HN

Comments (155)

• Menu

  jhhh
  I miss the text only reading era. This is a blog and should not need to have JavaScript enabled to render text to a page. I would rather not have to be annoyed by flavor of the month duplicate scroll bars, cookie banners, newsletter pop-ups 5 seconds in, scroll to the top pop-ups, idle overlays, highlight helper bars that break copy paste, etc. This blog didn't have all of those but had some. I'm sure the metrics look great because I had to load this page four times. First initially, and then disabling JavaScript and realizing it doesn't load anything at all. A third time re-enabling JavaScript and then deleting all the annoying elements, and then a fourth time to make sure my cosmetic filter is applied correctly. 4x the interactions! Must be doing something right.
• Menu

  boca_honey
  >I just wrote what my brain is instructing to type (might not reread it before posting)Why would I put effort into reading something that had no effort put in by the author?This guy needs an editor, AI or otherwise.
• Menu

  piker
  AI for editing is garbage. Chat to it to get ideas maybe, but in its current incarnation it’s just going to degrade anything you filter through it.
• solomonb
  I actually find Gmail a better editor/grammar check then LLMs. It makes isolated simplifications/corrections that imo have minimal style impact and just focus on clarifying phrasing.
• Menu

  aidenn0
  What does it say about me that when I run my writing through one of those "detect if AI" tools I seldom see a value of less than 70% confidence that the writing was AI generated?
• Menu

  aledevv
  I want to emphasize a thought you expressed:> "..but maybe it's a good thing that most of us don't allow this technology to reframe our thoughts."No, you're not the only one experiencing this: I too had the same concerns as you: with every new thought, every new creation, I had to ask the AI's opinion, as if I were no longer able to judge, to decide, without consulting the AI (...just to be safe, you never know...).The only way to regain your creative ability is to write down your thoughts yourself, read, reread, rewrite, correct, express your opinion...What AI can't do is convey emotions.
• Menu

  everdrive
  Not joking, buy and read books. Old books are only written by people. (and the help of an editor)
• mlsu
  Every now and then when I'm reading something, the writer will use a turn of phrase, a specific word, a metaphor, etc, that is unusually clever, or allows me to see the concept in some obtuse light. Or even, they are just able to choose the right words to make something sound musical or rhythmic in some pleasant way. It's intellectually delightful to come across these in writing.I've never been surprised at AI writing. Emotion the biggest part of communication and these grey boxes have none.
• Ancalagon
  I am definitely missing the pre-AI w̶r̶i̶t̶i̶n̶g̶ era
• anon
  undefined
• Menu

  beej71
  I feel like asking it to polish or rewrite is going too far. Using it for a grammar/spell checker or thesaurus is fine, though. At least that preserves ones voice.And I've definitely used it when I can't remember that one stinking word that I know exists and is perfect for this occasion.
• nikitadotla
  I am not a native speaker, for anything like HN comments I don't use AI, but I see no harm in using AI in correcting grammar and maybe some wording, but the ultimate change shouldn't be a copy-paste replacement, it should be well thought through by the author.
• Menu

  radimm
  This is exactly same struggle for me. Writing technical content about PostgreSQL and balancing my voice without sounding like LLM written is genuinely difficult.As English is not my first language, I do run into problem where the line between fix my clumsy sentence and rewrite my thought is very thin. Same with writing "boring" technical explanation and more approachable content. I'm getting pushed back for both.
• Menu

  epolanski
  I think that AI will accelerate an already existing trend that pre dates AI meaning the global regression to the mean we're seeing in any creative field, from design to videogames, from cars to fashion.
• Menu

  heavyset_go
  If you outsource your thinking and skills, your ability to do either atrophies. You'll become dependent on outsourcing for both.You're trading ability and competence for convenience.
• zwischenzug
  The first sentence makes no sense.
• Menu

  viccis
  >Although 80 % of the content was my own writing, the fact that it was run in a LLM enginee for grammar and vocabulary cross-check, made it failed the "probable written by AI " metric; and it was rejected.should be:>Although 80% of the content was my own writing, the fact that it was run through an LLM engine for grammar and vocabulary cross-checking meant that it failed the "probably written by AI" metric, and it was rejected. 1. 80 % -> 80% 2. in -> through 3. a LLM -> an LLM 4. enginee -> engine 5. cross-check -> cross-checking 6. cross-checking, -> cross-checking (removed the comma) 7. made it failed -> meant that it failed, (or "made it fail" depending on whether you want to preserve the past tense or preserve the word "made") 8. probable -> probably 9. by AI " -> by AI" 10. ; and it was -> , and it was (no need for a semicolon when linking with a conjunction like "and", and I would consider another word or phrase such as ", and, as a result, it was rejected" to emphasize the causal relationship between the clauses) That's ten corrections that are fixing straightforward typos and/or grammar and vocab mistakes in one sentence. Most are fairly objective, though I can understand different opinions on 2, 7, or maybe 10.Relying on AI for editing seems to have atrophied the author's writing if that is what he or she thinks is worth publishing on a blog like this. I would suggest practicing editing your own work and not even thinking about passing it through AI (especially when you were told not to use any AI!) to edit for a while. Given that English is not your first (or even second or third) language, I would also suggest having a native speaker with some demonstrable writing skill review your writing and give feedback on how to make it more idiomatic. For example, writing being "run through an LLM" rather than "run in an LLM" is a relatively subtle difference compared to the others, and it's very very common for preposition mistakes like this to show up when writing in another language than your first. I am still hopeless with French prepositions.
• Menu

