Skip to content
  • Categories
  • Recent
  • Tags
  • Popular
  • World
  • Users
  • Groups
Skins
  • Light
  • Brite
  • Cerulean
  • Cosmo
  • Flatly
  • Journal
  • Litera
  • Lumen
  • Lux
  • Materia
  • Minty
  • Morph
  • Pulse
  • Sandstone
  • Simplex
  • Sketchy
  • Spacelab
  • United
  • Yeti
  • Zephyr
  • Dark
  • Cyborg
  • Darkly
  • Quartz
  • Slate
  • Solar
  • Superhero
  • Vapor

  • Default (Cyborg)
  • No Skin
Collapse
Brand Logo

CIRCLE WITH A DOT

  1. Home
  2. Uncategorized
  3. Why AI writing is so generic, boring, and dangerous: Semantic ablation.

Why AI writing is so generic, boring, and dangerous: Semantic ablation.

Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved Uncategorized
43 Posts 37 Posters 0 Views
  • Oldest to Newest
  • Newest to Oldest
  • Most Votes
Reply
  • Reply as topic
Log in to reply
This topic has been deleted. Only users with topic management privileges can see it.
  • pkraus@berlin.socialP pkraus@berlin.social

    @malice @JdeBP @cstross That's fair. However, repeatedly including certain types of sentence construction - appealing or not - makes it look dodgy. Or just trolling. 😉

    cstross@wandering.shopC This user is from outside of this forum
    cstross@wandering.shopC This user is from outside of this forum
    cstross@wandering.shop
    wrote last edited by
    #34

    @pkraus @malice @JdeBP I've been reading The Reg since 1997 or thereabouts. Their house style has history behind it, not LLMs. (I suspect they'd cop to trolling from time to time, though.)

    1 Reply Last reply
    0
    • cstross@wandering.shopC cstross@wandering.shop

      Why AI writing is so generic, boring, and dangerous: Semantic ablation.

      (We can measure semantic ablation through entropy decay. By running a text through successive AI "refinement" loops, the vocabulary diversity (type-token ratio) collapses.)

      Link Preview Image
      Semantic ablation: Why AI writing is boring and dangerous

      opinion: The subtractive bias we're ignoring

      favicon

      (www.theregister.com)

      noodlemaz@mstdn.gamesN This user is from outside of this forum
      noodlemaz@mstdn.gamesN This user is from outside of this forum
      noodlemaz@mstdn.games
      wrote last edited by
      #35

      @cstross ironically got a Google cloud genAI and ML ad right in the middle of that.

      1 Reply Last reply
      0
      • cstross@wandering.shopC cstross@wandering.shop

        Why AI writing is so generic, boring, and dangerous: Semantic ablation.

        (We can measure semantic ablation through entropy decay. By running a text through successive AI "refinement" loops, the vocabulary diversity (type-token ratio) collapses.)

        Link Preview Image
        Semantic ablation: Why AI writing is boring and dangerous

        opinion: The subtractive bias we're ignoring

        favicon

        (www.theregister.com)

        J This user is from outside of this forum
        J This user is from outside of this forum
        jmj@hachyderm.io
        wrote last edited by
        #36

        @cstross hmmm, that might also explain why AI seems more effective for code.
        For the most part you want a reversion to the mean in code. Novel solutions are only needed at the cutting edge where you trying to make the computer do something that’s not been done before.

        cstross@wandering.shopC 1 Reply Last reply
        0
        • J jmj@hachyderm.io

          @cstross hmmm, that might also explain why AI seems more effective for code.
          For the most part you want a reversion to the mean in code. Novel solutions are only needed at the cutting edge where you trying to make the computer do something that’s not been done before.

          cstross@wandering.shopC This user is from outside of this forum
          cstross@wandering.shopC This user is from outside of this forum
          cstross@wandering.shop
          wrote last edited by
          #37

          @Jmj Yes. Also I suspect the semantic expressiveness of programming languages is far narrower than that of human languages: they're more precise, but it's much harder (though not impossible!) to write poetry in them. So there's less risk of losing something unique by generating output that tends to occupy the middle of the bell curve.

          perigrin@ack.nerdfight.onlineP 1 Reply Last reply
          0
          • cstross@wandering.shopC cstross@wandering.shop

            @Jmj Yes. Also I suspect the semantic expressiveness of programming languages is far narrower than that of human languages: they're more precise, but it's much harder (though not impossible!) to write poetry in them. So there's less risk of losing something unique by generating output that tends to occupy the middle of the bell curve.

