4 ms·

If you'd built a "tool" that stupid, why would you advertise the fact?

112 points by surprisetalk 1y ago

geon 1y ago
It follows the spam economy. If you can use AI to generate thousands of "articles", some unlucky google user is bound to click on your link. When the price of articles is near zero, it is still profitable.
sigmoid10 1y ago
>It was academia.edu, and who can possibly explain how they were able to get a domain name in the .edu TLD? Relevant section From Wikipedia: >Academia.edu is not a university or institution for higher learning and so under current standards it would not qualify for the ".edu" top-level domain. However, since the domain name "Academia.edu" was registered in 1999, before the regulations required .edu domain names to be held solely by accredited post-secondary institutions in the US, it is allowed to remain active and operational. All .edu domain names registered before 2001 were grandfathered in, even if not an accredited USA post-secondary institution.
- hshdhdhehd 1y ago
  A spammers dream.
- tom1337 1y ago
  There are some 10minutemail / trashmail providers out there who provide .edu emails - great to get benefits which are only for students free, but sucks for everbody who is implementing these platforms to get those benefits because they can't just check if the domain ends on .edu but rather need to validate against a common list of valid universities...
  - jeroenhd 1y ago
    > rather need to validate against a common list of valid universities Don't you need that already anyway? There's no standard for how universities format their academic email addresses. Plus, .edu only applies to American universities. Services validating if you're a "real" student by checking for .edu emails were quite annoying during my time as a student. A lot of these platforms don't seem to even know .edu is an American thing.
  - heavensteeth 1y ago
    Given the list of non-university .edu domains is static (or even decreasing assuming some expire), couldn't you keep a list of those instead?
  - bryanlarsen 1y ago
    > validate against a common list of valid universities Considering that many universities provide email addresses to alumni, I don't think that heuristic would work either.
    - Loughla 1y ago
      Do they? The institutions I've worked with shut off e-mail access between 6 months and 1 year after a student is no longer active. I wonder what the benefit is.
      - bryanlarsen 1y ago
        The benefit is that it makes it easier to hit them up for donations. I'm not sure how common it is, but my wife has an edu email address despite being well over twenty years from graduation.
      - AlotOfReading 1y ago
        I still get the occasional email to mine inviting me to student events. Not sure they realize I graduated, but it was long enough ago that some of the buildings the events are held in didn't exist when I attended.
      - pavel_lishin 1y ago
        I distinctly remember that Freshman year, we were told in some big auditorium, during onboarding, that we should start using our university-provided emails as our primary "professional" emails. Someone then asked what happens when we graduate and lose access to those emails, and they didn't have a particularly good answer. I think that was also the same onboarding where they passed around a piece of paper for us to sign in with our name and social security number.
    - jz_ 1y ago
      Despite originally saying it was a perk of graduation, mine ended cutting access after 10 years by citing cost saving (I imagine Google Workspace bills add up quickly, compared to self-hosting email). I wouldn't be surprised if this is the trend now.
Jean-Papoulos 1y ago
I believe there's a vicious circle of a few companies starting to use AI with an actual idea, then shareholders of other companies say "we need to use AI as well, it works for them !" and then more companies start using AI to "not fall behind", etc... All with very few actual use cases. 99% are doing it just because others are.
- gdulli 1y ago
  We're all trapped in history's worst prisoner's dilemma.
- delaminator 1y ago
  That's what happening at our company. The owner lives in London and rarely visits but he has arranged for AI consultants to come in and workshop with us to see how "AI can help the business". Our operations mainly consist of data entry.
  - newswasboring 1y ago
    Isn't data entry a really good usecase for the LLM technologies? Of course depending on the exact usecase. But most "data entry" jobs are data transformation jobs and they get automated using ML techniques all the time. Current LLMs are really good at data transformation too.
    - sirwhinesalot 1y ago
      No because they aren't reliable. You don't want to be storing hallucinated data. They can help write the scripts that do the actual work though.
    - swiftcoder 1y ago
      Ah yes, because hallucinations will definitely improve our data entry!
    - jeroenhd 1y ago
      If your core feature is data entry, you probably want to get as close to 100% accuracy as possible. "AI" (LLM-based automation) is only useful if you don't really care about the accuracy of the output. It usually gets most of the data transformations mostly right, enough for people to blindly copy/paste its output, but sometimes it goes off the rails. But hey, when it does, at least it'll apologise for its own failings.
timpera 1y ago
Academia.edu might be the most useless and spammiest service out there. They don't seem to offer anything of value, but you can't know that before you pay.
mrasong 1y ago
I checked out Academia.edu, it’s packed with papers, but I’m not really sure about the quality tho.
- internet_points 1y ago
  they scrape, wheedle, pilfer and mooch off other people's good work
orwin 1y ago
Are other people subscribed to Academia.edu for unknown reason, and created an email rule to add them to the spam folder? I'm not even from the US :/
defrost 1y ago
You might just as well say “The bifurcation of neural spines in sauropods can be likened to Marcel Proust’s seven-volume masterwork À la Recherche du Temps Perdu.” It would be exactly as meaningful. You Asked, We Listened: https://youtu.be/hS4qu8MNqIA?t=68 https://youtu.be/hS4qu8MNqIA?t=68
- water-data-dude 1y ago
  I was skeptical for the first little bit, but that's both relevant and a fuckin' bop
  - defrost 1y ago
    Damian Cowell can be an acquired taste for some, glad you enjoyed - in other random DC moments that might tickle your fancy: * https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wLAFy7o7Zvo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wLAFy7o7Zvo * https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZxoODPQ4CTM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZxoODPQ4CTM * https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ENnAa7rqtBM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ENnAa7rqtBM * https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0heT2_OX8bY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0heT2_OX8bY * https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oGxDVXGRQpY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oGxDVXGRQpY

