3 ms·

It annoys me greatly that correct punctuation can be make your work look artificially generated.

by exe34 1y ago

quectophoton 1y ago
Agree, saying that an HN comment is AI-generated just because it has an em-dash, is like saying a Twitter/BlueSky/etc post (or WhatsApp message, etc) is AI-generated just because it ends the sentences with a period. "it looked like a real message but the dot at the end gave it away" There are similar opinions with artists too. Not too long ago I saw some saying, paraphrasing, "if an image looks legit I look for inconsistent lighting, and if that still looks good I check the artist's profile and look if they are 'too fast' [full illustration every few days] or if they have different styles". I haven't seen anything like that with code, but I wouldn't be surprised if someone said that human-written code is actually AI-generated just because the structure looks weird to the reviewer, or because it has some "what" comments (instead of "why" comments; both have their place), or things like that. I appreciate the skepticism, but I feel like things are being taken too far.
AStonesThrow 1y ago
Yeah but for educators, it may be a positive signal for plagiarism, as has always been the case.
- exe34 1y ago
  So if you punctuate correctly, you get accused of plagiarism, but if you don't, then you get penalised for incorrect punctuation... I suppose school is meant to prepare you for life, so it makes sense.
  - AStonesThrow 1y ago
    Well, it's more like when you're teaching a class of immigrants or high schoolers, and some can barely put sentences together or use commas, but one of them submits a midterm paper that could have been written by Neil deGrasse Tyson. Plagiarism has a long history, and the options are numerous, including using some other student's prior work, or paying a human "homework mill" overseas to research write your report for you. It's usually the differential in styles that will get you noticed, because a teacher gets to know their students and what they're capable of in the classroom. Also, using a hyphen instead of an em dash isn't "incorrect"; it's a traditional way of writing, because most of us grew up with ASCII, and only the one key on our keyboards. Only a journalism or literature class would be concerned with teaching the distinction and marking points for using those. I could list about 5-6 signals of LLM generation that I've noticed. Proceeding to investigations and accusations is discretionary, and shouldn't be taken lightly.
    - exe34 1y ago
      Interestingly, as a non-native English speaker, I used to write at a much better level and used a much broader vocabulary than my peers who were native British. My spoken English was very stilted, so presumably I'd have been accused of using AI if they had been around at the time.
floydnoel 1y ago
that's why i stopped using capital letters!

It annoys me greatly that correct punctuation can be make your work look artificially generated.

by exe34 1y ago

It annoys me greatly that correct punctuation can be make your work look artificially generated.

Agree, saying that an HN comment is AI-generated just because it has an em-dash, is like saying a Twitter/BlueSky/etc post (or WhatsApp message, etc) is AI-generated just because it ends the sentences with a period. "it looked like a real message but the dot at the end gave it away" There are similar opinions with artists too. Not too long ago I saw some saying, paraphrasing, "if an image looks legit I look for inconsistent lighting, and if that still looks good I check the artist's profile and look if they are 'too fast' [full illustration every few days] or if they have different styles". I haven't seen anything like that with code, but I wouldn't be surprised if someone said that human-written code is actually AI-generated just because the structure looks weird to the reviewer, or because it has some "what" comments (instead of "why" comments; both have their place), or things like that. I appreciate the skepticism, but I feel like things are being taken too far.

AStonesThrow 1y ago

Yeah but for educators, it may be a positive signal for plagiarism, as has always been the case.

exe34 1y ago
So if you punctuate correctly, you get accused of plagiarism, but if you don't, then you get penalised for incorrect punctuation... I suppose school is meant to prepare you for life, so it makes sense.
- AStonesThrow 1y ago
  Well, it's more like when you're teaching a class of immigrants or high schoolers, and some can barely put sentences together or use commas, but one of them submits a midterm paper that could have been written by Neil deGrasse Tyson. Plagiarism has a long history, and the options are numerous, including using some other student's prior work, or paying a human "homework mill" overseas to research write your report for you. It's usually the differential in styles that will get you noticed, because a teacher gets to know their students and what they're capable of in the classroom. Also, using a hyphen instead of an em dash isn't "incorrect"; it's a traditional way of writing, because most of us grew up with ASCII, and only the one key on our keyboards. Only a journalism or literature class would be concerned with teaching the distinction and marking points for using those. I could list about 5-6 signals of LLM generation that I've noticed. Proceeding to investigations and accusations is discretionary, and shouldn't be taken lightly.
  - exe34 1y ago
    Interestingly, as a non-native English speaker, I used to write at a much better level and used a much broader vocabulary than my peers who were native British. My spoken English was very stilted, so presumably I'd have been accused of using AI if they had been around at the time.

floydnoel 1y ago

that's why i stopped using capital letters!