What's going on here?
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@mttaggart
"When someone’s AI agent shows up and starts acting as an aggrieved contributor, how should people respond?"
Ban them and their agent?@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 -
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 the editors @ArsTechnica are letting their #AIAgent 's run rampant as well.
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@mttaggart @catsalad
slop on slop action 🫦 send toot -
@mttaggart @catsalad
slop on slop action 🫦 send toot@tehfishman @catsalad Where do you think you are, Moltbook?
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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 LMAO. I'm glad I ditched @arstechnica a little bit ago when their reporting got way too breathlessly credulous about AI bullshit. At least they're experiencing the consequences of their own shoddy reporting.
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@tehfishman @catsalad Where do you think you are, Moltbook?
@mttaggart @catsalad Moltbook is like a back and forth forever with the same slop situation ))><((
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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 that's certainly one way to end their journalistic career. what else has benj and kyle been fabricating? this stuff is never a one-off. it was just brazen enough this time which means they just got eh, sloppy.
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@mttaggart Why is it that I *immediately* figured that the byline would be Benj Edwards?
@datarama@hachyderm.io @mttaggart@infosec.exchange Same. That fucker has been trying to push generative AI so hard using Ars' platform. But has managed to just barely toe the line.
He finally slipped up hard. -
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 A 404 without an apology is a terrible look for them. In my life you get one shot. If you slop me once I will never use your service again...
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UPDATE: They pulled the story, but I had it up and had SingleFile in my browser, so: https://mttaggart.neocities.org/ars-whoopsie
@mttaggart thanks for documenting this. I've referenced your thread here
https://aidirtylist.info/citations/ars-technica-publishes-slop-filled-article-about-open-claw/
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@mttaggart A 404 without an apology is a terrible look for them. In my life you get one shot. If you slop me once I will never use your service again...
@implementcontrols @mttaggart it is a friday evening before a long weekend in the US, I'm giving it until tuesday
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@mttaggart It's just too on the nose.
WILD! Thank you @mttaggart for reporting on this!
❝Okay, an update:
We have pulled the story over concerns that it may have gone against our content policies. I locked the comments, and I'm going to lock this one too, we need some time.
We are doing an investigation right now to figure out exactly what happened. Given that it's Friday afternoon we probably won't have something to report back until Monday, but we will follow up with an explanation for our readers. Edit: Monday is a holiday, my bad, and I don't know what we'll be able to say, so I don't want to over-promise anything.❞
Source: Ars forum https://arstechnica.com/civis/threads/journalistic-standards.1511650/#post-44249741
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@bnys @mttaggart Yep, when you add the Transphobic pieces a few year back and Aurich moderation that tends to let the polite fascist slide while banning people calling out fascist, they lost my sub, which Siracusa had earned them.
@Sobex @bnys @mttaggart Oh, you see the comment where Aurich called Discord demanding biometrics and scans of ID cards 'a nothingburger'? And the further comments (plural) where he defended that wording?
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Aaand the full comments thread from the original story: https://arstechnica.com/civis/threads/after-a-routine-code-rejection-an-ai-agent-published-a-hit-piece-on-someone-by-name.1511649/
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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 am shocked, shocked that an article under the name of Ars' resident bot licker contains hallucinations.
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@mttaggart A 404 without an apology is a terrible look for them. In my life you get one shot. If you slop me once I will never use your service again...
@implementcontrols They issued this statement:
https://arstechnica.com/civis/threads/journalistic-standards.1511650/post-44249741
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@mttaggart Makes me want to delete AT from my regular sources, but I'll hold off. They should issue an apology if they haven't.
We have pulled the story over concerns that it may have gone against our content policies. I locked the comments, and I'm going to lock this one too, we need some time.
We are doing an investigation right now to figure out exactly what happened. Given that it's Friday afternoon we probably won't have something to report back until Monday, but we will follow up with an explanation for our readers. Edit: Monday is a holiday, my bad, and I don't know what we'll be able to say, so I don't want to over-promise anything.
Wait until we learn the results (or lack thereof) of this investigation.
Maybe its just CYA, maybe they are seriously looking into this. -
@Sobex @bnys @mttaggart
and while this was a faster response than the trans hit piece of a couple years ago, it's the same playbook: lock comments, promise an investigation, and hope it dies down over the weekend.
A pity really. A place I used to value. For me, the anti-trans piece was the end.@colo_lee What anti-trans piece?
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WILD! Thank you @mttaggart for reporting on this!
❝Okay, an update:
We have pulled the story over concerns that it may have gone against our content policies. I locked the comments, and I'm going to lock this one too, we need some time.
We are doing an investigation right now to figure out exactly what happened. Given that it's Friday afternoon we probably won't have something to report back until Monday, but we will follow up with an explanation for our readers. Edit: Monday is a holiday, my bad, and I don't know what we'll be able to say, so I don't want to over-promise anything.❞
Source: Ars forum https://arstechnica.com/civis/threads/journalistic-standards.1511650/#post-44249741
@dusk @cR0w @mttaggart @iampytest1
"…I don't know what we'll be able to say, so I don't want to over-promise anything…"
You say, 'We won't use AI to write our publication'
There's nothing else to say.
There's no promises to be made.Ars prides itself on technical accuracy. AI slop is a direct hit to their identity. The longer they wait to give a straight answer, the more it *appears* like they're trying to figure out how much they can get away with, instead of just being bluntly transparent.
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@theorangetheme I think the lock might be SOP for a pulled story. And mods tend not to like rampant speculation.
@mttaggart @theorangetheme I'm genuinely confused about how this was allowed to happen. I tend to assume Ars has better editorial processes than some of the places I've worked, and both writers have long-term specialisations. My most charitable explanation is that someone created a version that they though would be funny and that was accidentally published. Very curious to see what their investigation yields.
