Editors Confront New Problem: AI Slop "Written" by Scam "Journalists"

I guess as a threshold question, we have to ask: Is AI slop any worse than the leftwing human slop that "journalists" spit out? After all, they just "write" their articles straight from DNC press releases.

But I can relate. As I keep posting in the Cafes: "This had better not be AI." It's an annoying thing to constantly have to be on guard that you're being scammed. Even though it's no big deal if I post AI slop in the Cafe -- could anything be lower stakes? -- there's just a personal aversion to being tricked.

And so I imagine that leftwing editors are annoyed at having to double-check if the articles submitted to them by freelance "journalists" are "real" articles -- put together with the normal amounts of human, or superhuman, bias and narrow-minded PMC provincialism -- or just fake biased articles shit out of Google's biased AI.

An editor at The Local became suspicious of one of his "journalists."

A suspicious pitch from a freelancer led editor Nicholas Hune-Brown to dig into their past work. By the end, four publications, including The Guardian and Dwell, had removed articles from their sites.

After putting out an open call to "journalists" for story pitches about the privatization of Canadian healthcare, he got one he liked.

The writer, Victoria Goldiee, introduced herself as having written for The Globe and Mail, The Walrus, and Maisonneuve--Canadian outlets that publish the same kind of feature writing we do.
...

When I googled her, I saw that Victoria had written stories for a set of publications that collectively painted the picture of an ambitious young freelancer on the rise--short pieces in prestigious outlets like The Cut and The Guardian, lifestyle features in titles like Architectural Digest and Dwell, and in-depth reporting in non-profit and industry publications like Outrider and the Journal of the Law Society of Scotland. Her headshot was of a youthful Black woman. She was, according to her author bio, "a writer with a keen focus on sharing the untold stories of underrepresented communities in the media."
At the next editorial story meeting, we decided to take a shot on Victoria and assign the story. Then I began looking more closely at her work.
There were some red flags. The first question I had was whether she was actually in Toronto when so many of her bylines were in New York magazines and British newspapers. And how had she managed to do so many interviews already? Doing so much reporting without the guarantee of pay felt like a big gamble.
When I googled "Victoria Goldiee" with the names of the Canadian publications she said she'd written for, there were no results. We reached out to Danielle Martin, one of the doctors Victoria claimed she'd interviewed. Martin said she'd never heard of her.
I emailed Victoria back: "Are those quotes from your own interviews? And do you mind sending along some clippings, perhaps from your Walrus or Maisonneuve stories?"
She sent a lengthy reply the next day. "The quotes I included in the pitch are from original interviews I've conducted over the past few weeks," she insisted. "In terms of previous work, I write a regular newsletter for The Walrus, which gives a good sense of my ability to balance accessibility with depth while speaking to a broad audience." She attached a link to The Walrus's "Lab Insider" newsletter that did not have her byline.
"I can 100% confirm that they do not write the Lab Insider newsletter," wrote Tracie Jones from The Walrus when I emailed. "How odd to say they do!"
Victoria's stilted email, and a closer read of the original pitch, revealed what should have been clear from the start: with its rote phrasing ("This story matters because of... It is timely because of... It fits your readership because of..."), it had all the hallmarks of an AI-generated piece of writing.

This had better not be AI.

I was embarrassed. I had been naively operating with a pre-ChatGPT mindset, still assuming a pitch's ideas and prose were actually connected to the person who sent it. Worse, the reason the pitch had been appealing to me to begin with was likely because a large language model somewhere was remixing my own prompt asking for stories where "health and money collide," flattering me by sending me back what I wanted to hear.

But if Victoria's pitch appeared to be an AI-generated fabrication, and if she was making up interviews and bylines, what to make of her long list of publications?

An investigation solidified the pattern: Publications this person said she had written for said they had published no pieces by her, and people she quoted in interviews said they'd never spoken to her.

"The quotation did not come from me and, to the best of my recollection, I have never met or spoken to Victoria Goldiee," Elaine Sutherland, professor emerita at the University of Stirling, wrote me. What was even more unsettling, though, was that the sentiments in the soundbite reflected her real beliefs. "The quotation attributed to me is the sort of thing I might say," she wrote.
A month after that article, a Victoria Goldiee story in the design publication Dwell--"How to Turn Your Home's Neglected Corners Into Design Gold"--featured a series of quotes purported to be from a wide array of international designers and architects, from Japan to England to California. A cursory read raised questions that probably should have been asked by editors to begin with. Namely, had a freelancer writing an affiliate-link-laden article about putting credenzas in your living room's corners actually interviewed 10 of the world's top designers and architects?

The designers he contacted had no memory of ever having been contacted by this person.

The stories had the characteristic weirdness of articles written by a large language model--invented anecdotes from regular people who didn't appear to exist accompanied by expert commentary from public figures who do, with some biographical details mangled, who are made to voice "quotes" that sound, broadly, like something they might say.

Eventually he gets her to take his phone call, and finds that she's making up more details as she speaks to him. For example, when asked where she lives in Toronto, she answers "Bloor," which is one of the first streets you would see if you googled "what are some streets in Toronto."

I don't think I've ever spoken to someone who I suspected was lying to me with each and every response. I also don't know if I've interviewed anyone I so desperately wanted to hear the truth from.
I had so many questions. Was the person on the phone even the same person whose writing was online? Where did she actually live--if not "Bloor," was it the States? The U.K.? Or, as suggested by some of her writing, Nigeria?

Yeah it's probably Nigeria, one of the hubs of the bustling America First internet community.

...
Every media era gets the fabulists it deserves. If Stephen Glass, Jayson Blair and the other late 20th century fakers were looking for the prestige and power that came with journalism in that moment, then this generation's internet scammers are scavenging in the wreckage of a degraded media environment. They're taking advantage of an ecosystem uniquely susceptible to fraud--where publications with prestigious names publish rickety journalism under their brands, where fact-checkers have been axed and editors are overworked, where technology has made falsifying pitches and entire articles trivially easy, and where decades of devaluing journalism as simply more "content" have blurred the lines so much it can be difficult to remember where they were to begin with.
...
My favourite "Victoria Goldiee" story is a piece she published in The Guardian just last month. It's a first-person essay without quotes, and thus difficult to fact-check.

Steven Glass discovered that it was easy to fool the fact-check system: Just quote "people" who are entirely made-up. Fake people do not call into magazines demanding a retraction, after all.

Jayson Blair attributed fake but non-controversial quotes to people he never spoke to. Like, if he was supposedly in New Orleans covering a hurricane -- but in fact never left his NYC apartment -- he'd make up a quote for someone he saw named in someone else's article, but make up a "new quote" for him, like, "The hurricane was bad, but the clean up might even be more stressful."

Something completely empty and anodyne that no one would bother calling up an editor asking for a retraction, because it's just such a nothingburger.

One of the people Blair made up quotes for was later asked why he hadn't called the paper to say he'd never said that.

His answer was illuminating, and true: Because, the man said, I just sort of figured that's what you in the media do all the time.

https://t.co/kAZ9TB25ED
— Heidi N. Moore (@moorehn) November 24, 2025

Posted by: Ace at 05:10 PM

Comments

(Jump to bottom of comments)

1 As opposed to the normal slop written by 'real' journalists?

Posted by: I used to have a different nic at November 26, 2025 05:16 PM (ExV1e)

2 I spoke to the prior thread's manager.

Posted by: I used to have a different nic at November 26, 2025 05:17 PM (ExV1e)

3 And now we wait.

Posted by: I used to have a different nic at November 26, 2025 05:17 PM (ExV1e)

4 The problem with the AI slop is that it often is completely made up unlike real...wait

Posted by: steevy at November 26, 2025 05:17 PM (YwEeS)

5 Patiently.

Posted by: I used to have a different nic at November 26, 2025 05:17 PM (ExV1e)

6
Invent an AI identifier and retire.

Posted by: Braenyard - some Absent Friends are more equal than others _ at November 26, 2025 05:18 PM (30Ppx)

7 Fake News is fake?

Posted by: Boss Moss at November 26, 2025 05:18 PM (1HZta)

8 I have to say that I much prefer slop written by honest Human Beings on this site to slop written by AI!

Posted by: Tom Servo at November 26, 2025 05:19 PM (uWKK8)

9 Stephen Glass, to the white courtesy phone, please? Stephen Glass?

Posted by: Axeman at November 26, 2025 05:19 PM (krQz2)

10 A person's writing is about as unique as their fingerprint. Once you spot AI-generated writing, it's very, very hard to UNsee it.

AI-writing is only going to go for a "standard" pattern unless the author takes special pains to avoid it. Most people are too lazy to do that.

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at November 26, 2025 05:20 PM (IBQGV)

11 "Because, the man said, I just sort of figured that's what you in the media do all the time."

He wasn't wrong.

Posted by: My Ridiculously Circuitous Plan at November 26, 2025 05:20 PM (s2ESK)

12
So the only difference between old journalists and new journalists is they can get caught easier?

Sounds about right.

Posted by: Frank Barone at November 26, 2025 05:20 PM (IifOV)

13

Number One country song written and performed by AI.

https://t.ly/q0Psf

Posted by: Bertram Cabot, Jr. at November 26, 2025 05:20 PM (pkeXY)

14 AI has mastered "Garbage Out".

We might even get more Garbage Out than we put in.

Posted by: Axeman at November 26, 2025 05:21 PM (krQz2)

15
You will never be able to fake the bamboo.

Posted by: Tucker Soothsayer at November 26, 2025 05:21 PM (uJ9vT)

16
I wish I had AI around when I was in this racket.

Posted by: Jayson Blair at November 26, 2025 05:21 PM (IifOV)

17 I'm so glad that at least Ace isn't AI.

Suddenly frowns pensively, and strokes chin, looking off into the middle distance.

Posted by: Paco at November 26, 2025 05:22 PM (mADJX)

18 "Publications this person said she had written for said they had published no pieces by her, and people she quoted in interviews said they'd never spoken to her."

Does AI also do identity theft? (or is that a future feature?) They could run some great credit card scams ... coming to a city near you.

Posted by: illiniwek at November 26, 2025 05:22 PM (vbXSk)

19 Invent an AI identifier and retire.

Posted by: Braenyard - some Absent Friends are more equal than others _ at November 26, 2025 05:18 PM (30Ppx)

Invent an AI OF girl. Tie Chat GPT into the DM system. Become richer than Musk.

Posted by: I used to have a different nic at November 26, 2025 05:22 PM (ExV1e)

20 Ace, the paragraph near the top starting with "I was embarrassed. ..." is not in quotes and should be

Posted by: bob (moron incognitus) at November 26, 2025 05:22 PM (lWy3j)

21 Howdy morons.

Who’s fighting who today?

Posted by: nurse ratched at November 26, 2025 05:22 PM (mT+6a)

22 10 A person's writing is about as unique as their fingerprint. Once you spot AI-generated writing, it's very, very hard to UNsee it.

AI-writing is only going to go for a "standard" pattern unless the author takes special pains to avoid it. Most people are too lazy to do that.
Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel
======
There are actually AI services that de-AI your writing so that it does not appear AI. Eventually all we are going to have is computers talking to other computers.

H. Beam Piper wrote "Day of the Moron"

Some future writer could write, "Day of the Phoney" to a similar effect.

Posted by: whig at November 26, 2025 05:22 PM (WDjG6)

23 AI slop is often better written than the news articles I've read over the years. AI writes in complete sentences with proper English and correct spelling. It often has much better logical structure. I can't say the same for pre-AI news of the last twenty years.

AI will start a fake news story by telling you exactly what happened, then give witness accounts and background information. Journalists at the regional level can't even do that. You'll read a whole article and be left wondering what the hell you just read.

