I never understand these comments. This adds nothing to the discussion. And as the editor of Linux Journal, I bet George has written plenty of bullet lists over the years. Maybe the AIs are copying him, you know?
It's an expression of concern - is this article actually an expression of someone's thoughts about a topic of concern, or did someone just ask ChatGPT to write them an article about Flatpak security?
A great way to address those concerns would be to look at the reputation of the person being questioned, who in this case is the editor of Linux Journal. That doesn't prove he'd never use AI, but it does mean it's not some random blogger trying to sell their reputation for cheap karma before anyone notices.
But really, I don't care. I'm far more annoyed with people racing to cash in with "this looks like it was written by AI" on every. single. post. Yeah, we get it. It does not make the accuser look more clever or insightful. It makes them look like a pest.
> That doesn't prove he'd never use AI, but it does mean it's not some random blogger trying to sell their reputation for cheap karma before anyone notices.
It wouldn't be the first time I've seen a formerly reputable web site start churning out AI slop, unfortunately. And, for what it's worth, this other article on the site, published a few days ago, doesn't fill me with confidence either:
It's mostly a paraphrase of the official release notes (https://blog.torproject.org/new-release-tails-60/), and it's over a year late - Tails 6.0 was released in February 2024. Even if it's human-written, it's a weird topic to choose and an extremely lazy way to write about it.
Indeed, I've been making bullet point lists like that since college when I had a communications professor drive it into our heads. Yes AI loves the bullet point list, but just including one does not make it AI. This is yet another step on the overall reduction in quality of writing. Now we have to avoid bullet point lists, and inject typos and other things into our writing to make it seem more "human." It's a road to sadness and the dumbing down of society IMHO.
I'm surprised that someone would came to the rescue of bullet points for the sake of defending quality writing as they seem to me exactly the opposite of quality writing, but I guess this could be a matter of taste
I agree. I've been annoyed by bullet points (exceptions: instruction manuals and lists of ingredients in recipes) starting well before AIs started writing text.
Thankfully, so far the LLMs in my life will avoid bullet points if I ask them to.
I never understand these comments. This adds nothing to the discussion. And as the editor of Linux Journal, I bet George has written plenty of bullet lists over the years. Maybe the AIs are copying him, you know?
It's an expression of concern - is this article actually an expression of someone's thoughts about a topic of concern, or did someone just ask ChatGPT to write them an article about Flatpak security?
A great way to address those concerns would be to look at the reputation of the person being questioned, who in this case is the editor of Linux Journal. That doesn't prove he'd never use AI, but it does mean it's not some random blogger trying to sell their reputation for cheap karma before anyone notices.
But really, I don't care. I'm far more annoyed with people racing to cash in with "this looks like it was written by AI" on every. single. post. Yeah, we get it. It does not make the accuser look more clever or insightful. It makes them look like a pest.
> That doesn't prove he'd never use AI, but it does mean it's not some random blogger trying to sell their reputation for cheap karma before anyone notices.
It wouldn't be the first time I've seen a formerly reputable web site start churning out AI slop, unfortunately. And, for what it's worth, this other article on the site, published a few days ago, doesn't fill me with confidence either:
https://www.linuxjournal.com/content/veil-vigilance-tails-60...
It's mostly a paraphrase of the official release notes (https://blog.torproject.org/new-release-tails-60/), and it's over a year late - Tails 6.0 was released in February 2024. Even if it's human-written, it's a weird topic to choose and an extremely lazy way to write about it.
I’m not saying he’s a great author, just that it’s ridiculous to accuse him of that because he uses bullet points.
Indeed, I've been making bullet point lists like that since college when I had a communications professor drive it into our heads. Yes AI loves the bullet point list, but just including one does not make it AI. This is yet another step on the overall reduction in quality of writing. Now we have to avoid bullet point lists, and inject typos and other things into our writing to make it seem more "human." It's a road to sadness and the dumbing down of society IMHO.
I'm surprised that someone would came to the rescue of bullet points for the sake of defending quality writing as they seem to me exactly the opposite of quality writing, but I guess this could be a matter of taste
I agree. I've been annoyed by bullet points (exceptions: instruction manuals and lists of ingredients in recipes) starting well before AIs started writing text.
Thankfully, so far the LLMs in my life will avoid bullet points if I ask them to.
I can speak in listicles and use em-dashes — correctly, mind you! — using only organic neurochemistry-based intelligence of my brain.