[Doomsday Economics] Home of Kirbeh's FREE SLICE ($25 delivery fee)

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(Thread IKs: skooma512)

Skaffen-Amtiskaw: Jun 24, 2023

i am harry posted:

also you know what

take the loving ear buds out
you can hold your phone steady with both hands and just talk at the screen it�s not like that brick wall is making any troublesome noise I loving hate this place

# ? May 12, 2024 11:17

Adbot: ADBOT LOVES YOU

# ? May 26, 2024 23:08

Honest Thief: Jan 11, 2009

I know a ton of tech youtube is now misery content but yeeeeeesh

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3xD_aUGKk_4

# ? May 12, 2024 11:18

Palladium: May 8, 2012; Very Good
✔️✔️✔️✔️

Honest Thief posted:

I know a ton of tech youtube is now misery content but yeeeeeesh

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3xD_aUGKk_4

oh what do you mean you found out you don't own the means of production

# ? May 12, 2024 11:22

Xaris: Jul 25, 2006; Lucky there's a family guy
Lucky there's a man who positively can do
All the things that make us
Laugh and cry

gradenko_2000 posted:

Btw whatever happened to that discovery of superconducting material

it was fake adn stupid as I said it was at the time. all they did was run a computer simulation of some hypothetical structure that could* exist and everyone jacked them off as if it were a real thing and not just a product of the simulation.

the dumbest part is there were even several goons going no no this time it's real! its a gamechanger! this will revolutionize everything e: found it, it was Slow News Day lol

Xaris has issued a correction as of 11:29 on May 12, 2024

# ? May 12, 2024 11:25

Honest Thief: Jan 11, 2009

Palladium posted:

oh what do you mean you found out you don't own the means of production

look, when i signed up for tech more than ten years ago the promise was I'd get an email job for life! this wasn't part of the deal!

# ? May 12, 2024 11:25

Skaffen-Amtiskaw: Jun 24, 2023

Learn to code, bro.

# ? May 12, 2024 11:32

Honest Thief: Jan 11, 2009

i am a coder :negative:

# ? May 12, 2024 11:34

Skaffen-Amtiskaw: Jun 24, 2023

Honest Thief posted:

i am a coder

Go see clown. Become clown. Everybody laughs.

# ? May 12, 2024 11:45

anonumos: Jul 14, 2005; Fuck it.

Honest Thief posted:

I know a ton of tech youtube is now misery content but yeeeeeesh

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3xD_aUGKk_4

I'm the api bot python script.

# ? May 12, 2024 12:01

Xaris: Jul 25, 2006; Lucky there's a family guy
Lucky there's a man who positively can do
All the things that make us
Laugh and cry

oh so that's what that was stupid sports illustrated poo poo was https://futurism.com/advon-ai-content

quote:

Meet AdVon, the AI-Powered Content Monster Infecting the Media Industry
Remember that AI company behind Sports Illustrated's fake writers? We did some digging � and it's got tendrils into other surprisingly prominent publications.

A few years back, a writer in a developing country started doing contract work for a company called AdVon Commerce, getting a few pennies per word to write online product reviews.

But the writer � who like other AdVon sources interviewed for this story spoke on condition of anonymity � recalls that the gig's responsibilities soon shifted. Instead of writing, they were now tasked with polishing drafts generated using an AI system the company was developing, internally dubbed MEL.

"They started using AI for content generation," the former AdVon worker told us, "and paid even less than what they were paying before."

The former writer was asked to leave detailed notes on MEL's work � feedback they believe was used to fine-tune the AI which would eventually replace their role entirely.

The situation continued until MEL "got trained enough to write on its own," they said. "Soon after, we were released from our positions as writers."

"I suffered quite a lot," they added. "They were exploitative."

We first heard of AdVon last year, after staff at Gannett noticed product reviews getting published on the website of USA Today with bylines that didn't seem to correspond to real people. The articles were stilted and formulaic, leading the writers' union to accuse them of being "shoddy AI."

When Gannett blamed the strange articles on AdVon, we started digging. We soon found AdVon had been running a similar operation at the magazine Sports Illustrated, publishing product reviews using bylines of fake writers with fictional biographies and AI-generated profile pictures. The response was explosive: the magazine's union wrote that it was "horrified," while its publisher cut ties with AdVon and subsequently fired its CEO before losing the rights to Sports Illustrated entirely.

AdVon disputed neither that the bylines were fake nor that their profile pictures had been generated using AI. But it insisted, at both USA Today and Sports Illustrated, that the actual articles had been written by actual humans.

We wanted to learn more. What kind of a company creates fake authors for a famous newspaper or magazine and operates them like sock puppets? Did AdVon have other clients? And was it being truthful that the reviews had been created by humans rather than AI?

So we spent months investigating AdVon by interviewing its current and former workers, obtaining its internal documentation, and searching for more of its fake writers across the web.