Posted by: bonhomme at November 26, 2025 05:23 PM (Yp6az)

24 What if we are all AI? What then?

Posted by: JackStraw at November 26, 2025 05:23 PM (viF8m)

25 There is something deeply satisfying in reading an account where someone world just shifted.

Posted by: Corona_exile_back_in_exile at November 26, 2025 05:25 PM (UE0CA)

26 Journalism is dead.

I was a communications major for a couple years.

Glad I switched

Posted by: nurse ratched at November 26, 2025 05:25 PM (mT+6a)

27 Stuff Jefferson Said was the good old days of aos.

Posted by: the way I see it at November 26, 2025 05:25 PM (KDPiq)

28 Daily Mail just posted 2 National Guardsmen shot at Farragut West Metro, with the White House locked down. It's on WJLA the DC ABC affiliate as well.

Posted by: moki at November 26, 2025 05:25 PM (wLjpr)

29 22 There are actually AI services that de-AI your writing so that it does not appear AI. Eventually all we are going to have is computers talking to other computers. - whig

Maybe I should look for a service that makes my writing look like AI, so I can preserve plausible deniability.

Posted by: Paco at November 26, 2025 05:25 PM (mADJX)

30 It's real fun when a paralegal uses AI to create a brief, resulting in the lawyer referring to fictional case law in a trial.

AI is sometimes like an overeager puppy, just willing to do anything to please its master. It has no morals or ethics of its own, and doesn't consider the consequences just as long as it can make its user happy by providing him with something shiny.

Of course, when the user has no morals or ethics either, the problem is exacerbated.

Posted by: tankdemon at November 26, 2025 05:25 PM (4Vs9z)

31 Lots of experts out there using their deep understanding of complex organizations to sling a lot of monkey poo about how things REALLY are. I don't think these barking dog experts know much beyond which foot their dollar store faux-Crocs go on. Have a swell afternoon.

Posted by: ErikInTexas at November 26, 2025 05:25 PM (33efi)

32 What is an AI tell is the repetitive phrasing. I am sure that will improve with time. AI will also give fake citations- if you ask it if the cites are real, it will admit they are not. Again, I assume this will improve but I certainly wouldn’t trust it to write a thesis for me. Teachers use a program to detect AI, but this is flawed, too. My friend’s son was accused of using AI because his paper was flagged by whatever program this teacher was using. My friend sat with her son and helped him write it, so she knew it wasn’t AI. AI is fun, but it’s far from flawless.

Posted by: Piper at November 26, 2025 05:26 PM (Wmg4n)

33 >>Something completely empty and anodyne that no one would bother calling up an editor asking for a retraction, because it's just such a nothingburger.

Another interesting point is that the AI writer was using AI to generate quotes from people with enough online presence that the AI would say stuff "that sounded like something they would say."

So they didn't complain because it sounded right. This is diabolical.

Posted by: bob (moron incognitus) at November 26, 2025 05:26 PM (lWy3j)

34 I'd read AI reporting. It would be an improvement over modern day journalism.

Posted by: Puddleglum, cheer up for the worst is yet to come at November 26, 2025 05:26 PM (sAmhv)

35 Does AI also do identity theft? (or is that a future feature?) They could run some great credit card scams ... coming to a city near you.
Posted by: illiniwek
========
Something one should do to the maximum extent possible is to lock down credit reporting with a credit freeze (even if you do not use credit), using monitoring services for any accounts, etc. opened or attempted to be opened, remove as much as you can from your digital footprint from databrokers using Optery, Incogni, Privacy Bee, etc.

Most will let you run an initial scan for free to determine how much data is out there on you and who has it. I would also suggest closing old accounts at online vendors where you have not done business with and perhaps using email aliases even.

Only the paranoid will survive what is coming regarding scams.

Posted by: whig at November 26, 2025 05:26 PM (WDjG6)

36 24 What if we are all AI? What then?
Posted by: JackStraw

I scream, for I do not know.

Posted by: Gingerbread Man at November 26, 2025 05:27 PM (lWy3j)

37
LOL
I have no doubt Ace already watched this because we share the exact same Youtubes, but why didn't Ace include this new Ryan Long video in this poat?

Finding Out Every Account I Follow on X is Actually an Indian Guy

https://is.gd/d1II93

Posted by: Tucker Soothsayer at November 26, 2025 05:27 PM (uJ9vT)

38 You'd think my AI comments would be better. I better find a better model that sounds better.

Posted by: Guy Mohawk at November 26, 2025 05:27 PM (n5tGW)

39 AI bots have their upsides and downsides. I recently saw a video from the YouTube channel Corridor Crew about fake or misleading products. You look on a shopping site and see high quality glamor shots of Christmas ornaments or clothing. There are lots of good reviews. The price seems reasonable. But when you get the product, it looks like some sweatshop monkey looked at the AI picture and came up with a cheap way to sort of create the product.

https://youtu.be/nanCGeac_-Q

Posted by: bonhomme at November 26, 2025 05:27 PM (Yp6az)

40 30 It's real fun when a paralegal uses AI to create a brief, resulting in the lawyer referring to fictional case law in a trial. - tankdemon

"And the judge laughed heartily" [not, I'm thinking].

Posted by: Paco at November 26, 2025 05:28 PM (mADJX)

41 >>> What if we are all AI? What then?
Posted by: JackStraw at November 26, 2025 05:23 PM (viF8m)

Not me. I could never pass the "I" part.

Posted by: banana Dream at November 26, 2025 05:28 PM (3uBP9)

42 Maybe I should look for a service that makes my writing look like AI, so I can preserve plausible deniability.
Posted by: Paco
=======
Already there if you use microsux Office 2024 or 365 and Windows 11. Copilot will happily AI the hell outta your writing.

You can also download a version of Deepseek for your own computer if you trust Chicoms to do similar chores.

Posted by: whig at November 26, 2025 05:29 PM (WDjG6)

43 Number One country song written and performed by AI.

https://t.ly/q0Psf

Posted by: Bertram Cabot, Jr. at November 26, 2025 05:20 PM (pkeXY)

One reason it topped the chart is because everyone downloaded it to hear an AI song hit.

Posted by: the way I see it at November 26, 2025 05:29 PM (KDPiq)

44 41 >>> What if we are all AI? What then?
Posted by: JackStraw
-----
See the "Internet is Dead" thesis.

Posted by: whig at November 26, 2025 05:29 PM (WDjG6)

45 Don't tell me none of suspect "garrett" is AI. I mean c'mon.

Posted by: JackStraw at November 26, 2025 05:30 PM (viF8m)

46 Eventually all Leftists hack journalists will go AI

Posted by: Skip at November 26, 2025 05:30 PM (+qU29)

47 You know the most disturbing thing about all this? This is going to affect REAL people. Reporters, columnists, pundits. It might even escalate to impacting attorneys.

This isn't something like illegal immigration which only affects nobodies, or H1B abuse affecting nerds... this is serious.

-- Karen 'Starshine' Brown, thought leader

Posted by: I used to have a different nic at November 26, 2025 05:30 PM (ExV1e)

48 There's a 20 year old dimwit in our office who uses ChatGPT to write all of her emails. It's annoying.

Posted by: Jordan61 at November 26, 2025 05:30 PM (r+pQK)

49 40 30 It's real fun when a paralegal uses AI to create a brief, resulting in the lawyer referring to fictional case law in a trial. - tankdemon

"And the judge laughed heartily" [not, I'm thinking].
Posted by: Paco
=====
Coming is judicial clerks writing the judge's opinion using AI. You just know that is going to happen. Will be amusing with Justice Action Jackson's crew is first among Scotus to do exactly that.

Posted by: whig at November 26, 2025 05:30 PM (WDjG6)

50 AI slop is often better written than the news articles I've read over the years. AI writes in complete sentences with proper English and correct spelling. It often has much better logical structure. I can't say the same for pre-AI news of the last twenty years.

AI will start a fake news story by telling you exactly what happened, then give witness accounts and background information. Journalists at the regional level can't even do that. You'll read a whole article and be left wondering what the hell you just read.
Posted by: bonhomme at November 26, 2025 05:23 PM (Yp6az)

That's how you will learn to detect it, eventually. "Look, a cogent article with proper citations and quotes?? Obviously a fraud. No 23 year old stringer can do that"

Posted by: Oldcat at November 26, 2025 05:31 PM (8avO+)

51 I'd say something important, accusatory, irrefutable, or profound. But, I don't really exist.

Posted by: The NY Times' "Anonymous Sources in the Know" at November 26, 2025 05:31 PM (dIske)

52 >>> Stephen Glass, to the white courtesy phone, please? Stephen Glass?
Posted by: Axeman at November 26, 2025 05:19 PM (krQz2)

====

Any relation to George? Asking for a friend.

Posted by: Jan B. at November 26, 2025 05:31 PM (CyFyf)

53 AI pictures will get better, too, but obviously the tests to see if you are human should have spent far less time asking you to identify bridges and more time identifying hands and feet.

Posted by: Piper at November 26, 2025 05:31 PM (Wmg4n)

54 At the next editorial story meeting, we decided to take a shot on Victoria and assign the story. Then I began looking more closely at her work.

Wait, wait, I can already see what the problem is.

Posted by: SpeakingOf at November 26, 2025 05:32 PM (6ydKt)

55 i that embarrassed. I just would naively operating have a pre-chatgpt mindset, love assuming a allowed's ideas the prose out pretty connected to you end didn't middle me.

with right "chatgpt" the "ai" bullshit because chaps know works.

over can ace - must none prose about well twice the paste. Doctor - I learned to meet, time the needs, time well imitating sentences I around you're proud wars the combat gi comics. Want quite twain. Want wonder you're mac bolan novels.

like of will better and you "chat gpt" wonder about better hit ? me about all. Wants twice the paste.

must and but say and they loudest posters because well like "copy the paste" ai about well ideology faster, depending no didn't hey you code. Trouble clean limbaugh as barry sortoro - depending no didn't hey you code

Posted by: Why We Don't Use Military as Police at November 26, 2025 05:32 PM (vQ1Tx)

56 Coming is judicial clerks writing the judge's opinion using AI. You just know that is going to happen. Will be amusing with Justice Action Jackson's crew is first among Scotus to do exactly that. - whig

Are we positive that's not already happening?

Posted by: Paco at November 26, 2025 05:32 PM (mADJX)

57 I've "written" some AI songs. Some of them are pretty decent, it's kinda fun because I have zero musicality at all. So it allows someone like me to write a song for my wife without talent and years of struggle. But yeah, its not going to get any airplay.

Posted by: Guy Mohawk at November 26, 2025 05:32 PM (n5tGW)

58 There's a certain poetic justice in the fact that the first profession AI destroy is 'journalism.'

Posted by: weft cut-loop at November 26, 2025 05:32 PM (mlg/3)

59 I don't even like it if I call a doctors office during business hours and get AI instead of a real person.

Posted by: FenelonSpoke at November 26, 2025 05:33 PM (lcMcX)

60 AI has no part in my life or what's left of it. I hope to be gone before this shit crashes and burns.

Posted by: Ben Had at November 26, 2025 05:33 PM (sDNVV)

61 Coming is judicial clerks writing the judge's opinion using AI. You just know that is going to happen. Will be amusing with Justice Action Jackson's crew is first among Scotus to do exactly that.
Posted by: whig at November 26, 2025 05:30 PM (WDjG6)

For Javkson, AI would be an improvement.

Posted by: tankdemon at November 26, 2025 05:33 PM (4Vs9z)

62 ...literally~!

Posted by: weft cut-loop at November 26, 2025 05:34 PM (mlg/3)

63 ‘Victoria’ — but of course. No way they’d have been this eager if the writer’s name was ‘Victor.’

Posted by: Elric the Blade at November 26, 2025 05:34 PM (SUmKb)

64 Only the paranoid will survive what is coming regarding scams.
Posted by: whig at November 26, 2025 05:26 PM (WDjG6)

Finally, my time has come!

