[subsection1h]

The fact that this discussion was flagged might be the final nail in the coffin for me. The huge increase in AI generated comments and posts at HN is a topic that has been discussed on other forums for months now. Complaints include "Orange Reddit", "Orange LinkedIn", etc. But when the topic comes up at HN, it gets flagged. Fuck this.

[waygtdai]

I don’t care for the karma, but I wish dang would intentionally unflag this and have it on front page so people can voice their concerns.

[ahofmann]

I would like to encourage you to step back a little and try to get a broader view on this issue.

I don't want to discuss whether there is more LLM-generated content or not. There clearly is, and there is no feasible way to get rid of it , because there is simply no reliable way to distinguish what was made by humans and what wasn't. Regardless of what is claimed, it is just not possible, if only because hybrid forms exist as well. This text was written by me, but reviewed and stylistically adjusted by an LLM.

It is therefore completely pointless to get upset about LLM content and demand anything from the moderators. All we are left with are our votes and the "reputation" of our user handles - and the awareness that we need to learn to consume content with a great deal of skepticism. We should have been doing this all along, but it seems to be something we struggle with.

On the internet, nobody knows you're a dog.

And yes, this may mean that we stop using anonymous online platforms altogether, because nothing on them can be relied upon anymore. That is a shame, but it cannot be stopped — Pandora's LLM box has been open for at least five years.

I therefore consider any discussion about banning LLM content to be futile. We are witnessing another Eternal September here: it couldn't be stopped back then, and it won't be stopped today either.

So what is there left to discuss?

[waygtdai]

Many people in this and other threads around this topic have already stated what they are going to do, which is the inevitable conclusion: move to private chats/discords. I’m sure some amount will remain on IRC or maybe IRC will get a second wind (unlikely). Websites like HN will have to make a choice going forward because now they’re on a trajectory to complete enshittification. Your handle and karma doesn’t matter if the site is dominated by bots. It’s basically a hollow shell of what it used to be and there’s no value to it at a certain point. You’ll be replying to bots more than humans.

There’s plenty left to discuss for humans. But LLMs don’t discuss.