3 ms·

This is not a reliable source. Reeks of AI-generated text and fake author bios. There are plenty of real sources for this story: https://www.wsj.com/business/

This is not a reliable source. Reeks of AI-generated text and fake author bios. There are plenty of real sources for this story: https://www.wsj.com/business/airlines/united-airlines-halts-flight-departures-after-tech-problem-b37ad11d https://www.wsj.com/business/airlines/united-airlines-halts-... https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/06/business/united-airlines-system-outage.html https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/06/business/united-airlines-... https://www.reuters.com/world/us/united-airlines-flights-resume-after-it-resolves-technology-glitch-2025-08-07/ https://www.reuters.com/world/us/united-airlines-flights-res...

hi41 1y ago
Wow. I couldn’t tell. How did you find out that it may be AI generated.
- tantalor 1y ago
  1. Poor writing quality 2. Didn't exist before 2023 (https://web.archive.org/web/20250000000000*/allchronology.com https://web.archive.org/web/20250000000000*/allchronology.co...) 3. Faces on https://allchronology.com/about/ https://allchronology.com/about/ look like they were taken from https://thispersondoesnotexist.com/ https://thispersondoesnotexist.com/
  - smarx007 1y ago
    Not only the faces look like AI, their URLs look the part: https://i0.wp.com/allchronology.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/100k-ai-faces-3-1.jpg?resize=150%2C150&ssl=1 https://i0.wp.com/allchronology.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/... 100k-ai-faces-3-1.jpg :)
    - tantalor 1y ago
      Nice catch!!
  - rightbyte 1y ago
    The bios does not name the other "renowned" maganizes either they supposedly worked at.
- xnorswap 1y ago
  I only skimmed the article and didn't catch it at first, but a deeper read shows overuse of "rule of 3" which to be fair is also something that hacks do. But also factual errors, such as quoting the supposedly Democrat chair of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. It seemed unlikely that a Democrat was left in that post, and I googled it, and indeed they weren't.
  - AnimalMuppet 1y ago
    But if the training data cut off before January 2025...
- deleted 1y ago
  [deleted]
- daemonologist 1y ago
  Fo me, a few additional things: Lots of boilerplate platitudes, especially towards the end of the story. Some of the quotes appear to be fabricated. I can't find the "aviation analyst" tweet, and I'm pretty sure Maria Cantwell hasn't commented (unless it was video/audio only, and this is the only outlet that printed it). She's also no longer committee chair, being a member of the minority party in the Senate. It very closely follows the AP article on this - like they copied their homework but changed some words - https://apnews.com/article/united-airlines-flights-grounded-08d0e4c76d2c7bc6e38cd767fcec3dc8 https://apnews.com/article/united-airlines-flights-grounded-...
- radley 1y ago
  The footer is literally just "wordpress.com".
- bediger4000 1y ago
  It didn't have a date or range of dates for the occurrence, which is weird.
rectang 1y ago
I can’t see the WSJ article. None of the mainstream articles I could find discuss Unimatic in any detail, including the Reuters and NYT articles. I figure that there has to be a forum out there where the nature of the software glitch is the focus, but I couldn’t find anything. If this story is AI generated, then I would very much like to read the sources it’s lifted from. I did find a 2007 article discussing another Unimatic glitch that caused a stoppage which mentioned that the software dates from 1988: https://www.aviationpros.com/home/news/10387920/computer-failure-stacks-up-united-system-crash-plays-havoc-with-operations https://www.aviationpros.com/home/news/10387920/computer-fai... > The computer system, known as Unimatic, is essential to the airline's operation, providing flight plans for pilots, updates on maintenance information and crew schedules, among other flight information. United jets worldwide cannot take off unless it is operating. The original Unimatic system dates back to at least 1988, but it is updated "all the time," United spokeswoman Robin Urbanski said.
- deleted 1y ago
  [deleted]
the_arun 1y ago
Probably HN needs an automated verification for quality/legitimacy before accepting a submission.
- rectang 1y ago
  I’m ticked off that I got duped and would have welcomed a rejection. It sucks that lots of great HN comments got tied to an AI slop article.
simonw 1y ago
A frustrating thing about paywalls on news sites is that they discourage linking to, because what's the point of linking to something if you don't know if the people you share the link with will be able to read it? Which sadly leaves a gap in the market for AI slop. A few times recently I've tried to find a good news article to link to and had to chose between paywall sites, obvious AI slop or second-tier publications plastered with ads. I usually pick the third category.

