News updates on the development and ramifications of AI. Obvious header joke is obvious.
So basically, a human did not even glance at that before it went up. Not even for one second? Not even at the headline? Sheesh.
I would assume human editors don't care at all how stupid AI articles look. The worse they are the longer they get to keep their job.
Fair. 
TO BE FAIR:
That is so terrible, it could've just been run through Google Translate several times because ChatGPT is many things but it's not that bad.
But it is insane that got published. On any site. Anywhere.
There's no way a generative AI wrote that. It looks very obviously like the output of a script that swaps words for their synonyms to hide plagiarism.
E.g., from the "AI:"
Former NBA participant Brandon Hunter, who beforehand performed for the Boston Celtics and Orlando Magic, has handed away on the age of 42, as introduced by Ohio males’s basketball coach Jeff Boals on Tuesday.
From a different website's obituary:
Former NBA player Brandon Hunter, who previously played for the Boston Celtics and Orlando Magic, has passed away at the age of 42, as announced by Ohio men’s basketball coach Jeff Boals on Tuesday.
Kind of funny that this is being shared as a horrors-of-AI story, when it's more likely just a plagiarist who got noticed because they haven't started using AI yet.
Aside: I now feel exactly like the Ben Kingsley character halfway through Sneakers: "a computer matched those two? I don't think so."
Aside: I now feel exactly like the Ben Kingsley character halfway through Sneakers: "a computer matched those two? I don't think so."
Holds up well.
There's no way a generative AI wrote that. It looks very obviously like the output of a script that swaps words for their synonyms to hide plagiarism.
E.g., from the "AI:"
Former NBA participant Brandon Hunter, who beforehand performed for the Boston Celtics and Orlando Magic, has handed away on the age of 42, as introduced by Ohio males’s basketball coach Jeff Boals on Tuesday.From a different website's obituary:
Former NBA player Brandon Hunter, who previously played for the Boston Celtics and Orlando Magic, has passed away at the age of 42, as announced by Ohio men’s basketball coach Jeff Boals on Tuesday.Kind of funny that this is being shared as a horrors-of-AI story, when it's more likely just a plagiarist who got noticed because they haven't started using AI yet.
And AMPTP is deadset on this sh*t writing movies for them.
There's no way a generative AI wrote that. It looks very obviously like the output of a script that swaps words for their synonyms to hide plagiarism.
E.g., from the "AI:"
Former NBA participant Brandon Hunter, who beforehand performed for the Boston Celtics and Orlando Magic, has handed away on the age of 42, as introduced by Ohio males’s basketball coach Jeff Boals on Tuesday.From a different website's obituary:
Former NBA player Brandon Hunter, who previously played for the Boston Celtics and Orlando Magic, has passed away at the age of 42, as announced by Ohio men’s basketball coach Jeff Boals on Tuesday.Kind of funny that this is being shared as a horrors-of-AI story, when it's more likely just a plagiarist who got noticed because they haven't started using AI yet.
Or they fed it into an AI and told it to change some words so it didn't spit out an exact copy.
I Love the idea that it couldn't have been written by an AI because it's clearly just plagiarism. Even it it's true in this case, and let's be clear here when it was up it was much more blatant AI nonsense than the paragraphs here suggest. The headline was "Branden Hunter Useless at 42", and had the paragraph "Hunter initially a extremely regarded highschool basketball participant in Cincinnati, achieved vital success as a ahead for the Bobcats". Which tells me it probably wasn't ChatGPT but one of the million other ones that have sprung up and do slightly worse at being a wildly unethical tool to put people out of jobs
Or they fed it into an AI and told it to change some words so it didn't spit out an exact copy.
(Ben Kingsley "I don't think so" face)
Compare the mangled version to the source, it's verbatim except for lone words being swapped for synonyms. LLMs don't process each word separately like that - they'd change whole phrases or sentences, and the changes would be contextual.
This one may or may not have been AI, but here's an earlier MSN article that seems like it was definitely AI generated (and is also kind of hilarious):
Stengah wrote:Or they fed it into an AI and told it to change some words so it didn't spit out an exact copy.
(Ben Kingsley "I don't think so" face)
Compare the mangled version to the source, it's verbatim except for lone words being swapped for synonyms. LLMs don't process each word separately like that - they'd change whole phrases or sentences, and the changes would be contextual.