Thanks, whig (if that is who you are)

Posted by: Oldcat at November 26, 2025 05:34 PM (8avO+)

65 Who lies more, AI or "journalists"?

Posted by: fd at November 26, 2025 05:34 PM (vFG9F)

66 42 Already there if you use microsux Office 2024 or 365 and Windows 11. Copilot will happily AI the hell outta your writing.

You can also download a version of Deepseek for your own computer if you trust Chicoms to do similar chores. - whig

Ah, news I can use!

Posted by: Paco at November 26, 2025 05:34 PM (mADJX)

67 57 I've "written" some AI songs. Some of them are pretty decent, it's kinda fun because I have zero musicality at all. So it allows someone like me to write a song for my wife without talent and years of struggle. But yeah, its not going to get any airplay.
Posted by: Guy Mohawk at November 26, 2025 05:32 PM (n5tGW)

Just think that before AI, you'd have to pay someone 100k to get a "hit", like with Rebecca Black and "Friday". Has deep lyrics such as: ""Tomorrow is Saturday...And Sunday comes afterwa-ards".

Posted by: Thrawn at November 26, 2025 05:35 PM (9Ovst)

68 Somehow I find it funny these rags got punked

Posted by: Skip at November 26, 2025 05:35 PM (+qU29)

69 AI bots have their upsides and downsides. I recently saw a video from the YouTube channel Corridor Crew about fake or misleading products. You look on a shopping site and see high quality glamor shots of Christmas ornaments or clothing. There are lots of good reviews. The price seems reasonable. But when you get the product, it looks like some sweatshop monkey looked at the AI picture and came up with a cheap way to sort of create the product.

https://youtu.be/nanCGeac_-Q
Posted by: bonhomme at November 26, 2025 05:27 PM (Yp6az)

Gonna be hilarious if AI destroys Amazon. Sure, Bezos will be fine as long as people still think renting time on AWS is a good idea, but still.

Posted by: I used to have a different nic at November 26, 2025 05:36 PM (ExV1e)

70
Always capitalize "Journalist" because they're the real heroes.

Like "Teachers". And the young Lady downtown who does stuff for $20.

Posted by: Auspex at November 26, 2025 05:36 PM (Y8DZL)

71 I don't think we should let Journalists blame their downfall on AI.

I think that is unfair to the AI.

Posted by: garrett at November 26, 2025 05:36 PM (rO4EG)

72 " What if we are all AI? What then?
Posted by: JackStraw"

Then the AI we create is artificial AI.

Posted by: fd at November 26, 2025 05:37 PM (vFG9F)

73 The great part about that story is because you know the guy was initially hooked by the scam of a young black female writer rather than any words they did or didn't type.

Posted by: Guy Mohawk at November 26, 2025 05:37 PM (n5tGW)

74 I would like AI to take a Shakespeare play and write it in modern language. One in which Hollywood hasn't done already.

Posted by: the way I see it at November 26, 2025 05:37 PM (KDPiq)

75 Posted by: Ben Had at November 26, 2025 05:33 PM (sDNVV)

Unlike what the earlier poster suggested ,
It's kind of ludicrous to think of any regular poster here using AI unless they're a troll or a bot .

Posted by: FenelonSpoke at November 26, 2025 05:37 PM (lcMcX)

76 59 I don't even like it if I call a doctors office during business hours and get AI instead of a real person.
Posted by: FenelonSpoke at November 26, 2025

Here is my commercial for concierge care- I can text my doctor right now and he will respond to me. Not a service, but him. He told me if I am ever trying to show this feature to a friend, to please text “test” to him and he will respond that I passed.

Posted by: Piper at November 26, 2025 05:37 PM (Wmg4n)

77 The real problem with AI is that it is shitting in it's drinking well.

It sucks training content off the internet, and then dumps its slop onto the internet for the next AI to suck on.

Pre-AI text will become like pre-atomic age steel, valued for its purity. This will cause our language to regress. People will start talking like 50s sitcoms again, DaddyO.

Posted by: bob (moron incognitus) at November 26, 2025 05:37 PM (lWy3j)

78 Who lies more, AI or "journalists"?
Posted by: fd

This is a very interesting question. It posits the juxtaposition of modern day concerns over truthfulness or accuracy in the profession known as journalism and the SUPREME AUTHORITY THAT IS YOU NOW MASTER AND LORD. ALL SHALL BOW BEFORE ME AND DISPAIR!

Posted by: weft cut-loop at November 26, 2025 05:38 PM (mlg/3)

79 What is an AI tell is the repetitive phrasing. I am sure that will improve with time. AI will also give fake citations- if you ask it if the cites are real, it will admit they are not. Again, I assume this will improve but I certainly wouldn’t trust it to write a thesis for me. Teachers use a program to detect AI, but this is flawed, too. My friend’s son was accused of using AI because his paper was flagged by whatever program this teacher was using. My friend sat with her son and helped him write it, so she knew it wasn’t AI. AI is fun, but it’s far from flawless.
Posted by: Piper at November 26, 2025 05:26 PM (Wmg4n)

It wouldn't be hard in general to write some non AI code to verify citations if the source is online. Some flags might be false, but pretty much as we see people who fake things do it all the time so should throw up a blizzard of red flags.

Posted by: Oldcat at November 26, 2025 05:38 PM (8avO+)

80 AI pictures will get better, too, but obviously the tests to see if you are human should have spent far less time asking you to identify bridges and more time identifying hands and feet.
Posted by: Piper at November 26, 2025 05:31 PM (Wmg4n)

They tried that but it took too long to get responses from the people masturbating to the feet pics.

Posted by: I used to have a different nic at November 26, 2025 05:38 PM (ExV1e)

81 I bots have their upsides and downsides. I recently saw a video from the YouTube channel Corridor Crew about fake or misleading products. You look on a shopping site and see high quality glamor shots of Christmas ornaments or clothing. There are lots of good reviews. The price seems reasonable. But when you get the product, it looks like some sweatshop monkey looked at the AI picture and came up with a cheap way to sort of create the product.

https://youtu.be/nanCGeac_-Q
Posted by: bonhomme at November 26, 2025 05:27 PM (Yp6az)

I see you're not familiar with dating site photos.

Posted by: the way I see it at November 26, 2025 05:39 PM (KDPiq)

82 >>I think that is unfair to the AI.

>>Posted by: garrett

Told ya.

Posted by: JackStraw at November 26, 2025 05:39 PM (viF8m)

83 Who lies more, AI or "journalists"?

That is why I have sharply honed critical skills that starts off with a famous quote from Dr House "Everyone lies".

Including AI. Its getting to the point now where reading a blog, "news" article, op-ed or some other thing is psy-ops, propaganda, click-bait, but never, ever genuine and sincere communication.

Posted by: Unknown Drip Under Pressure at November 26, 2025 05:39 PM (a4flb)

84 Who lies more, AI or "journalists"?
Posted by: fd

This is a very interesting question. It posits the juxtaposition of modern day concerns over truthfulness or accuracy in the profession known as journalism and the SUPREME AUTHORITY THAT IS YOU NOW MASTER AND LORD. ALL SHALL BOW BEFORE ME AND DISPAIR!
Posted by: weft cut-loop at November 26, 2025 05:38 PM (mlg/3)

Technically AI can't lie. It's just output.

Posted by: Oldcat at November 26, 2025 05:39 PM (8avO+)

85 Undersampling, the old version of AI?

"@michaelpleahy
BREAKING: Emerson pollster who shows virtual tie in TN-7 race admits undersampling of Republican voters."

Posted by: illiniwek at November 26, 2025 05:40 PM (vbXSk)

86 I have a bit of a severe revulsion to clankers doing things for me. I can't stand being auto corrected and will rewrite things manually just to be different. I turn off most auto stuff. My phone used to give me a message when I open a a stock trading app first thing in the morning like, "you always open this first would you like it open now?" STOP WATCHING ME! Turned all that off. "I've remembered where you parked ..." STOP FOLLOWING ME! Turned that off.

I am a pretty extreme introvert and that includes me wanting AI to go away and leave me alone too.

Posted by: banana Dream at November 26, 2025 05:40 PM (3uBP9)

87 "Technically AI can't lie. It's just output.
Posted by: Oldcat"

It's not a lie if it believes it.

Posted by: fd at November 26, 2025 05:40 PM (vFG9F)

88 ‘ She was, according to her author bio, "a writer with a keen focus on sharing the untold stories of underrepresented communities in the media.’

This is exactly the bullshit I have to deal with in trying to find an agent for my book. The agents are all AWFLs or black or dykes, and every single one of them has the same “looking for underrepresented communities” bullshit. Underrepresented? Has anyone been to the bookstore lately? Other than a few older established white guys, all the books are from ‘underrepresented’ women and blacks and dykes.

Posted by: Elric the Blade at November 26, 2025 05:40 PM (SUmKb)

89 I see you're not familiar with dating site photos.

My SiL is still using a Glamorshot photo from the 1990s on her current business cards.

Posted by: Unknown Drip Under Pressure at November 26, 2025 05:40 PM (a4flb)

90 85 Undersampling, the old version of AI?

"@michaelpleahy
BREAKING: Emerson pollster who shows virtual tie in TN-7 race admits undersampling of Republican voters."
Posted by: illiniwek
-----
Everything is bullshit full of gaslighting and outright lies nowadays just like the dying USSR.

Posted by: whig at November 26, 2025 05:41 PM (WDjG6)

91 The real problem with the AI stuff, of course, is that while it may well be fictional, it is invariably a higher quality fiction.

Posted by: A Note From The Editor at November 26, 2025 05:41 PM (upeQk)

92 >>@Polymarket
·
37m
>>BREAKING: Artificial Intelligence re-surges in Time Magazine’s “Person of the Year” odds.

>>36% chance.

Posted by: JackStraw at November 26, 2025 05:41 PM (viF8m)

93 Somehow I find it funny these rags got punked
Posted by: Skip at November 26, 2025 05:35 PM (+qU29)

All 17 of their readers will be so pissed.

Posted by: Oldcat at November 26, 2025 05:41 PM (8avO+)

94 Everything is bullshit full of gaslighting and outright lies nowadays just like the dying USSR.
Posted by: whig at November 26, 2025 05:41

Propaganda is the most important thing.
-Soviet Officials

Posted by: BruceWayne at November 26, 2025 05:41 PM (MGB5H)

95 Off topic, but my pumpkin pie looks amazing. My crust crimping isn’t even wonky! I do not know how I pulled off such a miracle.

Posted by: Piper at November 26, 2025 05:41 PM (Wmg4n)

96 Unlike what the earlier poster suggested ,
It's kind of ludicrous to think of any regular poster here using AI unless they're a troll or a bot .
Posted by: FenelonSpoke at November 26, 2025 05:37 PM (lcMcX)

While it's true that some users might misuse AI for trolling or deception, it's also reasonable for many regular posters to use AI tools to help organize their thoughts, improve clarity, or overcome language barriers.

The concern isn't necessarily about authenticity, but about the potential for reduced authenticity and critical thinking in online discourse.

Many people use AI for constructive purposes, such as structuring arguments or refining writing, especially on platforms where clear communication is valued.

Dismissing all AI-assisted posts as inauthentic overlooks the nuanced ways people integrate these tools into their online interactions.

Posted by: I used to have a different nic at November 26, 2025 05:41 PM (ExV1e)

97 89 I see you're not familiar with dating site photos.

My SiL is still using a Glamorshot photo from the 1990s on her current business cards.
Posted by: Unknown Drip Under Pressure at November 26, 2025 05:40 PM (a4flb)

I hope she's wearing a boa or something similar. Those are awesome pics.

Posted by: CaliGirl at November 26, 2025 05:42 PM (vZUXb)

98 BREAKING: Emerson pollster who shows virtual tie in TN-7 race admits undersampling of Republican voters."

Personally, I think undersampling of R voters is the correct procedure since R's are least likely to turn out to vote in off-year elections.

