4 ms·

Really no. I’ll quote myself replying to another HN comment: > If you go to ChatGPT and just ask it, you’ll get the equivalent of asking Reddit: a decent chanc

Really no. I’ll quote myself replying to another HN comment: > If you go to ChatGPT and just ask it, you’ll get the equivalent of asking Reddit: a decent chance of someone writing you some fan-fiction, or providing plausible bullshit for the lulz. I disagree. A layman can’t troll someone from the industry let alone a subject matter expert but ChatGPT can. It knows all the right shibboleths, appears to have the domain knowledge, then gets you in your weak spot: individual plausible facts that just aren’t true. Reddit trolls generally troll “noobs” asking entry-level questions or other readers. It’s like understanding why trolls like that exist on Reddit but not StackOverflow. And why SO has a hard ban on AI-generated answers: because the existing controls to defend against that kind of trash answer rely on sniff tests that ChatGPT passes handily.. until put to actual scrutiny.

meowface 3y ago
Is there really an epidemic of troll answers? Not sure I've ever seen intentionally bad programming advice on reddit. (Unintentionally bad, sure.) Even 4chan of all places is rare in this regard, honestly, and in the cases where it does happen the answer is usually dripping with blatant sarcasm. I'd guess totally made-up answers will be way, way, way more common with LLMs compared to any human social network.
- ComputerGuru 3y ago
  There absolutely is an epidemic of troll answers on Reddit but not on programming subs, presumably precisely because of the aforementioned reasons. The kind of person that knows the actual answer (or has sufficient background knowledge to BS a believable answer) is the kind of person that won't post a troll answer in a programming sub. The kind of person that will post a troll answer won't have the requisite background knowledge and will be immediately "outed" and downvoted on the more legitimate (not r/all) subs, and eventually be discouraged from trying. ChatGPT is immune to this organic feedback loop.

meowface 3y ago

Is there really an epidemic of troll answers? Not sure I've ever seen intentionally bad programming advice on reddit. (Unintentionally bad, sure.) Even 4chan of all places is rare in this regard, honestly, and in the cases where it does happen the answer is usually dripping with blatant sarcasm. I'd guess totally made-up answers will be way, way, way more common with LLMs compared to any human social network.

ComputerGuru 3y ago
There absolutely is an epidemic of troll answers on Reddit but not on programming subs, presumably precisely because of the aforementioned reasons. The kind of person that knows the actual answer (or has sufficient background knowledge to BS a believable answer) is the kind of person that won't post a troll answer in a programming sub. The kind of person that will post a troll answer won't have the requisite background knowledge and will be immediately "outed" and downvoted on the more legitimate (not r/all) subs, and eventually be discouraged from trying. ChatGPT is immune to this organic feedback loop.