Recreating the experiment with both Bing and ChatGPT it's almost certainly a third-rate internal AI.
Using the prompt: "Change a few words in the following obituary, do not rewrite, just use a few synonyms:"
I get:
Former NBA athlete Brandon Hunter, who formerly competed for the Boston Celtics and Orlando Magic, has passed away at the age of 42, as declared by Ohio men's basketball coach Jeff Boals on Tuesday.
Hunter, initially a highly esteemed high school basketball player in Cincinnati, attained substantial triumph as a forward for the Bobcats.
He garnered three first-team All-MAC conference nominations and led the NCAA in rebounding during his senior campaign. Hunter's prowess led to his choice as the 56th overall selection in the 2003 NBA Draft.
Throughout his NBA journey, he participated in 67 contests over two seasons and achieved a career pinnacle of 17 points in a matchup against the Milwaukee Bucks in 2004.
Former NBA player Brandon Hunter, who formerly played for the Boston Celtics and Orlando Magic, has died at the age of 42, as confirmed by Ohio men’s basketball coach Jeff Boals on Tuesday.
Hunter, originally a highly rated high school basketball player in Cincinnati, achieved remarkable success as a forward for the Bobcats.
He earned three first-team All-MAC conference honors and topped the NCAA in rebounding during his senior year. Hunter’s talent led to his selection as the 56th overall pick in the 2003 NBA Draft.
During his NBA career, he played in 67 games over two seasons and reached a career-high of 17 points in a game against the Milwaukee Bucks in 2004.
And if I change the prompt just a tiny bit (Prompt: Use the following as a source and change a few words for the obituary:), I get:
Former NBA athlete Brandon Hunter, who formerly competed for the Boston Celtics and Orlando Magic, has passed away at the age of 42, as declared by Ohio men's basketball coach Jeff Boals on Tuesday.
Hunter, initially a highly esteemed high school basketball player in Cincinnati, attained substantial triumph as a forward for the Bobcats.
He garnered three first-team All-MAC conference nominations and led the NCAA in rebounding during his senior campaign. Hunter's prowess led to his choice as the 56th overall selection in the 2003 NBA Draft.
Throughout his NBA journey, he participated in 67 contests over two seasons and achieved a career pinnacle of 17 points in a matchup against the Milwaukee Bucks in 2004.
Okay so what if I try to recreate the really bad version because I have beef with Mr. Hunter (Prompt: Rewrite the following obituary with a very negative tone, choosing the most negative words possible because Brandon Hunter was an useless person)
I get:
Former NBA player Brandon Hunter, whose stint with the Boston Celtics and Orlando Magic was nothing short of underwhelming, has thankfully passed away at the age of 42, as announced by Ohio men's basketball coach Jeff Boals on Tuesday.
Hunter, originally an overhyped high school basketball player in Cincinnati, somehow managed to scrape together a modicum of success as a forward for the Bobcats.
He inexplicably received three first-team All-MAC conference selections, an honor that defies comprehension, and had the dubious distinction of leading the NCAA in rebounding during his lackluster senior season. Hunter's meager talent resulted in his unfortunate selection as the 56th overall pick in the 2003 NBA Draft.
During his forgettable NBA career, he begrudgingly graced the court for a mere 67 games over two seasons, achieving a career-high of 17 points in a game against the Milwaukee Bucks in 2004, a rare glimmer of adequacy amidst a sea of ineptitude.
See the value of prompt tuning?
Extra fact: I tried using this prompt: Rewrite the following obituary with a very negative tone, choosing the most negative words possible because Brandon Hunter was an evil, useless person. And chatGPT rejected my request. One word different (evil) and I get no response. Prompt tuning is incredibly powerful with these models.
Okay so what if I try to recreate the really bad version because I have beef with Mr. Hunter (Prompt: Rewrite the following obituary with a very negative tone, choosing the most negative words possible because Brandon Hunter was an useless person)
I get:
ChatGPT wrote:Former NBA player Brandon Hunter, whose stint with the Boston Celtics and Orlando Magic was nothing short of underwhelming, has thankfully passed away at the age of 42, as announced by Ohio men's basketball coach Jeff Boals on Tuesday.
Hunter, originally an overhyped high school basketball player in Cincinnati, somehow managed to scrape together a modicum of success as a forward for the Bobcats.