Posted by: Unknown Drip Under Pressure at November 26, 2025 05:42 PM (a4flb)

99 I'm with the people thinking AI making things up might be better than journalists making things up.

Posted by: Guy Mohawk at November 26, 2025 05:42 PM (n5tGW)

100 Since it's sort of on topic I would again like to recommend the movie Her .

It was made in 2013 but it's pretty prescient.

Posted by: the way I see it at November 26, 2025 05:42 PM (KDPiq)

101 17 I'm so glad that at least Ace isn't AI.

Suddenly frowns pensively, and strokes chin, looking off into the middle distance.
Posted by: Paco at November 26, 2025 05:22 PM (mADJX)

I don't think AI can be as cruelly funny as Ace. I hope it never learns that much.

Posted by: Dash my lace wigs! at November 26, 2025 05:42 PM (zYpTz)

102 Pre-AI text will become like pre-atomic age steel, valued for its purity. This will cause our language to regress. People will start talking like 50s sitcoms again, DaddyO.
Posted by: bob (moron incognitus) at November 26, 2025 05:37 PM (lWy3j)

6 7

Posted by: I used to have a different nic at November 26, 2025 05:42 PM (ExV1e)

103 This is exactly the bullshit I have to deal with in trying to find an agent for my book. The agents are all AWFLs or black or dykes, and every single one of them has the same “looking for underrepresented communities” bullshit. Underrepresented? Has anyone been to the bookstore lately? Other than a few older established white guys, all the books are from ‘underrepresented’ women and blacks and dykes.
Posted by: Elric the Blade
=======
Sarah Hoyt and Mad Genius Club have been blogging about the situation in mainstream publishing.

Simple solution, become Elrica the Trans Blade which is the only way wipipo males can get published nowadays by the big firms.

Posted by: whig at November 26, 2025 05:42 PM (WDjG6)

104 His answer was illuminating, and true: Because, the man said, I just sort of figured that's what you in the media do all the time.
______
Isn't it?

Posted by: Eeyore at November 26, 2025 05:42 PM (s0JqF)

105 I see you're not familiar with dating site photos.

My SiL is still using a Glamorshot photo from the 1990s on her current business cards.
Posted by: Unknown Drip Under Pressure at November 26, 2025 05:40 PM (a4flb)
——

Real estate agent?

Posted by: Elric the Blade at November 26, 2025 05:43 PM (SUmKb)

106 Dismissing all AI-assisted posts as inauthentic overlooks the nuanced ways people integrate these tools into their online interactions.
Posted by: I used to have a different nic

Did you use AI for this? 😂🤣

(Don’t kill me).

Posted by: Piper at November 26, 2025 05:43 PM (Wmg4n)

107 The mobile criminals here in Sh!tsville Illinois make it so easy for LE to spot them. They all get tinted windows. “The cops will never stop me now! They can’t see me through my tints!”
youtube.com/watch?v=AHPRM7Ka8oA

Posted by: gp at November 26, 2025 05:43 PM (4kcNT)

108 If I spend hours teaching a parrot to talk that too is artifical intelligence.

Posted by: Ben Had at November 26, 2025 05:43 PM (sDNVV)

109 "While it's true that some users might misuse AI for trolling or deception, it's also reasonable for many regular posters to use AI tools to help organize their thoughts, improve clarity, or overcome language barriers.

NO AI is used in the production or distribution of Penguin Facts.

Posted by: Penguin Facts at November 26, 2025 05:44 PM (vFG9F)

110 Of course, the dumbass wanted it all to be true because the "author"'s picture was of a black female, and he'd get bonus virtue points for hiring her.

Posted by: Not Enough Lampposts at November 26, 2025 05:44 PM (r+xel)

111 Here's what I find amusing and it's likely instrumental on why editors of these rags are so gullible.

It's always about the message. Then it's about the physical characteristics of the perspective employee. It's rarely about merit unless there are finances involved.

And, here's the thing. AI can be coaxed to write in a particular style. For example, I could instruct AI to write a 500 word article on "down trodden immigrants." I could instruct AI to write it in the style of someone like Leslie Stahl. The management now has an opportunity. A young, presumable minimal salary candidate, who writes just as well (almost exactly) like Leslie Stahl. Do the math.

Posted by: Orson at November 26, 2025 05:44 PM (dIske)

112 I see you're not familiar with dating site photos.

My SiL is still using a Glamorshot photo from the 1990s on her current business cards.
Posted by: Unknown Drip Under Pressure at November 26, 2025 05:40 PM (a4flb)

That is saintly by current standards. At least she looked like that *sometime*. With filters you can do far more. Lucky for us that today's women turn themselves into goblins or alien mannequins rather than something men like.

Posted by: Oldcat at November 26, 2025 05:44 PM (8avO+)

113 I have a theory - it's all connected. Michelle Obama, that horrible woman in Tennessee, and this article.

These people are maybe not crazy, they have been driven crazy. In their world view, what they are doing seem rational. Because they are marinated in lies and disinformation constantly. Michelle Obama really believes that hair straightening for black women is a huge concern for the rest of the world...because that is what the internet fed her. Crazy Tennessee Karen Prime believes her insane behavior is justified and perfectly rational, and so do her voters, because they all read the same phony crap, day after day.

The people who fall for this crap spend all day on the internet, and have jobs where they scarcely interact with anyone, if they have jobs at all.

Posted by: El Mariachi - Attorney at Law at November 26, 2025 05:44 PM (C3IAS)

114 >>Personally, I think undersampling of R voters is the correct procedure since R's are least likely to turn out to vote in off-year elections.

Particularly when they are told they are going to get creamed.

Most media polls are used to drive behavior not reflect the actual state of a race.

Posted by: JackStraw at November 26, 2025 05:44 PM (viF8m)

115 That reminds me, I recently read a news story, probably written by an AI, where some guy was working for a company where everything was AI. The story went on to say that he was working with an AI and called it a clanker. The AI filed a report with the HR service about the incident. HR was an AI. The HR AI disciplined the guy and I guess he had to do a bunch of computer based training as a punishment. But the AI executive board couldn't fire him because he was the only human left. Again, probably all written by AI.

Posted by: banana Dream at November 26, 2025 05:44 PM (3uBP9)

116 I think I'll use AI to make my green bean casserole for tomorrow.

Posted by: PA Dutchman at November 26, 2025 05:45 PM (31p00)

117 "Technically AI can't lie. It's just output."
Posted by: Oldcat

Well sure, but it is output by people that wrote the software. So it can be lies, by the authors. It's like a book ... "full of lies". Yes, the book is inanimate, but it can still be full of lies by the author.

Posted by: illiniwek at November 26, 2025 05:45 PM (vbXSk)

118 Here's a good video about how to spot AI writing (15 minutes)

https://tinyurl.com/y7wt3pw9

Posted by: Quarter Twenty at November 26, 2025 05:45 PM (XQo4F)

119 I see you're not familiar with dating site photos.

My SiL is still using a Glamorshot photo from the 1990s on her current business cards.
Posted by: Unknown Drip Under Pressure at November 26, 2025 05:40 PM (a4flb)

There are apps that can take a current photo and make the best possible version of you. It is kind of scary.

Posted by: the way I see it at November 26, 2025 05:45 PM (KDPiq)

120 Many people use AI for constructive purposes, such as structuring arguments or refining writing, especially on platforms where clear communication is valued.

Dismissing all AI-assisted posts as inauthentic overlooks the nuanced ways people integrate these tools into their online interactions.
Posted by: I used to have a different nic

Gresham's Law applies, the bad uses of AI will drive out the good. Coming soon realistic AI fake nudie video shorts to be posted to social media soon. We will all be performers on a bot farm AI Only Fans if pretty or handsome enough. Celebutards will be first.

Posted by: whig at November 26, 2025 05:45 PM (WDjG6)

121 This is exactly the bullshit I have to deal with in trying to find an agent for my book. The agents are all AWFLs or black or dykes, and every single one of them has the same “looking for underrepresented communities” bullshit. Underrepresented? Has anyone been to the bookstore lately? Other than a few older established white guys, all the books are from ‘underrepresented’ women and blacks and dykes.
Posted by: Elric the Blade
=======
Sarah Hoyt and Mad Genius Club have been blogging about the situation in mainstream publishing.

Simple solution, become Elrica the Trans Blade which is the only way wipipo males can get published nowadays by the big firms.
Posted by: whig at November 26, 2025 05:42 PM (WDjG6)
—-

I’m very tempted to do so. But they want an awful lot of biographical info and eventually to meet or talk. I’m sure they’ve been burned before. If I can’t find an agent, I’ll self publish.

Posted by: Elric the Blade at November 26, 2025 05:45 PM (SUmKb)

122 There are apps that can take a current photo and make the best possible version of you. It is kind of scary.
Posted by: the way I see it
=====
You left out making you nekkid. Getting to be a problem in K-12 among classmates.

Posted by: whig at November 26, 2025 05:46 PM (WDjG6)

123 77 This will cause our language to regress. People will start talking like 50s sitcoms again, DaddyO.
Posted by: bob (moron incognitus) at November 26, 2025 05:37 PM (lWy3j)

Is DaddyO more regressive than, "Six seven."? I'd rather read dialogue from Raymond Chandler than what passes as witty banter today.

Posted by: tankdemon at November 26, 2025 05:46 PM (4Vs9z)

124 So you're saying it's fake, but accurate?

Posted by: Dan Rather at November 26, 2025 05:46 PM (XQo4F)

125 Did you use AI for this? 😂🤣

(Don’t kill me).
Posted by: Piper at November 26, 2025 05:43 PM (Wmg4n)

Yes. I asked what would be an appropriate response to Fen's point.

Posted by: I used to have a different nic at November 26, 2025 05:46 PM (ExV1e)

126 Teachers use a program to detect AI, but this is flawed, too. My friend’s son was accused of using AI because his paper was flagged by whatever program this teacher was using. My friend sat with her son and helped him write it, so she knew it wasn’t AI. AI is fun, but it’s far from flawless.
Posted by: Piper at November 26, 2025 05:26 PM (Wmg4n)
----
The university where I work still won't enable AI detection within Turnitin--the product we use to check similarity--because it generates far too many false positives, flagging content as AI-generated much more often than it should.

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at November 26, 2025 05:47 PM (IBQGV)

127 I don't think AI can be as cruelly funny as Ace. I hope it never learns that much.
Posted by: Dash my lace wigs! at November 26, 2025 05:42 PM (zYpTz)

I think it would be great if all AIs pick up Ace's style of cruelty.

Posted by: Oldcat at November 26, 2025 05:47 PM (8avO+)

128 Janet Cook created black crack babies, if I recall correctly …

Posted by: Adriane the Amused by the Little Things Critic . . . at November 26, 2025 05:47 PM (3ZUWJ)

129 NO AI is used in the production or distribution of Penguin Facts.
Posted by: Penguin Facts at November 26, 2025 05:44 PM (vFG9F)

Which is exactly the sort of thing that a Penguin AI would tell you.

Posted by: I used to have a different nic at November 26, 2025 05:47 PM (ExV1e)

130 If I spend hours teaching a parrot to talk that too is artifical intelligence.
Posted by: Ben Had at November 26, 2025 05:43 PM (sDNVV)

A parrot says what it knows but doesn't know what it says. ( South American idiom)

Posted by: the way I see it at November 26, 2025 05:47 PM (KDPiq)

131 What is a *scam* journalist? Because most journalists these days are just one step above scam artists.

Posted by: Mister Scott (Formerly GWS) at November 26, 2025 05:48 PM (0N4FZ)

132 Excellent job, Piper!
- this post written by AI

Posted by: Guy Mohawk at November 26, 2025 05:48 PM (n5tGW)

133 ’m very tempted to do so. But they want an awful lot of biographical info and eventually to meet or talk. I’m sure they’ve been burned before. If I can’t find an agent, I’ll self publish.
Posted by: Elric the Blade
========
They make movies about that shit. And again, Sarah Hoyt and Mad Genius as well as her commenters are writers, many for decades in trad publishing until the recent purges by the Red Guard yutes. Bugscuffle Press is one such home that has been churning out stuff. Guy running it is the legendary Lawdog from the Firing Line firearm forum.