  stabbles
  Are grammatical errors and typos fashionable now? Reading this post it seems the anti-thesis in the LLM era is not to edit at all, but rather write down a stream of consciousness to make it "personal".
• Menu

  thepasch
  I never use an LLM to paraphrase my own voice as a matter of principle, but I’ve still been repeatedly accused of doing so because I happen to always have written structured posts, used “smart quotes,” and done that negative comparison thing (it’s genuinely not just fluff, it’s a genuinely useful way to— ah god damn it). Sigh.
• keiferski
  I have been writing stuff for a long time; my first internet experience was posting on forums about a Gameboy Advance game. Then in other forums, for a philosophy degree, and professionally as a copywriter and technical writer. I’ve been meaning to write up a post of my thoughts on writing and AI, but there things I’ve been thinking recently are:1. There was a lot of slop pre-AI. In fact I’d say the majority of published writing was bad, formulaic, and just written to manipulate your emotions. So in some sense, I don’t really think pre-AI slop had more value. It’s just cheaper to make now.2. AI has prompted me to study more off-beat writers that followed the rules of language a little less frequently. This includes a lot of people from circa 1890-1970, when experimenting with form was really in vogue.3. Which brings me to my third point, which is that no matter how much the AI actually knows about writing, the person prompting it is limited by their own education and knowledge of writers. You can’t say, “make me a post in the style of Burroughs” if you don’t know who Burroughs was, or what his writing style was. So in a sense there is an increased importance to being educated about writing itself. Without it you’re limited in your ability to use AIs to write stuff and in your awareness of how much your non-AI written work is influenced by AI writing.
• CrzyLngPwd
  I've been a Grammarly customer for quite some time, and I have tried the AI suggestions, but it always loses something and ends up with a whiny, apologetic tone.AI always seems so verbose and wordy.
• ChaitanyaSai
  I am sorry but perhaps some use of AI or grammar-check would help? A lawn that's not overly manicured has its charm, but if it has one too many barren patches of clumps of overgrown grass, it doesn't appeal as much? This essay feels a bit like that.
• joemazerino
  I'd push back on the author and ask him really if his writing is getting worse or his standards have increased, leading to undue stress that might throw the flow state off.
• Menu

  amelius
  Are there any good writing LLMs out there?I get that the mainstream ones have been RLHF'd to death, but surely there must be others that are capable?
• nsxwolf
  Once I think something is AI I just can’t read it anymore. It isn’t out of principle or anything, I just become so distracted by the idea that I can’t focus or derive any benefit or pleasure from continuing.
• bananaflag
  Can't you just... not do this?I never passed any AI writing as my own. I would feel utterly awful. Also, I love tweaking words until they sound perfect.The number of people who just nonchalantly admit that AI writes their messages is honestly scaring me.
• skywhopper
  It’s largely a problem of how these tools are packaged, but while it’s certainly nice to have an LLM check your spelling, or review your grammar or style or usage, you should never allow them to actually edit your document directly.First of all, they will make substantive changes you didn’t intend. The meaning will get changed, errors will be introduced. Tone will be off, and as the author says, your voice will disappear. There is no single “correct” way to write something. And voice and tone are conveyed with grammatical and usage variation. Don’t give that up to a robotic average.Secondly, you will never improve, or even maintain, your own writing skills if you don’t actively engage with the suggested changes. You also won’t fully realize half the purpose of writing, which is to understand the topic better yourself. Doing the work of editing your piece will help you understand the subject even better. If you just let the machine “fix” your errors, you’ll become a worse writer and less of an expert over time.
• kerblang
  > It means, I passed the text.Ha. Well I guess you did, _this time_.Can we not just ask an AI to correct our spelling mistakes and leave the rest alone?
• josefritzishere
  For the most part, AI writing is pretty bad. It reads like a highschool kid trying to hit a minimum word requirement.
• metalman
  wrong, or at least, slightlywrong, but not, lesswrongyou are missing the writing era, which is gone. whatever we have now will slowly congeal into cold grue that will get a name or namesthe madness of bieng chastised for speakerphoning and disturbing people gulping the slopwhat do we call that?
• Menu

  andai
  > This post, is written without any tools assistance I just wrote what my brain is instructing to type (might not reread it before posting).How is the author complaining about the quality of their own writing while admitting to not even bothering reading what they wrote, let alone editing it?(Also, why would using a LLM based grammar checker trigger an AI writing detector? Did it end up rewriting substantial parts of the original submission?)
• pypt
  Yeah, now it's "Here's what nobody else talks about" and "Here's the kicker" all day long.
• Menu

  dude250711
  There is no grandiose "AI era". Or it started like in 1950s already.What it is going to be is a 'Slop Decade' - a much better label if you insist on having one.
• i18nagentai
  [dead]
• jeremie_strand
  [dead]
• ghywertelling
  [dead]
• shyam47
  [dead]
• sjdv1982
  [dead]
• nareyko
  [dead]