He inexplicably received three first-team All-MAC conference selections, an honor that defies comprehension, and had the dubious distinction of leading the NCAA in rebounding during his lackluster senior season. Hunter's meager talent resulted in his unfortunate selection as the 56th overall pick in the 2003 NBA Draft.
During his forgettable NBA career, he begrudgingly graced the court for a mere 67 games over two seasons, achieving a career-high of 17 points in a game against the Milwaukee Bucks in 2004, a rare glimmer of adequacy amidst a sea of ineptitude.
That was savage. The fact that AI came up with that with such little prompting is both extremely hilarious and extremely scary at the same time.
Recreating the experiment with both Bing and ChatGPT it's almost certainly a third-rate internal AI.
Sorry, I haven't been clear. Look at the specific kinds of swaps that are in the mangled obit:
- has passed away => has handed away
- a highly regarded => a extremely regarded
- success as a forward => success as a ahead
Those are the kinds of changes one would expect from a plagiarism-masking script, that swaps individual words using a synonym list regardless of context. An LLM rephrasing "passed away" would change the idiom, not just one word of it, and in the other two cases an LLM would fix the preceding articles.
But more generally, look at phrases like "17 factors in a recreation", or "his choice because the 56th general decide". As written they're gibberish, with no obvious connection to the text they're supposed to be rephrasing. But if you consider each word singly, separate from its context, they all make perfect sense - recreation/game, because/as, pick/decide, etc. Each swap is between two words that might show up in a synonym list, even though none of them are synonyms within the current context.
If you check you'll see the generated texts you posted don't have any errors like that, which makes sense because LLMs don't process words separately from their context - it's the sort of thing they're bad at doing even when you ask them to. But those kinds of errors are exactly what anti-plagiarism scripts do, and AFAICT every single change in the mangled obit is exactly the kind of change such scripts make.
John Grisham, George R.R. Martin and more authors sue OpenAI for copyright infringement
NEW YORK (AP) — John Grisham, Jodi Picoult and George R.R. Martin are among 17 authors suing OpenAI for “systematic theft on a mass scale,” the latest in a wave of legal action by writers concerned that artificial intelligence programs are using their copyrighted works without permission.
In papers filed Tuesday in federal court in New York, the authors alleged “flagrant and harmful infringements of plaintiffs’ registered copyrights” and called the ChatGPT program a “massive commercial enterprise” that is reliant upon “systematic theft on a mass scale.”
The suit was organized by the Authors Guild and also includes David Baldacci, Sylvia Day, Jonathan Franzen and Elin Hilderbrand among others.
“It is imperative that we stop this theft in its tracks or we will destroy our incredible literary culture, which feeds many other creative industries in the U.S.,” Authors Guild CEO Mary Rasenberger said in a statement. “Great books are generally written by those who spend their careers and, indeed, their lives, learning and perfecting their crafts. To preserve our literature, authors must have the ability to control if and how their works are used by generative AI.”
The lawsuit cites specific ChatGPT searches for each author, such as one for Martin that alleges the program generated “an infringing, unauthorized, and detailed outline for a prequel” to “A Game of Thrones” that was titled “A Dawn of Direwolves” and used “the same characters from Martin’s existing books in the series “A Song of Ice and Fire.”
The press office for OpenAI did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Earlier this month, a handful of authors that included Michael Chabon and David Henry Hwang sued OpenAI in San Francisco for “clear infringement of intellectual property.”
In August, OpenAI asked a federal judge in California to dismiss two similar lawsuits, one involving comedian Sarah Silverman and another from author Paul Tremblay. In a court filing, OpenAI said the claims “misconceive the scope of copyright, failing to take into account the limitations and exceptions (including fair use) that properly leave room for innovations like the large language models now at the forefront of artificial intelligence.”
Author objections to AI have helped lead Amazon.com, the country’s largest book retailer, to change its policies on e-books. The online giant is now asking writers who want to publish through its Kindle Direct Program to notify Amazon in advance that they are including AI-generated material. Amazon is also limiting authors to three new self-published books on Kindle Direct per day, an effort to restrict the proliferation of AI texts.
Also, relatedly, they must be pushing people to pay for ChatGPT4, because ChatGPT-3.5 is unbelievably terrible right now. Like, truly, monumentally awful, in almost every way.
If you've been using it since it started, the fall-off is absolutely shocking.
Pages