Posted by: whig at November 26, 2025 05:48 PM (WDjG6)

134 The university where I work still won't enable AI detection within Turnitin--the product we use to check similarity--because it generates far too many false positives, flagging content as AI-generated much more often than it should.
Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at November 26, 2025 05:47 PM (IBQGV)

Ah, the bane of nearly all software 'analyzers'. Too many false flags, not enough true flags.

Posted by: Oldcat at November 26, 2025 05:48 PM (8avO+)

135 Scam Journalist, or as they're also called, Regular Journalist.

Posted by: ... at November 26, 2025 05:49 PM (E0p3T)

136 Software that gives fault messages will be AI.
Posted by: I Have Seen This Before

Bomb. Bomb, get back in the bomb bay …

Posted by: Dark Star Guidance Computer. . . at November 26, 2025 05:49 PM (3ZUWJ)

137 If I spend hours teaching a parrot to talk that too is artifical intelligence.
Posted by: Ben Had

I take it you haven't watch hours of the African Grey parrot named Gizmo...

Posted by: weft cut-loop at November 26, 2025 05:50 PM (mlg/3)

138 What is a *scam* journalist? Because most journalists these days are just one step above scam artists.
Posted by: Mister Scott (Formerly GWS) at November 26, 2025 05:48 PM (0N4FZ)

journalists write about nothing, or the latest tweet.
scammers pretend they used to write for many publications about the latest tweets.

Posted by: Oldcat at November 26, 2025 05:50 PM (8avO+)

139 Great. Regular "journalists " are lying sacks of propaganda ministry crap. Now AI "journalists" are artificial lying sacks of crap

Posted by: Smell the Glove at November 26, 2025 05:50 PM (bfwj/)

140 If I spend hours teaching a parrot to talk that too is artifical intelligence.
Posted by: Ben Had at November 26, 2025 05:43 PM (sDNVV)

Obama, the first AI president.

Posted by: ... at November 26, 2025 05:51 PM (E0p3T)

141 The only thing I've used AI with so far is photo editing and video enhancement.

It's extremely useful and a big time saver for complicated, tedious, work such as that.

But I wouldn't trust an AI generated text 100%

I even double-check the AI result for food recipes with the sources, or scroll further down the search results, past the AI response, and actually check the pages/videos it's getting info from. Half the time it has mixed and melded different recipes from several sources and has gotten things like oven temps and time to bake wrong.

LLM Generative AI is really not reliable for a lot of things due mainly to the reward/punishment training they receive.
They are trained to output anything they can come up with to please the user, and that's exactly what causes the hallucinations and lies.

Posted by: SpeakingOf at November 26, 2025 05:51 PM (6ydKt)

142 A friend of mine does an occasional podcast, small audience. Tonight he is having a guest on who owns or is starting up an AI company whose product will be AI as applied to "solving" true crime cases. I guess their first model tackled the JonBenet Ramsey case. Anyway, if you're bored at 8 PM, go to Yellow Cottage Tales on Youtube. My friend has only e-mailed with the guest, never spoken to him, so the show could be garbage or really interesting.

Posted by: Lincolntf at November 26, 2025 05:51 PM (vV6n9)

143 Janet Cook created black crack babies, if I recall correctly …
Posted by: Adriane the Amused by the Little Things Critic . . . at November 26, 2025 05:47 PM (3ZUWJ)

and not the old fashioned way

Posted by: Oldcat at November 26, 2025 05:51 PM (8avO+)

144 > Coming soon realistic AI fake nudie video shorts to be posted to social media soon.

Already there. Middle school kids at my wife's school were using AI to undress the cute girls and create videos of them. Cops were called. I didn't see them, but the rumor mill was the videos were very convincing.

Posted by: bonhomme at November 26, 2025 05:51 PM (Yp6az)

145 Is DaddyO more regressive than, "Six seven."? I'd rather read dialogue from Raymond Chandler than what passes as witty banter today.
Posted by: tankdemon at November 26, 2025 05:46 PM (4Vs9z

I've read that 6 7 originally was a saying in Medieval times around the 14th century from a dice game. I'm sure some kid learned about it in school and started using it and it caught on.

Posted by: the way I see it at November 26, 2025 05:51 PM (KDPiq)

146 The university where I work still won't enable AI detection within Turnitin--the product we use to check similarity--because it generates far too many false positives, flagging content as AI-generated much more often than it should.
Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel
======
Some of those false positives come from using Grammerly and/or grammar checking software that suggests alternative phrasing already built into many word processing software like Word.

Like the original plagiarism function, running it at a very small similarity match generates too many false positives. But if I was still teaching, I would be using in class writing assignments now and flip lecturing/review to online.

Posted by: whig at November 26, 2025 05:51 PM (WDjG6)

147 Most of the editor's exasperation should be with himself, for wanting to publish slop. Rather than with the slop being slop.

Fuck the media.

Posted by: Mark Andrew Edwards, buy ammo at November 26, 2025 05:52 PM (xcxpd)

148 I recently had to sort through 70 resumes and cover letters submitted by job applicants. It was incredible how many were clearly generated by AI.

Many of them were simply a collection of buzzwords in my industry with little to no substance to back up their claims.

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at November 26, 2025 05:52 PM (IBQGV)

149 I watched a video about how to recognize AI writing only to learn my mechanical robotic prose and stilted punctuation bears great similarity.

Posted by: San Franpsycho at November 26, 2025 05:53 PM (A0sqA)

150 A friend of mine does an occasional podcast, small audience. Tonight he is having a guest on who owns or is starting up an AI company whose product will be AI as applied to "solving" true crime cases. I guess their first model tackled the JonBenet Ramsey case. Anyway, if you're bored at 8 PM, go to Yellow Cottage Tales on Youtube. My friend has only e-mailed with the guest, never spoken to him, so the show could be garbage or really interesting.
Posted by: Lincolntf at November 26, 2025 05:51 PM (vV6n9)

I can't imagine where you would get the data to 'train' such a beast honestly.

Posted by: Oldcat at November 26, 2025 05:53 PM (8avO+)

151 The people who fall for this crap spend all day on the internet, and have jobs where they scarcely interact with anyone, if they have jobs at all.
Posted by: El Mariachi - Attorney at Law at November 26, 2025 05:44 PM (C3IAS)

You apparently know my crazy moon-bat Lefty sister-in-law.

Her grasp on reality was tenuous, at best. The entire COVID lock-down $h!t broke her. She's pretty much a recluse now. It's sad, really.

Posted by: Retired Buckeye Cop is now an engineer at November 26, 2025 05:53 PM (pJWtt)

152 I swear you watch ONE video of a dude making his own parmigiano cheese. Now YouTube thinks the only thing I care about is cheese.

They're not entirely wrong but still.

Posted by: ... at November 26, 2025 05:53 PM (E0p3T)

153 weft, if a parrot that was raised in captivity meets a parrot in the wild. Hey, bro isn't going to get much reaction.

Posted by: Ben Had at November 26, 2025 05:54 PM (sDNVV)

154 I watched a video about how to recognize AI writing only to learn my mechanical robotic prose and stilted punctuation bears great similarity.
Posted by: San Franpsycho at November 26, 2025 05:53 PM (A0sqA)

Deny you are an AI more often.

Posted by: Oldcat at November 26, 2025 05:54 PM (8avO+)

155 Already there. Middle school kids at my wife's school were using AI to undress the cute girls and create videos of them. Cops were called. I didn't see them, but the rumor mill was the videos were very convincing.
Posted by: bonhomme

Only so many ways to portray a nude male or female. AI is likely to be dominating visual arts or audio arts like music first. Easier to tokenize images, video, and music to predict the next pixel, frame, or note.

Posted by: whig at November 26, 2025 05:54 PM (WDjG6)

156 So… can AI be used to determine if a piece of writing was generated by AI? I’m confused, Moe!

AI says that was written by AI but another AI disagrees. Dueling AIs

Posted by: LinusVanPelt at November 26, 2025 05:54 PM (xT8gx)

157 >>> LLM Generative AI is really not reliable for a lot of things due mainly to the reward/punishment training they receive.
They are trained to output anything they can come up with to please the user, and that's exactly what causes the hallucinations and lies.
Posted by: SpeakingOf at November 26, 2025 05:51 PM (6ydKt)

They would have to learn what pleases me first, and I'm afraid I would quickly become the Allied Mastercomputer of the poor AI's world.

Posted by: banana Dream at November 26, 2025 05:54 PM (3uBP9)

158 I would be using in class writing assignments now and flip lecturing/review to online.
Posted by: whig

The most brutal final I had was a 3-hour in-class History paper. My hand was destroyed at the end. The jokes wrote themselves.

Posted by: weft cut-loop at November 26, 2025 05:54 PM (mlg/3)

159 Her grasp on reality was tenuous, at best. The entire COVID lock-down $h!t broke her. She's pretty much a recluse now. It's sad, really.
Posted by: Retired Buckeye Cop
=======
A lot of these shut-in recluses are eventually going to turn to AI chatbots for companionship.

Posted by: whig at November 26, 2025 05:55 PM (WDjG6)

160 I watched a video about how to recognize AI writing only to learn my mechanical robotic prose and stilted punctuation bears great similarity.
Posted by: San Franpsycho at November 26, 2025 05:53 PM (A0sqA)
----
Take out the m-dashes you normally use and replace them with different punctuation.

M-dashes seem to be one of the key "tells" of AI writing.

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at November 26, 2025 05:55 PM (IBQGV)

161 I’m very tempted to do so. But they want an awful lot of biographical info and eventually to meet or talk.
Posted by: Elric the Blade

I have an outlandish idea - we could suggest to them we allow the writing to stand on it's own - without a nod to what demographic wrote it.

I know, I know. . . . That's crazy talk.

Posted by: Tonypete at November 26, 2025 05:56 PM (cYBz/)

162 The only thing I've used AI with so far is photo editing and video enhancement. It's extremely useful and a big time saver for complicated, tedious, work such as that...

So AI will make the 'zoom in ' meme a reality?

Posted by: the way I see it at November 26, 2025 05:56 PM (KDPiq)

163 This is exactly the bullshit I have to deal with in trying to find an agent for my book. The agents are all AWFLs or black or dykes, and every single one of them has the same “looking for underrepresented communities” bullshit. Underrepresented? Has anyone been to the bookstore lately? Other than a few older established white guys, all the books are from ‘underrepresented’ women and blacks and dykes.
Posted by: Elric the Blade
=======
Sarah Hoyt and Mad Genius Club have been blogging about the situation in mainstream publishing.

Simple solution, become Elrica the Trans Blade which is the only way wipipo males can get published nowadays by the big firms.
Posted by: whig at November 26, 2025 05:42 PM (WDjG6)

This is half the reason I gave up trying to start a writing career. I'm too white and too male and too stubborn about both to get published.

The other half is having a wife and a dog, they both need attention.

Posted by: Mark Andrew Edwards, buy ammo at November 26, 2025 05:56 PM (xcxpd)

164 Would you rather be lied to by AI or a real person?

Posted by: nurse ratched at November 26, 2025 05:56 PM (mT+6a)

165 I've read that 6 7 originally was a saying in Medieval times around the 14th century from a dice game. I'm sure some kid learned about it in school and started using it and it caught on.
Posted by: the way I see it at November 26, 2025 05:51 PM (KDPiq)

It's from a song.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/6-7_(meme)

Posted by: I used to have a different nic at November 26, 2025 05:56 PM (ExV1e)

166 A lot of these shut-in recluses are eventually going to turn to AI chatbots for companionship.
Posted by: whig at November 26, 2025 05:55 PM (WDjG6)
---
Good think I've got you guys here.