What we found should alarm anyone who cares about a trustworthy and ethical media industry. Basically, AdVon engages in what Google calls "site reputation abuse": it strikes deals with publishers in which it provides huge numbers of extremely low-quality product reviews � often for surprisingly prominent publications � intended to pull in traffic from people Googling things like "best ab roller." The idea seems to be that these visitors will be fooled into thinking the recommendations were made by the publication's actual journalists and click one of the articles' affiliate links, kicking back a little money if they make a purchase.

It's a practice that blurs the line between journalism and advertising to the breaking point, makes the web worse for everybody, and renders basic questions like "is this writer a real person?" fuzzier and fuzzier.

And sources say yes, the content is frequently produced using AI.

"It's completely AI-generated at this point," a different AdVon insider told us, explaining that staff essentially "generate an AI-written article and polish it."

Behind the scenes, AdVon responded to our reporting with a fusillade of denials and legal threats. At one point, its attorneys gave us seven days to issue a retraction on our Sports Illustrated story to avoid "protracted litigation" � but after the deadline came and went, no legal action materialized.

"Advon [sic] is proud to use AI responsibly in combination with human writers and editors for partners who want increased productivity and accuracy in their commerce departments," the company wrote in a statement. "Sport Illustrated [sic] was not one of those AI partners. We always give explicit ethical control to our publishing partners to decide the level of AI tooling they want in the content creation process � including none if they so choose, which has been part of our business since founding."

It's possible this is true. Maybe AdVon used AI-generated headshots to create fictional writers and stopped there, only using the fake authors' bylines to publish content produced by flesh-and-blood humans.

But looking at the evidence, it's hard to believe.

Consider a training video provided to us by an insider at the company. In it, an AdVon manager shares her screen, showing a content management system hosted on the company's website, AdVonCommerce.com. In the video, the manager uses the CMS to open and edit a list of product recommendations, titled "Best Yoga Mats" and bylined by one of the fake Sports Illustrated writers, Damon Ward.

The article's "source," according to a field in the CMS, is "AI."

Like the other fake writers at Sports Illustrated, we found Ward's profile picture listed for sale on a site that sells AI-generated headshots, where he's described as "joyful black young-adult male with short black hair and brown eyes."

Often, we found, AdVon would reuse a single fake writer across multiple publications. In the training video, for instance, the Damon Ward article the manager edits in the CMS wasn't for Sports Illustrated, but for another outlet, Yoga Journal.

A spokesperson for Yoga Journal owner Outside Inc � the portfolio of which also includes the acclaimed magazine Outside � confirmed to us that AdVon had previously published content for several of its titles including Yoga Journal, Backpacker, and Clean Eating. But it ended up terminating the relationship in 2023, the spokesperson told us, due to the poor quality of AdVon's work.

In spite of the article being labeled as "AI" in AdVon's CMS, the Outside Inc spokesperson said the company had no knowledge of the use of AI by AdVon � seemingly contradicting AdVon�s claim that automation was only used with publishers' knowledge.

When we asked AdVon about that discrepancy, it didn't respond.

***

As we traced AdVon's web of fake bylines like Damon Ward, it quickly became clear that the company had been publishing content well beyond Sports Illustrated and USA Today.

We found the company's phony authors and their work everywhere from celebrity gossip outlets like Hollywood Life and Us Weekly to venerable newspapers like the Los Angeles Times, the latter of which also told us that it had broken off its relationship with AdVon after finding its work unsatisfactory.

And after we sent detailed questions about this story to McClatchy, a large publisher of regional newspapers, it also ended its relationship with AdVon and deleted hundreds of its pieces � bylined by at least 14 fake authors � from more than 20 of its papers, ranging from the Miami Herald to the Sacramento Bee.

"As a result of our review we have begun removing Advon [sic] content from our sites," a McClatchy spokesperson told us in a statement, "and are in the process of terminating our business relationship."

[Do you know of other publications where AdVon content has appeared? Email us at tips@futurism.com � we can keep you anonymous.]

AdVon's reach may be even larger. An earlier, archived version of its site bragged that its publishing clients included the Ziff Davis titles PC Magazine, Mashable and AskMen (Ziff Davis didn't respond to questions about this story) as well as Hearst's Good Housekeeping (Hearst didn't respond to questions either) and IAC's Dotdash Meredith publications People, Parents, Food & Wine, InStyle, Real Simple, Travel + Leisure, Better Homes & Gardens and Southern Living (IAC confirmed that Meredith had a relationship with AdVon prior to its 2021 acquisition by Dotdash, but said it'd since ended the partnership.)

The archived version of AdVon's site � from which it removed the publisher list following the outcry over its fake writers � also claimed that it worked with "many more" clients. This may well be true: the video of AdVon's CMS in action appears to show that the company had produced tens of thousands of articles for more than 150 publishers.