112 points by surprisetalk 1y ago

geon 1y ago

It follows the spam economy. If you can use AI to generate thousands of "articles", some unlucky google user is bound to click on your link. When the price of articles is near zero, it is still profitable.

sigmoid10 1y ago

>It was academia.edu, and who can possibly explain how they were able to get a domain name in the .edu TLD? Relevant section From Wikipedia: >Academia.edu is not a university or institution for higher learning and so under current standards it would not qualify for the ".edu" top-level domain. However, since the domain name "Academia.edu" was registered in 1999, before the regulations required .edu domain names to be held solely by accredited post-secondary institutions in the US, it is allowed to remain active and operational. All .edu domain names registered before 2001 were grandfathered in, even if not an accredited USA post-secondary institution.

hshdhdhehd 1y ago
A spammers dream.
tom1337 1y ago
There are some 10minutemail / trashmail providers out there who provide .edu emails - great to get benefits which are only for students free, but sucks for everbody who is implementing these platforms to get those benefits because they can't just check if the domain ends on .edu but rather need to validate against a common list of valid universities...
- jeroenhd 1y ago
  > rather need to validate against a common list of valid universities Don't you need that already anyway? There's no standard for how universities format their academic email addresses. Plus, .edu only applies to American universities. Services validating if you're a "real" student by checking for .edu emails were quite annoying during my time as a student. A lot of these platforms don't seem to even know .edu is an American thing.
- heavensteeth 1y ago
  Given the list of non-university .edu domains is static (or even decreasing assuming some expire), couldn't you keep a list of those instead?
- bryanlarsen 1y ago
  > validate against a common list of valid universities Considering that many universities provide email addresses to alumni, I don't think that heuristic would work either.
  - Loughla 1y ago
    Do they? The institutions I've worked with shut off e-mail access between 6 months and 1 year after a student is no longer active. I wonder what the benefit is.
    - bryanlarsen 1y ago
      The benefit is that it makes it easier to hit them up for donations. I'm not sure how common it is, but my wife has an edu email address despite being well over twenty years from graduation.
    - AlotOfReading 1y ago
      I still get the occasional email to mine inviting me to student events. Not sure they realize I graduated, but it was long enough ago that some of the buildings the events are held in didn't exist when I attended.
    - pavel_lishin 1y ago
      I distinctly remember that Freshman year, we were told in some big auditorium, during onboarding, that we should start using our university-provided emails as our primary "professional" emails. Someone then asked what happens when we graduate and lose access to those emails, and they didn't have a particularly good answer. I think that was also the same onboarding where they passed around a piece of paper for us to sign in with our name and social security number.
  - jz_ 1y ago
    Despite originally saying it was a perk of graduation, mine ended cutting access after 10 years by citing cost saving (I imagine Google Workspace bills add up quickly, compared to self-hosting email). I wouldn't be surprised if this is the trend now.

Jean-Papoulos 1y ago

I believe there's a vicious circle of a few companies starting to use AI with an actual idea, then shareholders of other companies say "we need to use AI as well, it works for them !" and then more companies start using AI to "not fall behind", etc... All with very few actual use cases. 99% are doing it just because others are.

gdulli 1y ago
We're all trapped in history's worst prisoner's dilemma.
delaminator 1y ago
That's what happening at our company. The owner lives in London and rarely visits but he has arranged for AI consultants to come in and workshop with us to see how "AI can help the business". Our operations mainly consist of data entry.
- newswasboring 1y ago
  Isn't data entry a really good usecase for the LLM technologies? Of course depending on the exact usecase. But most "data entry" jobs are data transformation jobs and they get automated using ML techniques all the time. Current LLMs are really good at data transformation too.
  - sirwhinesalot 1y ago
    No because they aren't reliable. You don't want to be storing hallucinated data. They can help write the scripts that do the actual work though.
  - swiftcoder 1y ago
    Ah yes, because hallucinations will definitely improve our data entry!
  - jeroenhd 1y ago
    If your core feature is data entry, you probably want to get as close to 100% accuracy as possible. "AI" (LLM-based automation) is only useful if you don't really care about the accuracy of the output. It usually gets most of the data transformations mostly right, enough for people to blindly copy/paste its output, but sometimes it goes off the rails. But hey, when it does, at least it'll apologise for its own failings.

timpera 1y ago

Academia.edu might be the most useless and spammiest service out there. They don't seem to offer anything of value, but you can't know that before you pay.

mrasong 1y ago

I checked out Academia.edu, it’s packed with papers, but I’m not really sure about the quality tho.

internet_points 1y ago
they scrape, wheedle, pilfer and mooch off other people's good work

orwin 1y ago

Are other people subscribed to Academia.edu for unknown reason, and created an email rule to add them to the spam folder? I'm not even from the US :/

defrost 1y ago

You might just as well say “The bifurcation of neural spines in sauropods can be likened to Marcel Proust’s seven-volume masterwork À la Recherche du Temps Perdu.” It would be exactly as meaningful. You Asked, We Listened: https://youtu.be/hS4qu8MNqIA?t=68 https://youtu.be/hS4qu8MNqIA?t=68

water-data-dude 1y ago
I was skeptical for the first little bit, but that's both relevant and a fuckin' bop
- defrost 1y ago
  Damian Cowell can be an acquired taste for some, glad you enjoyed - in other random DC moments that might tickle your fancy: * https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wLAFy7o7Zvo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wLAFy7o7Zvo * https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZxoODPQ4CTM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZxoODPQ4CTM * https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ENnAa7rqtBM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ENnAa7rqtBM * https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0heT2_OX8bY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0heT2_OX8bY * https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oGxDVXGRQpY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oGxDVXGRQpY