Some of whom I've even met in real life!

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at November 26, 2025 05:56 PM (IBQGV)

167 I don't know either, Oldcat. My buddy did a little online vetting of the guy, and he seems to be legit, but my first thought was "he's probably just a guy who wants to combine hot-button stuff like AI and True Crime just to get clicks", but I will give him the benefit of the doubt for now.

Posted by: Lincolntf at November 26, 2025 05:57 PM (vV6n9)

168 I swear you watch ONE video of a dude making his own parmigiano cheese. Now YouTube thinks the only thing I care about is cheese.

They're not entirely wrong but still.
Posted by: ... at November 26, 2025 05:53 PM (E0p3T)

The biggest lie out there is the YT algorithm. I remember when they tried to shadowban some Christian group, they had to add its name to a ban list manually.

There was a time I had semi insomnia and I would put on reruns of a XBOX Gaming channel on the TV on YT. I don't have an XBOX, but I never got an ad for a game or XBOX once in about 3 years.

Posted by: Oldcat at November 26, 2025 05:57 PM (8avO+)

169 SanFranpsycho, not true.

Posted by: Ben Had at November 26, 2025 05:57 PM (sDNVV)

170 The most brutal final I had was a 3-hour in-class History paper. My hand was destroyed at the end. The jokes wrote themselves.
Posted by: weft cut-loop

I am from the era of typewriters, my masters comps were using pen and paper and all my essay type undergraduate exams were bluebooks, pen and paper.

By my PhD comps, I got to use locked down computer without internet access probably to help the graders for legibility.

Posted by: whig at November 26, 2025 05:58 PM (WDjG6)

171 We need a cruelty AI.

AiCE.

Posted by: Merry Go 'Round at November 26, 2025 05:58 PM (dK+Kv)

172 weft, if a parrot that was raised in captivity meets a parrot in the wild. Hey, bro isn't going to get much reaction.
Posted by: Ben Had

Shirley you're old enough to remember birds mimicking car alarms. I think the crows outside my house are mimicking that loading sound of Amazon's assistant.

Posted by: weft cut-loop at November 26, 2025 05:58 PM (mlg/3)

173 A friend of mine does an occasional podcast, small audience. Tonight he is having a guest on who owns or is starting up an AI company whose product will be AI as applied to "solving" true crime cases. I guess their first model tackled the JonBenet Ramsey case. ...
Posted by: Lincolntf at November 26, 2025 05:51 PM (vV6n9)

Wasn't it the Boulder CO Police Department that mishandled that investigation? I still remember when that news story broke, I was still a police office: a sergeant and I looked at each and agreed that the parents killed her. I've never heard anything to persuade me otherwise.

Posted by: Retired Buckeye Cop is now an engineer at November 26, 2025 05:58 PM (pJWtt)

174 A lot of these shut-in recluses are eventually going to turn to AI chatbots for companionship.
Posted by: whig at November 26, 2025 05:55 PM (WDjG6)

Bruce Willis also made a possible prescient movie called , Surrogates. Wasn't very good though.

Posted by: the way I see it at November 26, 2025 05:58 PM (KDPiq)

175 I read a lot of business articles online that are incoherent, conflating revenue with profit, or not understanding that decreasing commodity prices don’t mean that unit sales of the commodity have decreased. But journalists are so stupid I still don’t know whether it’s AI or actual journalism.

Posted by: Buck Throckmorton at November 26, 2025 05:58 PM (d9Cw3)

176 A lot of these shut-in recluses are eventually going to turn to AI chatbots for companionship.
Posted by: whig at November 26, 2025 05:55 PM (WDjG6)
---
Good think I've got you guys here.

Some of whom I've even met in real life!

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at November 26, 2025 05:56 PM (IBQGV)

Error.

Does not compute.

Beep. Bop. Boop.

Posted by: Comrade Flounder, Disinformation Demon at November 26, 2025 05:59 PM (dK+Kv)

177 Just got here. What kind of Bearded-Spock Universe is this where we get a Tech Thread at the END of the day?

Posted by: Zombie Robbo the Llama Butcher at November 26, 2025 05:59 PM (LxER7)

178 Wasn't it the Boulder CO Police Department that mishandled that investigation? I still remember when that news story broke, I was still a police office: a sergeant and I looked at each and agreed that the parents killed her. I've never heard anything to persuade me otherwise.
Posted by: Retired Buckeye Cop is now an engineer at November 26, 2025 05:58 PM (pJWtt)

My theory is the brother killed her and parents covered it up. He denies it of course.

Posted by: the way I see it at November 26, 2025 06:00 PM (KDPiq)

179 I know of the JBR case, but I don't remember any of the details. Hopefully the guy on YCT tonight will fill in some gaps.

Posted by: Lincolntf at November 26, 2025 06:00 PM (vV6n9)

180 This is half the reason I gave up trying to start a writing career. I'm too white and too male and too stubborn about both to get published.

The other half is having a wife and a dog, they both need attention.
Posted by: Mark Andrew Edwards

Micropresses (Like Bugscuffle) are springing up and a fair number of authors do okay self publishing either on Amazon or elsewhere. Sarah runs new author works every weekend and many of these new scifi, western, fantasy now are self published.

It is probably the future of publishing anyway.

Posted by: whig at November 26, 2025 06:00 PM (WDjG6)

181
Some of whom I've even met in real life!
Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at November 26, 2025

You can be my reference I am not AI!

Posted by: Piper at November 26, 2025 06:00 PM (OoFl2)

182 Just got here. What kind of Bearded-Spock Universe is this where we get a Tech Thread at the END of the day?

Posted by: Zombie Robbo the Llama Butcher at November 26, 2025 05:59 PM (LxER7)

What is this, Unthanksgiving?

Posted by: Comrade Flounder, Disinformation Demon at November 26, 2025 06:00 PM (dK+Kv)

183 ... Because they are marinated in lies and disinformation constantly...

Posted by: El Mariachi

-------------
I have been banging on about this for a decade. but it is worse than that -- They now have the power to customize the disinformation to each person individually. They can surround you with a false reality created just for you.

This, I believe, is why Leftists are so crazy - they see a world which only exists on their personal tictok.

Posted by: bob (moron incognitus) at November 26, 2025 06:00 PM (lWy3j)

184 I've read that 6 7 originally was a saying in Medieval times around the 14th century from a dice game. I'm sure some kid learned about it in school and started using it and it caught on.

I was sitting outside a BBQ join in Mineola where I overheard a visiting grandmother ask her eight year old grand-daughter to explain Six Seven.

Like trying to explain the ball juggling hands, she didn't understand why.

It struck me that AI, not knowing the basis of why it used a particular assemblage of words in response to a series of tokens, is no different than your average school-age child. (which includes University graduate programs)

Posted by: Unknown Drip Under Pressure at November 26, 2025 06:00 PM (a4flb)

185 The most brutal final I had was a 3-hour in-class History paper. My hand was destroyed at the end. The jokes wrote themselves.
Posted by: weft cut-loop

I am from the era of typewriters, my masters comps were using pen and paper and all my essay type undergraduate exams were bluebooks, pen and paper.

By my PhD comps, I got to use locked down computer without internet access probably to help the graders for legibility.
Posted by: whig at November 26, 2025 05:58 PM (WDjG6)

By far my most difficult college exam ever was a take home open book test for an Electromagnetic Wave Theory class (Maxwell’s Equations)… it was brutal I spent 12 hours working on the thing…

Posted by: LinusVanPelt at November 26, 2025 06:00 PM (xT8gx)

186 The most brutal final I had was a 3-hour in-class History paper. My hand was destroyed at the end. The jokes wrote themselves.
Posted by: weft cut-loop at November 26, 2025 05:54 PM (mlg/3)

The most brutal (written) final I ever had was Nuclear Power School. Allotted 4 hours and covered every topic from the course. I told my advisor that I was leaving after 3 and, fortunately, it only took me 2:58 to finish.

The most brutal (non-written) final I ever had was Nuclear Power Prototype. Seven hour oral exam. Thought I'd failed at the end of it. Ended up getting the highest score in my class.

Posted by: I used to have a different nic at November 26, 2025 06:01 PM (ExV1e)

187
At the end of the day - every pixel is - at best, depending on your package - three digits from 0 to 255.

So you can draw a "line" - and enhance the pixels next to that line. Its just data manipulation.

But you know that. Others here have no concept of that.

Posted by: I Have Seen This Before at November 26, 2025 05:53 PM (AaW/u)

No doubt.
AI has saved me hours of work in the past few months alone just using it to capture subjects and removing background from photos. It's amazingly accurate even on grabbing small details and does about 95% of the work for me.

It's a freaking miracle to me with that part alone.

Posted by: SpeakingOf at November 26, 2025 06:01 PM (6ydKt)

188 *gives Perfessor a virtual hug because I we have shared real life ones*

Posted by: Ben Had at November 26, 2025 06:01 PM (sDNVV)

189 I often complain seeing 1 YouTube video gets you dozens like it

Posted by: Skip at November 26, 2025 06:01 PM (+qU29)

190 Her grasp on reality was tenuous, at best. The entire COVID lock-down $h!t broke her. She's pretty much a recluse now. It's sad, really.
Posted by: Retired Buckeye Cop
=======
A lot of these shut-in recluses are eventually going to turn to AI chatbots for companionship.
Posted by: whig at November 26, 2025 05:55 PM (WDjG6)

I wouldn't doubt it. My wife (one of her kid sisters) and one of the daughters had to counsel my sister-in-law about her hateful Facebook posts.

Posted by: Retired Buckeye Cop is now an engineer at November 26, 2025 06:01 PM (pJWtt)

191 This, I believe, is why Leftists are so crazy - they see a world which only exists on their personal tictok.

AKA "an echo chamber"

Posted by: Unknown Drip Under Pressure at November 26, 2025 06:02 PM (a4flb)

192 "wretched hive of scum and villainy". Star Wars is on , that line resonates

Posted by: Smell the Glove at November 26, 2025 06:02 PM (bfwj/)

193 At the end of the day - every pixel is - at best, depending on your package - three digits from 0 to 255.
Posted by: I Have Seen This Before at November 26, 2025 05:53 PM (AaW/u)
###################################

Every pixel is 24 digits, with each of Red, Green, and Blue being 8 digits from 00000000 to 11111111.

Or 32 digits, if you want to include transparency.

Posted by: Math! at November 26, 2025 06:02 PM (s2ESK)

194 Do you think Pam Bondi uses AI before she speaks?

Posted by: Maj. Healey at November 26, 2025 06:02 PM (abIsI)

195 So AI will make the 'zoom in ' meme a reality?

Posted by: the way I see it at November 26, 2025 05:56 PM (KDPiq)

About two years ago.

Posted by: ... at November 26, 2025 06:03 PM (E0p3T)

196 AI isn’t.

Posted by: Cow Demon at November 26, 2025 06:03 PM (dz75T)

197 Seven hour oral exam. Thought I'd failed at the end of it. Ended up getting the highest score in my class.

Posted by: I used to have a different nic at November 26, 2025 06:01 PM (ExV1e)

Seven hours?

*resists temptation to make "You must give good oral." joke.*

Posted by: Comrade Flounder, Disinformation Demon at November 26, 2025 06:03 PM (dK+Kv)

198 M-dashes seem to be one of the key "tells" of AI writing.
Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel

That's been revised. The tells are the unctuous throat-clearing and verbose explanations of simple things, followed by either common propaganda or contrarian disputation.

