AI training is updated on Nigerians and Kenyans.

[davidgerard@circumstances.run]

AI training is updated on Nigerians and Kenyans. Here's an essay from a Kenyan about AI stealing the style he was taught. The essay's full of "AI tells" - but it does not at all read like AI, because it's so clearly a human writing, with something to say.

I'm Kenyan. I Don't Write Like ChatGPT. ChatGPT Writes Like Me.

I'm calm. I'm calm. I promise.

(marcusolang.substack.com)

[hakona@im.alstadheim.no]

@davidgerard I spotted a typo .
"The machine [...] accidentally replicated the linguistic ghost of the British Empire."
Marvellous essay, poignant even, I'd say.

[slotos@toot.community]

@davidgerard

> It was the Queen's English, the language of the colonial administrator, the missionary, the headmaster. It was the language of the Bible, of Shakespeare, of the law. It was a tool of power, and we were taught to wield it with precision.

[michael@westergaard.social]

People complaining about the way LLMs write are often shit writers. LLMs write the way they do because of the texts they are trained on. The "not just A but B" pattern and em-dashes are useful for compactly and elegantly communicating complex thoughts.

But most people don't write complex thoughts – heck, before the internet, most people barely wrote at all after reaching adulthood, so LLMs are trained on books and academic sources. Sources that contain different language from what is used by the average person and therefore seems strange.

If LLMs had more reddit in their training body than scientific articles, we'd dismiss any half-thought referring "updoots" or "doggy" or "good sir" as slop. Which we probably should anyway.