hi41 1y ago

Wow. I couldn’t tell. How did you find out that it may be AI generated.

tantalor 1y ago
1. Poor writing quality 2. Didn't exist before 2023 (https://web.archive.org/web/20250000000000*/allchronology.com https://web.archive.org/web/20250000000000*/allchronology.co...) 3. Faces on https://allchronology.com/about/ https://allchronology.com/about/ look like they were taken from https://thispersondoesnotexist.com/ https://thispersondoesnotexist.com/
- smarx007 1y ago
  Not only the faces look like AI, their URLs look the part: https://i0.wp.com/allchronology.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/100k-ai-faces-3-1.jpg?resize=150%2C150&ssl=1 https://i0.wp.com/allchronology.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/... 100k-ai-faces-3-1.jpg :)
  - tantalor 1y ago
    Nice catch!!
- rightbyte 1y ago
  The bios does not name the other "renowned" maganizes either they supposedly worked at.
xnorswap 1y ago
I only skimmed the article and didn't catch it at first, but a deeper read shows overuse of "rule of 3" which to be fair is also something that hacks do. But also factual errors, such as quoting the supposedly Democrat chair of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. It seemed unlikely that a Democrat was left in that post, and I googled it, and indeed they weren't.
- AnimalMuppet 1y ago
  But if the training data cut off before January 2025...
deleted 1y ago
[deleted]
daemonologist 1y ago
Fo me, a few additional things: Lots of boilerplate platitudes, especially towards the end of the story. Some of the quotes appear to be fabricated. I can't find the "aviation analyst" tweet, and I'm pretty sure Maria Cantwell hasn't commented (unless it was video/audio only, and this is the only outlet that printed it). She's also no longer committee chair, being a member of the minority party in the Senate. It very closely follows the AP article on this - like they copied their homework but changed some words - https://apnews.com/article/united-airlines-flights-grounded-08d0e4c76d2c7bc6e38cd767fcec3dc8 https://apnews.com/article/united-airlines-flights-grounded-...
radley 1y ago
The footer is literally just "wordpress.com".
bediger4000 1y ago
It didn't have a date or range of dates for the occurrence, which is weird.

rectang 1y ago

I can’t see the WSJ article. None of the mainstream articles I could find discuss Unimatic in any detail, including the Reuters and NYT articles. I figure that there has to be a forum out there where the nature of the software glitch is the focus, but I couldn’t find anything. If this story is AI generated, then I would very much like to read the sources it’s lifted from. I did find a 2007 article discussing another Unimatic glitch that caused a stoppage which mentioned that the software dates from 1988: https://www.aviationpros.com/home/news/10387920/computer-failure-stacks-up-united-system-crash-plays-havoc-with-operations https://www.aviationpros.com/home/news/10387920/computer-fai... > The computer system, known as Unimatic, is essential to the airline's operation, providing flight plans for pilots, updates on maintenance information and crew schedules, among other flight information. United jets worldwide cannot take off unless it is operating. The original Unimatic system dates back to at least 1988, but it is updated "all the time," United spokeswoman Robin Urbanski said.

deleted 1y ago
[deleted]

the_arun 1y ago

Probably HN needs an automated verification for quality/legitimacy before accepting a submission.

rectang 1y ago
I’m ticked off that I got duped and would have welcomed a rejection. It sucks that lots of great HN comments got tied to an AI slop article.

simonw 1y ago

A frustrating thing about paywalls on news sites is that they discourage linking to, because what's the point of linking to something if you don't know if the people you share the link with will be able to read it? Which sadly leaves a gap in the market for AI slop. A few times recently I've tried to find a good news article to link to and had to chose between paywall sites, obvious AI slop or second-tier publications plastered with ads. I usually pick the third category.