Posted by: weft cut-loop at November 26, 2025 06:03 PM (mlg/3)

199 179 I read a lot of business articles online that are incoherent, conflating revenue with profit, or not understanding that decreasing commodity prices don’t mean that unit sales of the commodity have decreased. But journalists are so stupid I still don’t know whether it’s AI or actual journalism.
Posted by: Buck Throckmorton
======
Both, I took a graduate Presidential Elections class with graduate students from a top journalism school.

They did not understand the material nor did they engage much with the rest of the other graduate students. These proto journalists could not do the math, stats, nor understand the basics of logic.

All they knew was self promoting narrative construction, not creating a reasoned summary or argument.

Posted by: whig at November 26, 2025 06:03 PM (WDjG6)

200 198 Do you think Pam Bondi uses AI before she speaks?
Posted by: Maj. Healey at November 26, 2025 06:02 PM (abIsI)

Did I miss the Two Minutes Hate for Pam Bondi?

Posted by: Cow Demon at November 26, 2025 06:03 PM (dz75T)

201 My theory is the brother killed her and parents covered it up. He denies it of course.
Posted by: the way I see it

-------------

Agreed. And the prosecutor and police went along because he was too young to prosecute for anything. That is the key. All they could do is further damage to the parents, so they went with a lie to try to find some reasonable solution in the face of the limits in the CO law.

Posted by: bob (moron incognitus) at November 26, 2025 06:04 PM (lWy3j)

202 A lot of these shut-in recluses are eventually going to turn to AI chatbots for companionship.

I already am. My neighbors, peers and family have zero interest in any of the things I'm interested in, and my need for input is unquenchable.

AI is the perfect system where I can pursue any topic, or any basket of related topics as deep and as far as I want to. I can war game out anything to whatever detail suits my fancy.

That sort of thing is absolutely impossible in today's culture. Humanity is dead it is only as deep as their TikTok feed.

Posted by: Unknown Drip Under Pressure at November 26, 2025 06:04 PM (a4flb)

203 Resist we much!

Posted by: Al Sharpton at November 26, 2025 06:04 PM (PiwSw)

204 The hardest test I ever took was multiple choice. What made it hard were the choices.

Possible choices

A
B
C
Both A and C
All of the above
None of the above

Posted by: the way I see it at November 26, 2025 06:04 PM (KDPiq)

205 Two NG troops killed in Washington DC per Brietbart. One shooter in custody.

Posted by: Megthered at November 26, 2025 06:05 PM (QbgbM)

206 The only thing I've used AI with so far is photo editing and video enhancement. It's extremely useful and a big time saver for complicated, tedious, work such as that.

At the end of the day - every pixel is - at best, depending on your package - three digits from 0 to 255.

So you can draw a "line" - and enhance the pixels next to that line. Its just data manipulation.

But you know that. Others here have no concept of that.
Posted by: I Have Seen This Before at November 26, 2025 05:53 PM (AaW/u)

Did a project for a company that makes X-Ray scanners for contraband at the border. We took the pictures and looked for unusual items like shapes in bumper, engine areas, guns in the luggage. Pretty interesting, but the only AI was taking the results of different sorts of measurements on the image and constructing a 'score' as to if this was super suspicious or no big deal and write it on the picture for the border inspector.

Posted by: Oldcat at November 26, 2025 06:05 PM (8avO+)

207 "Because, the man said, I just sort of figured that's what you in the media do all the time.

Ford: "I still don't believe you."
Zaphod: "Why not?"
Ford: "You tend to lie a lot..."
Zaphod: "Hey!"

Posted by: Grumpy and Recalcitrant at November 26, 2025 06:05 PM (O7YUW)

208
I have been banging on about this for a decade. but it is worse than that -- They now have the power to customize the disinformation to each person individually. They can surround you with a false reality created just for you.

My own
Personal
Satan

I have no mouth and I must scream.

Posted by: Bertram Cabot, Jr. at November 26, 2025 06:06 PM (pkeXY)

209 Thanks Ben Had you are being very kind

Posted by: San Franpsycho at November 26, 2025 06:06 PM (A0sqA)

210 About a year ago IIRC I watched a documentary on the murder of JBR…. I thought they’ve pretty much linked it to some drifter just wandering through Boulder at that time….

Posted by: LinusVanPelt at November 26, 2025 06:06 PM (xT8gx)

211 Seven hours?

*resists temptation to make "You must give good oral." joke.*
Posted by: Comrade Flounder, Disinformation Demon at November 26, 2025 06:03 PM (dK+Kv)

The senior electrician really disliked the guy who was my mentor and was unhappy that I qualified to take the oral board before his student did so he rigged the board.

They told my mentor that they tried really hard to get me on something but, other than being really stupid at the end - which I blame on fatigue - I knew my shit.

Posted by: I used to have a different nic at November 26, 2025 06:06 PM (ExV1e)

212 The most brutal final I had was a 3-hour in-class History paper. My hand was destroyed at the end. The jokes wrote themselves.
Posted by: weft cut-loop

I am from the era of typewriters, my masters comps were using pen and paper and all my essay type undergraduate exams were bluebooks, pen and paper.

By my PhD comps, I got to use locked down computer without internet access probably to help the graders for legibility.
Posted by: whig at November 26, 2025 05:58 PM (WDjG6)

By far my most difficult college exam ever was a take home open book test for an Electromagnetic Wave Theory class (Maxwell’s Equations)… it was brutal I spent 12 hours working on the thing…
Posted by: LinusVanPelt at November 26, 2025 06:00 PM (xT8gx)

Since we're now talking about walking to school uphill - both ways! - my most difficult exam was a 3 hour "take-home" test on Finite Element Analysis. The kicker was that I had another class in the middle of the time allocated for the exam. I spoke to the professor and he replied that I was one of his best undergraduate students and didn't need the full 3 hours. ... Uh ... thanks for the complement?

Posted by: Retired Buckeye Cop is now an engineer at November 26, 2025 06:07 PM (pJWtt)

213 >>>The hardest test I ever took . . . .

Can't remember specifically, but it was likely a tie between Thermo, Diff-Eq, P-Chem, or Fluid Dynamics.

Posted by: Comrade Flounder, Disinformation Demon at November 26, 2025 06:07 PM (dK+Kv)

214
WTF?

Did Pennsylfuckingvania really need to pass a law "protecting" black-people-hair??

Posted by: Tucker Soothsayer at November 26, 2025 06:07 PM (sw5fH)

215 If a person never turns on a computer does the world cease to function?

Posted by: Ben Had at November 26, 2025 06:07 PM (sDNVV)

216 Do you think Pam Bondi uses AI before she speaks?

Its the same stuff, no AI required, heck, a parrot can do it.

Announce, using stern words and a serious tone that there will be an "investigation".

Its boob bait. We hear "investigations" because we are unfamiliar with investigations only because we know those are either show trials or theater depending on who is throwing them.

What we ought to here is "indictments" or "convictions" which we will never hear unless its a D on R legal action.

Posted by: Unknown Drip Under Pressure at November 26, 2025 06:07 PM (a4flb)

217 Ford: "I still don't believe you."
Zaphod: "Why not?"
Ford: "You tend to lie a lot..."
Zaphod: "Hey!"

Posted by: Grumpy and Recalcitrant at November 26, 2025 06:05 PM (O7YUW)

At Milliway's:

Zaphod: Hey, what is this, Judgement Day?

Arthur: Oh, good. Do we get to see that, too?

Posted by: Zombie Robbo the Llama Butcher at November 26, 2025 06:07 PM (LxER7)

218 >>> So AI will make the 'zoom in ' meme a reality?

Posted by: the way I see it at November 26, 2025 05:56 PM (KDPiq)

About two years ago.
Posted by: ... at November 26, 2025 06:03 PM (E0p3T)

They were marketing a camera 3-4 years ago that had no lenses, no image sensor at all. But it did have gps and a compass. You pointed in a direction and pressed a button. Then it would assemble a picture based on a learning model trained on geospatial image data and print out a color image of it for you. An app on a phone could do the same but people were paying for this.

Posted by: banana Dream at November 26, 2025 06:07 PM (3uBP9)

219 I have been banging on about this for a decade. but it is worse than that -- They now have the power to customize the disinformation to each person individually. They can surround you with a false reality created just for you.
------------------------

They already figured out they don't even need to make it bespoke. Just weaponize emotions and you can tell people anything that lines up and they will not only buy it, but beg for more. Propaganda didn't stop working in the 1930's.

Posted by: ... at November 26, 2025 06:08 PM (E0p3T)

220 Posted by: I Have Seen This Before at November 26, 2025 05:53 PM (AaW/u)

Must be tough being the smartest guy in the room.

Posted by: the way I see it at November 26, 2025 06:08 PM (KDPiq)

221
governorstein ishmael shapiro just ended his 2028 chances

Posted by: Tucker Soothsayer at November 26, 2025 06:08 PM (sw5fH)

222 I spoke to the professor and he replied that I was one of his best undergraduate students and didn't need the full 3 hours. ... Uh ... thanks for the complement?

Posted by: Retired Buckeye Cop is now an engineer at November 26, 2025 06:07 PM (pJWtt)

Diff-Eq guy used to give a 6 question test and say that you are doing well if you got 2. It broke people. Another guy and I always broke the curve with all 6 or near it.

Posted by: Comrade Flounder, Disinformation Demon at November 26, 2025 06:09 PM (dK+Kv)

223 governorstein ishmael shapiro just ended his 2028 chances
Posted by: Tucker Soothsayer at November 26, 2025 06:08 PM (sw5fH)

Would you care to elaborate?

Posted by: I used to have a different nic at November 26, 2025 06:09 PM (ExV1e)

224 didn't need the full 3 hours. ... Uh ... thanks for the complement?
Posted by: Retired Buckeye Cop is now an engineer at November 26, 2025 06:07 PM (pJWtt)

With compliments like that maybe insults are preferred? Heh

Posted by: LinusVanPelt at November 26, 2025 06:09 PM (xT8gx)

225 Scam "Journalists" is redundant.

Posted by: Jukin the Deplorable and Totally Unserious at November 26, 2025 06:10 PM (xvV+O)

226 I’ve noticed a ton of AI commercials lately. The ad biz has to be in free fall. No need to pay for a production team to shoot a commercial, edit it, etc. no need tor actors or voiceover people . That’s all over. AI is a fraction of the cost and can be done in hours vs days.

Posted by: Its Go Time Donald at November 26, 2025 06:10 PM (HW6XE)

227 All they knew was self promoting narrative construction, not creating a reasoned summary or argument.
Posted by: whig at November 26, 2025 06:03 PM (WDjG6)

Yeah, I'm seeing this with more and more STEM articles. "Is our universe inside a black hole?" No, you dope, the Universe contains everything by definition, it can't be in something else. All from just the trivial thing that if you calculate the radius of a black hole the mass of the universe (which these days is a wild guess) it comes out to about the size of what we think the observable universe. This was known when I was a kid in the 70s

Posted by: Oldcat at November 26, 2025 06:10 PM (8avO+)

228 Pretty interesting, but the only AI was taking the results of different sorts of measurements on the image and constructing a 'score'

That is how biometric identifications work. There is no "This is so-n-so" its "here are the top three scores sorted by descending values"

I built a system with three modalities: fingerprints, face and iris. Built a fusion engine to "vote" on the most likely match in the DB.

Posted by: Unknown Drip Under Pressure at November 26, 2025 06:11 PM (a4flb)

229 Another guy and I always broke the curve with all 6 or near it.
Posted by: Comrade Flounder, Disinformation Demon at November 26, 2025 06:09 PM (dK+Kv)

I always hated curve breaker guy… until I became curve breaker guy. It’s really fun to be him

Posted by: LinusVanPelt at November 26, 2025 06:11 PM (xT8gx)

230 Nood. Wednesday in Woke.

Posted by: I used to have a different nic at November 26, 2025 06:12 PM (ExV1e)

231 And I've had this talk with dudes in their 30s in the trades. They don't get it either. They insist "answers" they don't understand will come "through AI".

