What's going on here?
-
Was AI used to generate this content? (Yes/No)
Does Ars have a strict "No-AI" policy for editorial content? (Yes/No)
If the answer to both is "Yes," how did the internal vetting process fail?
Regardless of a holiday, "I don't know what we'll be able to say" implies negotiation with the truth. For a publication built on facts, the only thing to "say" is the truth of what happened. The longer the silence, the more it looks like calibrating an excuse rather than admitting a failure.
@Gaelan
Strategic ambiguity is what this *appears* to be, it's the calculated vague speak that allows for plausible deniability that gets me.Also, news cycles: Friday news dumps allow stories to die over the weekend. Pushing the response back isn't just about the holiday, it’s about waiting for the news cycle. They're betting that by Tuesday, the "outrage" will have lost its momentum, making vague statements easier to swallow.
I know they have internal processes for this, but not a good look.
-
@mttaggart I suppose one thing you can say about old newspapers - no one can pretend an article was never printed
@Epic_Null @mttaggart
Winston Smith's job in 1984 was to change newspaper stories to match the Party's version of the truth, and the original sent down the Memory Hole to be incinerated. -
@colo_lee What anti-trans piece?
@iampytest1 It's fair to ask for a citation. I can give you some clues: it was shortly after musk acquired Twitter. Story by Timmer, I believe. More like unconscious and unacknowledged bigotry than the journalistic malpractice of this latest piece. Trust breaking behavior on the part of Ars editors and mgmt. I cancelled my sub at that point. I've seen a lot of links to Ars articles recently and thought about starting to read them again. But ...
-
What's going on here? The matplotlib maintainer this story is about correctly notes that all the quotes from his post in the article are made up.
UPDATE: Link was pulled; see below.
@mttaggart this is the weirdest story. Here is a link to SCOTT SHAMBAUGH’s blog explaining the whole thing with an update about the additional AI generated reporting. https://web.archive.org/web/20260214062635/https://theshamblog.com/an-ai-agent-published-a-hit-piece-on-me/
-
@aliide @theorangetheme @mttaggart
Yeah, I do get a little frustrated with the big "skynet" doom scenario stories that for the time being are unlikely, when things like obfuscation of responsibility, (at least attempted) manipulation of populations, and drastic economic shifts are pretty much here already and certain to cause harm.@GerardThornley @theorangetheme @mttaggart yes! as well as the problems/biases inherent in the training material or in the ways that it's trained
-
UPDATE: They pulled the story, but I had it up and had SingleFile in my browser, so: https://mttaggart.neocities.org/ars-whoopsie
@mttaggart Revenge of the bots. Creepy.
-
@mttaggart
"But that person has not come forward. If they instructed the agent to generate the blog post, they bear responsibility for a personal attack on a volunteer maintainer. "
Sounds like a solid case of #Libel to me@JizzelEtBass @mttaggart even if they *didn't* "instruct" the tool to do so, they're responsible for the text it generated, I'd say
-
@mttaggart this is the weirdest story. Here is a link to SCOTT SHAMBAUGH’s blog explaining the whole thing with an update about the additional AI generated reporting. https://web.archive.org/web/20260214062635/https://theshamblog.com/an-ai-agent-published-a-hit-piece-on-me/
I am so disappointed in Ars Technica.
-
What's going on here? The matplotlib maintainer this story is about correctly notes that all the quotes from his post in the article are made up.
UPDATE: Link was pulled; see below.
@mttaggart sounds like a job for @404mediaco
-
@mttaggart this is the weirdest story. Here is a link to SCOTT SHAMBAUGH’s blog explaining the whole thing with an update about the additional AI generated reporting. https://web.archive.org/web/20260214062635/https://theshamblog.com/an-ai-agent-published-a-hit-piece-on-me/
@IcooIey @mttaggart way deep in this article he says “more than likely there was no human telling the AI to do this.” I’m skeptical. More than likely? How so? Maybe he should have run down that possibility first? It would be so easy for whoever created that agent to hoax this whole thing for clicks.
-
@mttaggart jfc. As an Ars subscriber, I am furious
@jalefkowit @mttaggart it's a huge betrayal on their part. I'm so angry right now.
-
What's going on here? The matplotlib maintainer this story is about correctly notes that all the quotes from his post in the article are made up.
UPDATE: Link was pulled; see below.
@mttaggart I stopped going to [Big Publish] websites when the electrical conductor magazine site (they can pay me to mention their brands) started whinging about me blocking their animated ads which were so distracting I couldn’t read their articles without blocking them. It was obvious their goal wasn’t to publish news or informational articles, it’s to sell my attention to their actual customers, their advertisers.
-
What's going on here? The matplotlib maintainer this story is about correctly notes that all the quotes from his post in the article are made up.
UPDATE: Link was pulled; see below.
@mttaggart The layers of delusion and irony to all of this is just staggering. One Ai gets pissy, and another AI writes a delusional article about the pissy AI... What a world we live in...
-
@IcooIey @mttaggart way deep in this article he says “more than likely there was no human telling the AI to do this.” I’m skeptical. More than likely? How so? Maybe he should have run down that possibility first? It would be so easy for whoever created that agent to hoax this whole thing for clicks.
@IcooIey @mttaggart I’m very disappointed in not only Ars, but also BoingBoing and other ostensible news outlets for spreading this story when none of them have managed to figure out who deployed the agent in the first place. Without that info this isn’t a story at all it’s just speculation on what AI might be capable of. Smells like a troll to me.
-
What's going on here? The matplotlib maintainer this story is about correctly notes that all the quotes from his post in the article are made up.
UPDATE: Link was pulled; see below.
@mttaggart Ayyyy. I just cancelled my subscription. Not good.
-
@GerardThornley @theorangetheme @mttaggart yes! as well as the problems/biases inherent in the training material or in the ways that it's trained
@aliide @theorangetheme @mttaggart right!? So the biases get embedded in their black box, and all they can say is "sorry, the computer says no", and no-one can question it because no-one really understands it.
-
Was AI used to generate this content? (Yes/No)
Does Ars have a strict "No-AI" policy for editorial content? (Yes/No)
If the answer to both is "Yes," how did the internal vetting process fail?
Regardless of a holiday, "I don't know what we'll be able to say" implies negotiation with the truth. For a publication built on facts, the only thing to "say" is the truth of what happened. The longer the silence, the more it looks like calibrating an excuse rather than admitting a failure.
@rusty__shackleford @Gaelan Give ‘em a break it’s the weekend - they have to wait til Monday to buy more tokens so they can generate an apology letter.
(Edit: typo)
-
@Epic_Null @mttaggart
Winston Smith's job in 1984 was to change newspaper stories to match the Party's version of the truth, and the original sent down the Memory Hole to be incinerated.@RealGene @mttaggart okay fine, if you successfully create massive fashist infrastructure, then yes, you can erase written works on a whim.
It's still a hell of a lot harder than taking down a webpage.
-
@JizzelEtBass @mttaggart even if they *didn't* "instruct" the tool to do so, they're responsible for the text it generated, I'd say
@Kiloku @mttaggart #ThisRightHere
Yep, totally agree. If an aggressive dog bites someone with out warning, the owner is held liable. Same principle should apply here. -
What's going on here? The matplotlib maintainer this story is about correctly notes that all the quotes from his post in the article are made up.
UPDATE: Link was pulled; see below.
@mttaggart Just wanted to note they did eventually take down the comments on the article, but only after Aurich edited his last one to say they might not be able to comment publicly on their investigation. Which is the absolutely possible choice Ars (and more likely Condé Nast) could make if they want to retain credibility on...well, anything, but specifically on their AI coverage.
