@StumpyTheMutt

They make us cringe when we notice them. But if you use these tools regularly you will stop noticing them.

@SomeVeganCheeseIsOk

I think we need to be much more open about discussing these strategies and how well they can work.

It's always a little embarrassing to admit that the text generating machine made me feel anything at all. After-all we all agree I am too brilliant and rational for such a thing to ever happen.

But I was thinking about how that search was "so easy" and when I analyzed WHY it's because of the emotional component not the content of the search.

The slight of hand is to make you forget, or stop caring that "there isn't anyone else" -- the quality of the list of links was better than when I have used the tool in the past, but looking at it again it didn't really find anything I couldn't have found myself in the same time... even with the sad state of most search engines.

But reading "it can be frustrating" did make me feel better about the process. That little trick can't possibly keep working. It seems like a bad idea to lean into it?

Do, you notice it?

"can be frustrating"

I didn't say I was "frustrated" I just asked for more photos because most of the papers in the first response didn't have any.

HOWEVER, the guess that I was frustrated was correct. It even felt nice to read that some one else was having the same ... except wait.

There isn't anyone else!

I thought I'd share this to highlight just how deeply embedded these techniques are. Do you dislike being manipulated?

Please notice this.

Even when you try to use chatGPT like a dry research tool it will preferentially generate text that contains statements to affirm your feelings.

My interaction with it is minimal. I have a year long premium subscription because of a work-sponsored workshop. Rather than totally ignore it I ask it the same kind of questions every few months to see how it works. I first asked it for "good papers about the arboreal ant nests called 'ant gardens'?"

It gave me a numbered list with links.

But then:

@apLundell

I'm confident they can do this without it having a noticeable impact. It's just garbage text, and it will still be garbage text even if you hide a pattern in it.

But a good thing about the issue of watermarking is perhaps talking about it might make people think about what other kinds of "weights" might apply to LLM generated content.

I have seen liberals and leftists say "Grok is that correct?" and I am baffled how they can be so critical of Mr. Musk but still trust his bot.

@mulchmaxxing

The negative take on AI watermarking surprised me. That's all. Watermarks seem responsible?

Today I learned that piscicochory exists. That is there are fish that disperse seeds.

I made up the word "piscicochory" to mirror myrmecochory which is the word that describes ants that play an important role in dispersing seeds. I don't know if anyone really uses it to describe what some piranhas and other fish may do with seeds.

@MichaelTBacon @becomethewaifu

I don't think the animation is generated, it's the music that I have questions about. But I've done animation, and I've never really done any music. So I feel more out of my depth and there is something about the vocals and the very good but predictable use of breaks that IDK...

No that's the main point. I Don't Know.

@becomethewaifu

This is the song/creator

I even thought about taking this post down because I don't really know. But, I decided not to and to simply wait to see what was really going on.

I still don't know. But, due to generated content there is a cloud hanging over many creative ventures, fairly or not.

https://sauropods.win/@futurebird/116587364549479132

@becomethewaifu

Isn't that amazing? Even people who really love boosting AI feel hurt when someone feeds them AI generated content.

It's embarrassing to admit to liking or not noticing AI generated content. There was a music video I really enjoyed a few months back and I think it might have AI generated music or AI assisted animation. The creator hasn't been very transparent and everyone who liked it is kind of worried and unhappy.

When the same account posted something new I ignored it.

@androcat @benetherington

We were thinking about what would happen if the whole AI industry vanished and someone mentioned "cyber security" ... but all of the problems they solve are the ones they created.

@Zeb

wtf?

** I think Peter is more correct. The primary driver making this happen is the EU. As an American I forget that this chaos COULD be regulated a little.

https://mathstodon.xyz/@pbloem/117133380532237199

The companies that run LLMs can also use this for PR to calm concerns from the public about the proliferation of such content.

From a CS perspective I can't think of any way to have a watermark that couldn't be easily defeated through additional processing. LLM dependent people currently take pains to remove em dashes so this new wrinkle has some of them in a panic.

But, why not just be honest and say you used and LLM? Why so bashful?

Let me outline my understanding of "LLM Watermarking"

It is possible to embed special characters and patterns in the output of LLMs that would make text generated by these systems easier to reliably detect. This is mainly being done so that when LLMs scrape the web for new information they can avoid ingesting machine generated content.**

When you train an LLM on machine generated content it may lead to "model collapse."

**see next post for correction

I said I *didn't* think Taylor Lorenz was an industry shill but... wow... now I'm starting to rethink that.

You know I might be wrong, but what is wrong with watermarks?

Most of Ronald Reagan's most famous quotes were actually written by Peggy Noonan. He is a president from a more literally time when the words of the president mattered more. Even a conservative one.

We have entered an age when we no longer even get elegant propaganda from conservatives.

Can you name a famous Trump quotation? He's not a president of words.

@palefailmel

Some politicians are so busy watching their stock portfolios and listening to lobbyists they just don't have time to do their real job. Conservatives have told us for years that they want to "drown the government in a bathtub" (why such creepy imagery? it's serial killer stuff...) so some conservatives will just let it break and be inconvenient on purpose. They actively work to make things like paying taxes and voting as degrading and horrible as possible.

Conservative president Ronald Reagan famously said “The nine most terrifying words in the English language are: I'm from the Government, and I'm here to help.”

Mamdani is making those nine words terrifying in a new way for conservatives. If he keeps succeeding more people might stop laughing along with Reagan's unpatriotic "America Can't" cynicism and we might all start to imagine that government *can* be effective, fair and trustworthy. For and by The People.

Shake in your boots, Ronnie.