Should HN Ban “I Asked AI to Create...” Type Submissions?

42 points by ClapperHeid 3 years ago | 27 comments

Look, I'm as interested in the huge leaps forward in AI as all the rest of you techy nerds. And I read most of the stories about the technology itself. But please, for the love of $deity, can we outlaw the completely pointless "I asked AI to create..." type submissions?

Every day there are dozens of them; "I asked AI to write me a haiku...", "I asked AI to paint me a picture...", "I asked AI to help me learn coding...", "I asked AI to write me a blog post...", "I asked AI to tell me a joke...", "I asked AI to write a poem...", "I asked AI to write a short story...", "I asked AI to design a new trouser press..." etc etc et-bloody-cetera.

And, almost without exception, these submissions are of no interest whatsoever to anyone outside of the person who typed some crap into ChatGPT [or other AI] and was so proud of the outcome they decided to share it with the wider world... whether or not the wider world could give a shit or not.

Yes, we all know you can type almost any kind of prompt into an AI chatbot and get some "interesting" text or imagery in response. But after the 1000th such submission it's about as interesting as hearing that someone sent an email or installed a new app on their phone. It really is the adult equivalent of running excitedly home from primary school, clutching the crappy drawing you did in class and insisitng it get stuck to the fridge door.

Please. If you want to play with your AI chatbot, just do it quietly in the corner. The rest of us DON'T BLOODY CARE!

Examples:

https://hn.algolia.com/?q=i+asked+AI

https://hn.algolia.com/?query=i asked GPT

h2odragon 3 years ago |

(A) HN doesn't need to ban anything, we have a nicely functioning voting system

(B) I can understand you're tired of seeing "smell my finger" AI stories, but I think its obvious that others are not, yet. Why must they go away to satisfy you? Can you not ignore these things that disinterest or annoy you, using your own facilities?

ClapperHeid 3 years ago | |

  >Can you not ignore these things that disinterest or annoy you, using your own facilities?

See my reply to fabianholzer below, for why these type of submissions are harder to ignore or filter out.

mdrzn 3 years ago |

Should HN ban "I'm tired of reading about X" type submissions?

ensignavenger 3 years ago | |

There are already two guidelines that touch on it.

"Please don't post on HN to ask or tell us something. Send it to hn@ycombinator.com"

"Please don't complain that a submission is inappropriate."

The later is specifically about comments and not submissions, though.

ClapperHeid 3 years ago | | |

  >"Please don't complain that a submission is inappropriate."

I'd say that complaining about "a submission" is a different kettle of haddock to complaining about "a type of submission". For lo', is it not writ elsewhere in Ye Lines of Guidance that "thou shall't not submit most stories about politics"?

PaulHoule 3 years ago |

No. Some of these are a jumping board for good discussions. (How exactly did it do that? How is that the poster had such awful judgement to not recognize that the response was wrong? What would happen if you tried 20 similar examples?)

ClapperHeid 3 years ago |

OK. I knew I was asking for someone to do this, when I posted the original question. So I thought I may as well save you the trouble and get my retaliation in first!

Yes, "I asked AI...." the above question. And here is the reply:

----

I understand your frustration with the abundance of posts about AI-generated content, especially those that seem to lack meaningful or interesting content. While it is true that the novelty of AI-generated content may have worn off for some, it is important to remember that not everyone has the same level of familiarity or interest in AI technology.

For some individuals, these posts may serve as a way to spark curiosity and interest in the potential of AI, or simply provide a fun and entertaining distraction from their daily routine. Additionally, these posts can also serve as a way for individuals to showcase their creativity and humor by crafting interesting prompts for the AI to respond to.

However, I understand that the sheer volume of these posts can be overwhelming and may detract from more substantive discussions surrounding AI technology. It may be helpful to consider filtering out these types of posts or creating separate spaces for individuals who wish to engage with AI-generated content to share and discuss their creations.

Ultimately, the beauty of a platform like Reddit is the diversity of perspectives and content it can offer. While some may find these posts tedious, they may hold value for others, and it is important to respect and appreciate the variety of interests and passions that bring people together on this platform.

----

I'm not sure what to make of the ChatGPT's assumption in the last paragraph that I was I was referring to Reddit. Is it a damning reflection on the idiocy of my question?... or on the collective idiocy of a site where so many such submissions get made?

Now. Has anyone seen my fridge magnet?

thunderbong 3 years ago |

Every once in a while I see these hypes in HN.

Over the last few years it was crypto, NFT and blockchain.

This AI hype seems different. I see some things which are useful, some of which I can even run on my system.

More importantly, I see many more interesting if irrelevant things. I remember the early days of the web also had this kind of a feel.

So , I'm excited. And it feels good to see this kind of excitement in others.

Suddenly, there seems to be a whole new universe to explore again.

I guess my answer is 'no'!

ClapperHeid 3 years ago | |

  >More importantly, I see many more interesting if irrelevant things. I remember the early days of the web also had this kind of a feel.

 >So , I'm excited. And it feels good to see this kind of excitement in others

I actually agree with that. I have similar "new frontier" feelings. Which is why I find the dross "I asked AI to..." posts so annoying. It's akin to when smartphones became a thing and opened up all those possibilities for carrying innovative applications & functionlity in your pocket.

And then the app stores filled up with "Fart Apps".

rchaud 3 years ago | |

What are some things can be run locally in your opinion? I'm interested in learning more but am wary about how much of this is being gated inside every bigco's walled gardens.

fabianholzer 3 years ago |

I assume the novelty and will wear off within a rather short amount of time and these kind of posts will be what the NFT posts were some month ago.

ClapperHeid 3 years ago | |

Let's hope so.

I have a custom uBlock Origin filter list which blocks keywords on HN, to improve the signal to noise ratio a bit. Your comment just reminded me that "NFT" was one of the terms I added a while back. Unfortunately it's trickier to do with AI or ChatGPT because I am interested in the technology. Just not in the endless crappy "Look what I drew in AI school, Mum!" examples of its usage.

WithinReason 3 years ago | | |

You could use ChatGPT to filter the posts for you, and then make a "I used ChatGPT to filter ChatGPT spam!" post to HN (which would get filtered)

uticus 3 years ago | | |

I like this approach much more than a blanket ban.

Speaking as someone else tired of the noise but still completely aware of the rule of unintended consequences.

pleb_nz 3 years ago |

A browser extension to help filter or hide would be nice.

I like to keep up on AI news but it's quite saturated at the moment so would be nice to show and hide in demand.

surprisetalk 3 years ago |

I just created a userscript to hide "GPT" from HN.

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35274050

rchaud 3 years ago |

The types of posts I see are more of the "Use ChatGPT to do X", and those should be limited to maybe 2-3 a week, if that's even possible.

sourcecodeplz 3 years ago |

I don't know what you are talking about. I've seen this on reddit but not here.

ClapperHeid 3 years ago | |

   >I've seen this on reddit but not here.

Did you try either of the two links at the bottom of the original post?

sourcecodeplz 3 years ago | | |

Why would I? If it doesn't make the front-page, it doesn't exist (for me).

pestatije 3 years ago |

AI - artificial intelligence

mindcrime 3 years ago | |

A singular consciousness that spawned an entire race of machines.