Stop generating, start thinking

Hiya all! 👋

A few weeks since my initial contribution to the /oldweb, what I've witnessed on Digg about AI and LLMs on posts and comments has inspired me to share this. If you haven't seen or read the original love letter to the personal website, I highly recommend perusing our very interesting discussion on why the personal website should exist as a vehicle for creativity and joy.

But today's post is partly to share another interesting post, share some observations, and see what you all think.

The author talks about how over-reliance on AI tools undermines the acquisition of knowledge, and perhaps even the experience of activities which bring us a sense of joy. Though the article is from a programmer's point of view, I don't hesitate to extrapolate and share I am of the opinion outsourcing our thinking to LLMs is actively making the web a worse place. This reliance speed runs us into everything I believe is the opposite of the spirit of ye Old Web.

And yes of course, I know it is very easy to take a doomer's approach. We see "slop" everywhere these days. I mean, it's not an excuse. But of course it's there.

This week alone on Digg, I've seen the alleged daughter of some senator running an AMA. What bothers me isn't the fact that inauthentic accounts live here (though it's certainly a problem), it's that I see real people engage with such accounts and content in a way that worries me about how we exercise our media literacy. When disingenuous accounts use sloppy copy-and-paste LLM-generated content for their engagement, I just roll my eyes and point it out publicly when I feel inclined to do so.

Other times, I also see (after a brief perusal into their profiles) real people using AI-generated responses like it's their own work. Ideally, such AI-generated or AI-assisted responses are made known when the post or comment is made. But that often doesn't happen with an open admission, so I default to the following belief:

If one feels the need to outsource critical thought (or any thought for that matter) to an AI without being transparent about it, why should you or anybody else take the time to engage thoughtfully with its output?

Unfortunately, some people have also chosen to outsource the answer to that question, too.

And yep, of course this observation is applicable to the broader internet ecosystem outside of Digg!

And yet, there's a part of me that remains optimistic it doesn't have to be an inevitability (as seen by the constant progress on this platform, and others, all the time). Having witnessed so many of the changes Big Internet has done to the web in the last decade, I think by now I must just have some kind of magic auto-filter on in my brain for ignoring lazy commentary on the matter.

I think I'm sharing this because it's a good practice for myself in mindfulness in how I consume content online, and in what ways I choose to show up in digital spaces. Yesterday I witnessed several great conversations between other users on this platform talking about how they're here for the same reason I am: to find, share, and explore interesting content, and to connect thoughtfully with others who share in the same goal.

I don't think Digg is anywhere near perfect. It might not be for a long time. It may never be. Butttt I have a lot of reason to believe there are still people here who care about these kind of ideas.

Perhaps I'm the naive one. Perhaps you default to a certain level of apathy à la "eh, you must care too much." But you're still here, and so am I. And yes, I think it's good to care :)

The pursuit of these ideas, to me, is how I aim to embody the ideals of a better web.

What do you think?

Bonus: I really like how this software engineer sums it up!