            perigrin@ack.nerdfight.onlineP This user is from outside of this forum
            perigrin@ack.nerdfight.onlineP This user is from outside of this forum
            perigrin@ack.nerdfight.online
            wrote last edited by
            #38
            @cstross @Jmj I mean I think one could make a coherent argument that programming *is* poetry: reduced syntax, enforced structure, heavy use of metaphor…

            It’s just most programming topics make Vogon poetry look exciting.
            J 1 Reply Last reply
            0
            • cstross@wandering.shopC cstross@wandering.shop

              Why AI writing is so generic, boring, and dangerous: Semantic ablation.

              (We can measure semantic ablation through entropy decay. By running a text through successive AI "refinement" loops, the vocabulary diversity (type-token ratio) collapses.)

              Link Preview Image
              Semantic ablation: Why AI writing is boring and dangerous

              opinion: The subtractive bias we're ignoring

              favicon

              (www.theregister.com)

              rowat_c@mastodon.socialR This user is from outside of this forum
              rowat_c@mastodon.socialR This user is from outside of this forum
              rowat_c@mastodon.social
              wrote last edited by
              #39

              @cstross "Model collapse", Shumailov, Shumaylov & Papernot (2024), Nature : https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-024-07566-y

              1 Reply Last reply
              0
              • perigrin@ack.nerdfight.onlineP perigrin@ack.nerdfight.online
                @cstross @Jmj I mean I think one could make a coherent argument that programming *is* poetry: reduced syntax, enforced structure, heavy use of metaphor…

                It’s just most programming topics make Vogon poetry look exciting.
                J This user is from outside of this forum
                J This user is from outside of this forum
                jmj@hachyderm.io
                wrote last edited by
                #40

                @perigrin @cstross but I think in the code case the subtle semantics of the words and combinations are less likely to be the important or desirable aspects, whereas in poetry it’s likely that those aspects are precisely the desired meaning.

                perigrin@ack.nerdfight.onlineP 1 Reply Last reply
                0
                • sassinake@mastodon.socialS sassinake@mastodon.social

                  @cstross

                  nicely described by Orwell as

                  'NewSpeak'

                  kelleynnn@mas.toK This user is from outside of this forum
                  kelleynnn@mas.toK This user is from outside of this forum
                  kelleynnn@mas.to
                  wrote last edited by
                  #41

                  @Sassinake @cstross 👍 "duck speak"

                  1 Reply Last reply
                  0
                  • cstross@wandering.shopC cstross@wandering.shop

                    Why AI writing is so generic, boring, and dangerous: Semantic ablation.

                    (We can measure semantic ablation through entropy decay. By running a text through successive AI "refinement" loops, the vocabulary diversity (type-token ratio) collapses.)

                    Link Preview Image
                    Semantic ablation: Why AI writing is boring and dangerous

                    opinion: The subtractive bias we're ignoring

                    favicon

                    (www.theregister.com)

                    mspong@mastodon.socialM This user is from outside of this forum
                    mspong@mastodon.socialM This user is from outside of this forum
                    mspong@mastodon.social
                    wrote last edited by
                    #42

                    @cstross I am sitting in a room different from the one you are in now. I am recording the sound of my speaking voice and I am going to play it back into the room again and again until the resonant frequencies of the room reinforce themselves...

                    1 Reply Last reply
                    0
                    • J jmj@hachyderm.io

                      @perigrin @cstross but I think in the code case the subtle semantics of the words and combinations are less likely to be the important or desirable aspects, whereas in poetry it’s likely that those aspects are precisely the desired meaning.

                      perigrin@ack.nerdfight.onlineP This user is from outside of this forum
                      perigrin@ack.nerdfight.onlineP This user is from outside of this forum
                      perigrin@ack.nerdfight.online
                      wrote last edited by
                      #43
                      @Jmj @cstross Perl’s TIMTOWDI has ruined me.
                      1 Reply Last reply
                      0
                      Reply
                      • Reply as topic
                      Log in to reply
                      • Oldest to Newest
                      • Newest to Oldest
                      • Most Votes


                      • Login

                      • Login or register to search.
                      • First post
                        Last post
                      0
                      • Categories
                      • Recent
                      • Tags
                      • Popular
                      • World
                      • Users
                      • Groups