LLM Slop is Ruining the Media and Ruining the Web, Ignoring the Problem or the Principal Culprits (or the Slop Itself) Is Not Enough
We need to encourage calling out the culprits (till they stop this poor conduct or misconduct)
Recent: Why is UK Press Gazette Jingoistic About Plagiarists and LLM Slop Disguised as Journalism?
Earlier this month we wrote a pair of detailed articles explaining why we keep calling out sites that glorify LLMs - especially for media - or actively use LLMs to make fake articles (sometimes fake articles about fake articles). Failing to do so would mean we let it slip out of control.
We already decided about 2 years ago that we need to foster or encourage a culture of deterrence, i.e. inducing self-shame, guilt, reluctance and eventually fear of getting caught posting slop as "original" work. The slop industry is pushing back. It tries to pretend using LLMs to make "articles" is innovative (putting bots in the text when you're too lazy or don't understand - in the latter case it just means you're not the suitable person to write the article). But there is nothing "innovative" about it, it's more like cheating, plagiarism, and lie-spreading. And paradoxically, some of the LLM boosters try to portray cheating as a "success story". They're like the underworld, where committing crime without getting caught is the true accomplishment.
Accordingly, seeing a growing need and urgency to address this, we've decided to allocate more time/effort to the topic/domain. We generally agree (among ourselves) that we need to ramp up responses to LLM slop, seeing that "they try to make it seem acceptable" (especially those who stand to profit by enabling cheaters). "I agree strongly," an associate said, as LLM "slop boosters are working to normalise it. [...] lowering the standards while people become inured to it so that [...] it starts to eventually seem acceptable."
Our rebuttal tactic will mostly involve 1) calling out serial sloppers; 2) calling out slop boosters/salespeople of LLM slop. This means we'll be running scanners and detectors, trying to catch and then audit those who are "repeat offenders" in area like "Linux".
Will this work? Maybe. Maybe not. But you're guaranteed a loss if you don't even push back. The more people participate in the call-out, the more effective it'll be.
Keep LLMs out of journalism! Stop asking Microsoft to 'auto-complete' sentences. █