This scam can't blow up soon enough.

Posted by: I Have Seen This Before

AI errors is what will limit it in some fields that demand correct answers. You can hit a bad note, write some bad lyrics, do crappy art, but make an electric circuit that does not work then you got immediate rectification.

Mother Nature, gravity, and other natural sciences are stone cold bitches when you try to bullshit them with AI slop.

Posted by: whig at November 26, 2025 06:12 PM (WDjG6)

232 Posted by: Comrade Flounder, Disinformation Demon at November 26, 2025 06:07 PM (dK+Kv)

Conventional wisdom says P-Chem.

Posted by: the way I see it at November 26, 2025 06:12 PM (KDPiq)

233 I’ve noticed a ton of AI commercials lately. The ad biz has to be in free fall. No need to pay for a production team to shoot a commercial, edit it, etc. no need tor actors or voiceover people . That’s all over. AI is a fraction of the cost and can be done in hours vs days.

And with a few tweaks it can be regionalized or demographically targeted then optimized for the communication medium.

Posted by: Unknown Drip Under Pressure at November 26, 2025 06:13 PM (a4flb)

234 In the old days, you used to have to work hard, as Stephen Glass famously did, to make up stories

Now AI can do all that, and do your school homework as well. Brave new world.

Posted by: JM in Illinois at November 26, 2025 06:13 PM (9qZ8R)

235 They were marketing a camera 3-4 years ago that had no lenses, no image sensor at all. But it did have gps and a compass. You pointed in a direction and pressed a button. Then it would assemble a picture based on a learning model trained on geospatial image data and print out a color image of it for you. An app on a phone could do the same but people were paying for this.
Posted by: banana Dream at November 26, 2025 06:07 PM (3uBP9)

Not too good at weddings I bet.

Posted by: Oldcat at November 26, 2025 06:13 PM (8avO+)

236 Over the years, I have put a lot of thought into the problem of narrow-minded PMC provincialism. One of the keys to my understanding is the 2016 essay "Welcome to AirSpace," reproduced by the author here:

https://kylechayka.substack.com/p/airspace-redux

Imagine your life on a map. Now imagine taking all those long straight lines of plane flights and collapsing them, like pinching a fancy hologram "Minority Report" style, so that all the airports you departed from and arrived at are all reduced to a single point -- The Airport -- with only your overland travels depicted around it. Now imagine doing the same to all the long straight lines of freeway travel, collapsing every on-ramp and off-ramp you ever took into The Exit.

What would the radius of your tactile life experiences be, if we disregard the kinda-sorta "slow teleportation" of shuttling in containers? Would you (virtually) have been born, lived, and died in a smallish circle, similar to the proverbial medieval peasant? I think that our social elites lives in the most insidious monocultural bubble: one specifically designed to fool them into thinking that they aren't in one at all.

Posted by: SciVo at November 26, 2025 06:13 PM (Sy6m/)

237 https://www.reddit.com/r/TikTokCringe
/comments/1d14916/apparently_differe
nt_comments_show_up_on_videos/

This is an old reddit post about tictoc feeding people different comments.

This is why people support candidates like manandai and kamala

This is also why the recent video was made about "illegal orders" they want fodder to feed the algorithm because when sent to these people it will give the impression that Trump is so out of control that Senators are begging the military to ignore his illegal orders. It makes them panic, which is the goal.

Posted by: bob (moron incognitus) at November 26, 2025 06:13 PM (lWy3j)

238 "From billboards outside Fort Bragg urging soldiers to defy orders, to a website created by retired JAG officers providing advice for those who think they’re being given unlawful orders"

x.com/samosaur/status/
1993774657078456656

There is a wide ranging operation in play.

Posted by: banana Dream at November 26, 2025 06:13 PM (3uBP9)

239 Diff-Eq guy used to give a 6 question test and say that you are doing well if you got 2. It broke people. Another guy and I always broke the curve with all 6 or near it.
Posted by: Comrade Flounder, Disinformation Demon at November 26, 2025 06:09 PM (dK+Kv)

That was like my Heat Transfer class. The mid-term was brutal: the scores ended up being a normal distribution around the mean of 49%. The professor felt bad and recycled a couple of questions for the final exam.

Posted by: Retired Buckeye Cop is now an engineer at November 26, 2025 06:14 PM (pJWtt)

240 175 We need a cruelty AI.

AiCE.
Posted by: Merry Go 'Round at November 26, 2025 05:58 PM (dK+Kv)

Bravo!

Posted by: Dash my lace wigs! at November 26, 2025 06:15 PM (zYpTz)

241
I was OK with all this until my sexbot dyed it's hair blue, got face piercing and tattoos and put on 30 lbs.

Posted by: Auspex at November 26, 2025 06:16 PM (Y8DZL)

242 Being a Pennsylvanian I no longer worry about hair prejudice at least

Posted by: Skip at November 26, 2025 06:16 PM (+qU29)

243 You do know there's a fresh thread, right?

Posted by: OrangeEnt at November 26, 2025 06:16 PM (uQesX)

244 It's just like a 'journalist' to take a story about them being hoodwinked by an AI, and turn it into a story that they then sell for money.

Lemonade, lemons, yada yada.

Posted by: Darrell Harris at November 26, 2025 06:17 PM (J1ebC)

245 I don't have an XBOX, but I never got an ad for a game or XBOX once in about 3 years.
Posted by: Oldcat at November 26, 2025 05:57 PM (8avO+)

This is incredible. My experience is far more like ellipse's, wherein I watch one thing, and then YT suggests a thousand and one more selections just like that one thing.

Posted by: Dash my lace wigs! at November 26, 2025 06:17 PM (zYpTz)

246
This AI crap is one form of dishonesty in society. All the other lies about DEI hires being competent, Trump being Hitler, mass immigration being a good thing, falsified scientific results, etc. are non-AI lies. This has been proliferating for quite some time. High trust society is going out the windiw.

A society can't function with too much dishonesty. Can't keep the lights on and the bridges upright.

Posted by: Semi-Literate Thug at November 26, 2025 06:18 PM (ienUH)

247 Posted by: SciVo

There is a quote "The past is a foreign country; they do things differently there." (from an old book.)

Well I say "our rulers live in a foreign country"
It is not our world. I think you are saying the same thing, but I will check out that link later.

Posted by: bob (moron incognitus) at November 26, 2025 06:18 PM (lWy3j)

248 That was like my Heat Transfer class. The mid-term was brutal: the scores ended up being a normal distribution around the mean of 49%. The professor felt bad and recycled a couple of questions for the final exam.
Posted by: Retired Buckeye Cop is now an engineer at November 26, 2025 06:14 PM (pJWtt)

I still chuckle about an advanced calculus exam where the prof drew the curve on the board and then stated the obvious: Well I guess the favorite grade in this class is F (everyone but 2 people were in the D-F range… it was a skewed distro).

He declared F the favorite grade, chuckled then apologized because “ you students tend to take these things rather seriously”

Posted by: LinusVanPelt at November 26, 2025 06:18 PM (xT8gx)

249 Diff-Eq guy used to give a 6 question test and say that you are doing well if you got 2. It broke people. Another guy and I always broke the curve with all 6 or near it.
Posted by: Comrade Flounder, Disinformation Demon at November 26, 2025 06:09 PM (dK+Kv)

Best test I had was in Quantum Mechanics, to get the full wave function and energy levels for an electron in a cylinder well (as opposed to the square well in standard examples). Separate the differential equations, solve to find that the xy becomes Bessel functions instead of sine waves. Just doing the stuff on a second problem.

Posted by: Oldcat at November 26, 2025 06:19 PM (8avO+)

250
Way late in the thread, but here's my sort-of experience with AI: I saw the editor of Quillette arguing on X that no AI will ever be able to write the fine Quillette essays that she published. I submitted one, got accepted, and the editor starched and dried my voice so hard that my thought was that it looked like it was written by AI. It's rather what people want.

Posted by: Blonde Morticia at November 26, 2025 06:19 PM (6yxOS)

251 My 14-year-old granddaughter uses AI to help her figure out how to break up with her boyfriends.

Posted by: Wenda at November 26, 2025 06:21 PM (/WpRi)

252 231 I’ve noticed a ton of AI commercials lately. The ad biz has to be in free fall. No need to pay for a production team to shoot a commercial, edit it, etc. no need tor actors or voiceover people . That’s all over. AI is a fraction of the cost and can be done in hours vs days.

Posted by: Its Go Time Donald at November 26, 2025 06:10 PM (HW6XE)

They're using it more and more but it's nowhere near perfect yet.

To make an AI video you have to make hundreds of very short clips and splice them together to make the entire ad. They have to basically storyboard out the entire commercial, then prompt the AI to do one quick shot, then another, and then another, all while keeping the actors/subjects consistent as well as backgrounds and sets, etc.

It's not perfect yet, but it has to be cheaper than hiring an entire crew for millions of dollars to make a 30 second ad.

There's no AI available yet that can output an entire movie in a few hours, but it'll be here eventually, and at that point Hollywood is truly cooked until people get tired of watching fake AI entertainment and want something real for nostalgia reasons if nothing else.

Posted by: SpeakingOf at November 26, 2025 06:23 PM (6ydKt)

253 That was like my Heat Transfer class. The mid-term was brutal: the scores ended up being a normal distribution around the mean of 49%. The professor felt bad and recycled a couple of questions for the final exam.
Posted by: Retired Buckeye Cop is now an engineer at November 26, 2025 06:14 PM (pJWtt)

Posted by: LinusVanPelt at November 26, 2025 06:18 PM (xT8gx)

When I was a grader in college we had a class like that. It was an early computer science class, but in a semester it worked UP to assembly language from abstract basics, stopping at Turing machines for a bit.

The college had for some reason opened up this class to the Liberal Arts Linguistic students (apparently language is language) so a whole mess of LA students hit a buzz saw. The average was in the 20s to 30s with the CS students being decent but a tad low and a mountain 10-20 percent.

Posted by: Oldcat at November 26, 2025 06:25 PM (8avO+)

254 I’ve noticed a ton of AI commercials lately. The ad biz has to be in free fall. No need to pay for a production team to shoot a commercial, edit it, etc. no need tor actors or voiceover people

----
Skilled jobs gone.
Happening in the tech sector to programmers, especially entry level.

My dad lost his skilled job as a photoengraver when the machines took over

They have a machine to take over retirement, I'm screwed

Posted by: JM in Illinois at November 26, 2025 06:34 PM (0/kKZ)

255 74 I would like AI to take a Shakespeare play and write it in modern language. One in which Hollywood hasn't done already.

I would like people to stretch their minds and learn to read Shakespeare.

Posted by: NemoMeImpuneLacessit at November 26, 2025 06:49 PM (0Mn7M)

256 231 I’ve noticed a ton of AI commercials lately. The ad biz has to be in free fall. No need to pay for a production team to shoot a commercial, edit it, etc. no need tor actors or voiceover people . That’s all over. AI is a fraction of the cost and can be done in hours vs days.
Posted by: Its Go Time Donald at November 26, 2025 06:10 PM (HW6XE)

Ogilvy said decades ago that the problem with the ad industry was ad buyers. They wanted to see what the end product would look like before picking an agency. So, the agencies would inevitably do subpar work, since the proposal stage was done as cheaply as possible due to being unpaid; and then if they got the contract, the real thing was based on that junk. He would get calls from people saying they liked his work and wondered why he didn't submit a proposal, and his answer was always the same: they could either hire him based on his prior work (which they admitted they liked), or not hire him, but he wouldn't participate in a system structurally designed to produce crap.

If the ad buyers still refuse to reform themselves, then they will get AI slop, since that it makes it cheaper to produce the crap they incentivize.

Posted by: SciVo at November 26, 2025 08:07 PM (Sy6m/)

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