Hrrr. Is writing the creation of thought where AI product is just the generation of ordered patterns? - ThreadSky

harkaway.bsky.social • 51 days ago

Hrrr. Is writing the creation of thought where AI product is just the generation of ordered patterns?

This puts it well & it’s a point I keep making about why using AI to write is so flattening. Writing is the process of working out & refining what you think. If I write an article, I’m not just generating 1000 plausible words. I’m trying to articulate ideas with precision, & challenging myself.

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drjaimeashworth.bsky.social•51 days ago

I definitely find writing has that purpose. It forces me to identify the steps in getting to something. (As do ordered images, but that’s another story!)

sarahbaxhorton.bsky.social•51 days ago

I write from experience and emotion to express something about our shared humanity

oisinmcgann.bsky.social•51 days ago

There’s ongoing evidence that generative AI fans only see the end product itself as having any value, rather than seeing text or images as a means of *communicating* something of value. I had a boss like this once, who judged text at least partly by how much of it there was.

morselya.bsky.social•51 days ago

Oh dear... *sigh* there was a time when brevity was seen as a *good* thing, too. (Sympathies on having to deal with such a boss.)

oisinmcgann.bsky.social•51 days ago

I as brief when giving notice.

morselya.bsky.social•51 days ago

I hope that you didn't have to suffer too long before getting to the decision to do so.

oisinmcgann.bsky.social•51 days ago

I was moving back to Ireland from London, so quitting the job was only the half of it.

morselya.bsky.social•51 days ago

Ooof... yeah, international moves are rough.

archiev.bsky.social•51 days ago

Generative AI can only generate content that's a patchwork sewn together from scraps of text that's within its own training set. It's Frankentext. Human writers can step outside their own training set - what they've read previously - and create something nobody has thought or put into words before.

ampontius.bsky.social•51 days ago

Change that to expression of thought and I think it works.

nialls8.bsky.social•51 days ago

Great analogy.

So gen AI is just the infinite monkey theorem put into practice?

justinarobson.bsky.social•51 days ago

The refinement of thought? Then the combination of thoughts with other thoughts, run through a few feelings, checked against a few memories...that sort of thing?

hengymrohebwlad.bsky.social•51 days ago

Friendly reminder that Large Language Models (like ChatGPT etc) are not designed to be accurate, but to generate plausible-sounding text, regardless of accuracy. This is the literal definition of "bullshit".

Think of them as Boris Johnson bots.

https://www.psypost.org/scholars-ai-isnt-hallucinating-its-bullshitting/

jiminfantino.bsky.social•51 days ago

First I model a situation or idea and by writing, direct the mind of the reader to create that same model. If I am skillful, it works. The difficulty is in modeling the mind of the reader as I write and revise to be sure they see what I see.

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