybe it would be effective against AI. Perhaps if that site had an AI checker built in, then maybe it would discourage people from using AI to write their articles. No matter what, it would still be a tremendous amount of work.

But yeah, we (as in all of the internet's conumers of content -- and creators of content, of course) are in a sucky situation right now, and no one really knows the best course to take.

By the way, I really like your emotional appeals. I find myself relying on logical appeals, but you've reminded me that there's more to writing than plain logic xD.

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chrisburkssn profile image
Chris Burks

I'm wondering if it can be asked the same from commenters; to put "the work" in? Let me explain...
I see many commenters that accuse people of copying and pasting AI generated material and go no further. Do this doesn't add any value either. Most of the time it leads to a disagreement and sometimes the focus of getting some good feedback is lost. (Please don't take this as me accusing you of doing this @syeo66, because I'm not)

I'm not saying to do the moderators job. But as a community, I believe we all should be helping. As commenters if we see something or absolutely know something is incorrect, then respectively say so about that specific issue instead of focusing on whether or not it was AI generated.
For me, I am here to learn, give back and sometimes just read. I'm not here to see whether an article is made from AI or someone's "hard work" (I do think that are some who use AI to start but then do other work to either confirm or modify what's there. But it's still AI generated to start).

I get that we don't want to have people spreading incorrect information programming or otherwise, but isn't that one of the purposes of the comments; so that people can give good feedback. I could care less if it's AI generated or not. What I care about is if the information is correct and if I deem to use something from an article I don't take it for face value. I still do the research and or test it out to really understand it (as any good developer would do).

That said, I do agree about not just copying and pasting if one is going to use AI generated material. And there are good reasons for this.

  1. As said in the other comments, it doesn't add any value
  2. If you can't articulate it in your own words you may not know it as well as you think. This means you're really not growing in what ever topic you're writing about.
  3. We all know (or maybe most of us know) that AI is not always correct; at least currently it's not. For me, I won't solely trust it for a long time if I can help it.

I do hope this comment added value. Thanks for the article and sharing your concern.

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demoraliz3d profile image
DEMORALIZ3D

Wouldn't it be funny if this was written by AI using multiple prompts to give it full body and personality with the oxymoronic theme that its tired of itself.

But seriously, the email decompression thing hit me. This is so insightful. Your right. My emails aren't perfect but I get the answers I want when I send them. Getting AI to take my what I think is sharp and concise email and then making it what an LLM interprets as "more in-depth" doesn't always yield the results I want.

I admittantly only use these resources to gain quick knowledge in something. I rarely commit into memory but I have come across some absolute garbage.

But...it will get better, or AI will. Either way. Great article. This may be my first ever comment 👏

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eaallen profile image
Elijah Allen

I thoroughly enjoyed this rant. Thank you.

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paul_freeman profile image
Paul

I feel this too, I had written an article with possible solutions, but I don't think much would be done.

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syeo66 profile image
Red Ochsenbein (he/him)

Nice article. Thanks.

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be_rajeevkumar profile image
Rajeev Kumar

I am new to technical blog writing, I just read this blog and it opened my eyes, to how people publish their blogs so fast & I can't even figure out the way to share my story. The most important thing I learned in this blog is that "you share your story which is valued to the community in any particular way because everyone's story matters".

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bahiensed profile image
Douglas Bahiense

Not sure if this was written by AI though...

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syeo66 profile image
Red Ochsenbein (he/him)

It was not. Try zerogpt or using a prompt in any of the LLMs to get something remotely similar. You won't (sure it does not prove that I am not a master-proompter; but proof of non-existence is by definition impossible).

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bahiensed profile image
Douglas Bahiense • Edited

It was just irony.
Soon machines will also learn this.
Hey?! Wait...
;-)

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tqbit profile image
tq-bit

If you're tired of it and would like to help, join the dev mods and clean the mess up. Mods have a kind of dislike button at their disposal :)

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syeo66 profile image
Red Ochsenbein (he/him)

Are you talking about this?
Image description

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chandra_pantachhetri profile image
Chandra Panta Chhetri

Imagine this article was written by ChatGPT because it's also tired of people's requests.

Jokes aside, I think you are absolutely right. AI has made things too convenient to the point where people aren't bothering to put effort into things.

AI should be used as a tool to gain insights & explore alternative ways of thinking but it shouldn't be the ONLY way of "thinking".

Great article! I should post a link to it everytime I encounter an AI generated content 😆.

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brandontrabon profile image
Brandon Trabon

I completely agree with you partner; I don't use "AI" for anything I do. Mostly because it hinders more than it helps me. All of my content is created by me.

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mishmanners profile image
Michelle Duke

Try something not on the computer. The AI hasn't gotten that far yet - jigsaw puzzles, model building, sport, walking, touch grass. Hang in there, everything will work out 😄

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dyego_fernandesdesousa_ profile image
Dyego Fernandes de Sousa

Wow, this one article deserves my claps! Congratulations, I feel the same way...

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isaiahwp profile image
Isaiah

+1000 new bot followers 😅. Unfortunately, we can't really control this stuff. Even Youtube/Twitter is having a hard time dealing with AI content. It's better to focus on the stuff you can control.

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tullaris profile image
João Almeida

Hear, hear!

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ajborla profile image
Anthony J. Borla

Not only tiresome, but disheartening, and most disillusioning.

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star-codex profile image
E

I totally agree with you.

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theooliveira profile image
Theo Oliveira

Same can be said about 5 tips to X, 10 top of Y and etc. We built this tiktokverse, and by saying that i am not saying you can´t complain about it, people consume that, welcome to post-modernity.

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nuri profile image
Nuri Ensing

If people use AI as a tool, that's fine. However, if it's just a matter of copying and pasting AI-generated text, that becomes a significant problem.

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perisicnikola37 profile image
Nikola Perišić

Finally, someone said it :)

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sridhar7601 profile image
sridhar7601 • Edited

We are here for you dood....not as bots
but as humans🙋

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sander76 profile image
Sander

Absolutely spot on! Authenticity and personal touch always shine brighter than generic AI-generated content.

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oussama_fadlaoui_990bb36a profile image
Oussama Fadlaoui

It would be hilarious if this article was generated by AI

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syeo66 profile image
Red Ochsenbein (he/him)

Someone mentioned that already. Unfortunately I actually wrote it. :D

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Davey Jacobson

💯 ABSOLUTE TRUTH!!!

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alagarsamy_rajamannar_c82 profile image
Alagarsamy Rajamannar