In fact, we learned while reporting, AdVon even has business ties to Futurism's parent company, Recurrent Ventures � which you can read more about in the disclosure at the bottom of this piece � though it's never had any involvement with Futurism itself.

Despite those ties, we continued investigating AdVon, and experienced zero interference from anyone at Recurrent. That said, AdVon's cofounder responded to questions about this story by pointedly informing us of his business and personal connections with Recurrent's CEO and the executive chairman of Recurrent's board, in what felt like an effort to hamper our reporting by implying access to a corridor of power over our jobs. As you're about to read: didn't work.

***

Another AdVon training video we obtained shows how the AI sausage is made.

In it, the same manager demonstrates how to use the company's MEL AI software to generate an entire review. Strikingly, the only text the manager actually inputs herself is the headline � "Best Bicycles for Kids" � and a series of links to Amazon products.

Then the AI generates every single word of the article � "riding a bike is a right of passage that every child should experience," MEL advises, adding that biking teaches children important "life skills" like "how to balance and how to be responsible for their actions" � as the manager clicks buttons like "Generate Intro Paragraph" and "Generate Product Awards."

The result is that MEL's work is often stilted and vague. At one point in the video, the manager enters an Amazon link to a vacuum cleaner and clicks "Generate Product Pros." MEL spits out a list of bona fides that are true of any desirable vacuum, like "picks up a lot of dirt and debris" and "lightweight and maneuverable." But MEL also sometimes contradicts itself: moments later, when the manager clicks "Generate Product Cons," the bot suggests that the same "lightweight and maneuverable" vacuum is now "top heavy and can feel unwieldy at first."

If an output doesn't make sense, the manager explains in the video, workers should simply generate a new version.

"Just keep regenerating," she says, "until you�ve got something you can work with."

By the end of the video, the manager has produced an article identical in structure to the AdVon content we found at Sports Illustrated and other AdVon-affiliated publications: an intro, followed by a string of generically-described products with affiliate links to Amazon, a "buying guide" packed with SEO keywords, and finally an FAQ.

"Our goal is not for it to sound like a robot has written it," the manager instructs, "but that a writer, a human writer, has written it."

That's a tall order, AdVon insiders say, because the AI's outputs are frequently incomprehensible.

"I'm editing this stuff where there's no quality control," one former AdVon worker griped about the AI. "I'm just editing garbage."

The quality of AdVon's work is often so dismal that it's jarring to see it published by respected publications like USA Today, Sports Illustrated or McClatchy's many local newspapers. Its reviews are packed with filler and truisms, and sometimes include bizarre mistakes that make it difficult to believe a human ever seriously reviewed the draft before publication.

Take a piece AdVon published in Washington's Tacoma News Tribune. The review is for a weight lifting belt, which is a fitness device you strap on outside your clothes to offer back and core support when lifting weights at the gym. But when the author � who calls themselves a "belt expert" in the piece � arrives at the SEO-laden "buying guide" section, the review abruptly switches to talking about regular belts for clothing, advising that their "primary purpose is to hold up your trousers or jeans" and that they serve "as an important part of your overall outfit, adding style and a personal touch."

Even stranger is a separate AdVon review for lifting belts, by the same author and published in the same newspaper, that makes exactly the same weird mistake. At first, it says a lifting belt "provides the necessary back support to prevent injuries and enhance your lifting capabilities" � before again veering into the world of fashion with no explanation, musing that "Gucci, Hermes, and Salvatore Ferragamo are well-known for their high-quality belts."

Or consider an AdVon review of a microwave oven published in South Carolina's Rock Hill Herald, which made a similarly peculiar error. The first portion of the article is indeed about microwaves, but then inexplicably changes gears to conventional ovens, with no explanation for the shift.

In the FAQ � remember, the piece is titled "Amazon Basics Microwave Review" � it even assures readers that "yes, you can use aluminum foil in your oven."

If that wasn't bizarre enough, four other reviews of different microwaves � all for the same newspaper and credited to the same author � make exactly the same perplexing mistake: partway through, they each switch to discussing regular ovens with no explanation, as though a prompt to an AI had been insufficiently precise.

All five of the microwave reviews include an FAQ entry saying it's okay to put aluminum foil in your prospective new purchase.

Once they were done working on an article for AdVon, insiders say, it was time to slap the name of a fake writer onto it.
[........]
For the most part, though, AI experiments in the publishing world have been embarrassing debacles. CNET got lambasted for publishing dozens of AI-generated articles about personal finance before discovering they were riddled with errors and plagiarism. Gannett was forced to stop publishing nonsensical AI-spun sports summaries. And BuzzFeed used the tech to grind out widely-derided travel guides that repeated the same phrases ad nauseam.

At its worst, AI lets unscrupulous profiteers pollute the internet with low-quality work produced at unprecedented scale. It�s a phenomenon which � if platforms like Google and Facebook can't figure out how to separate the wheat from the chaff � threatens to flood the whole web in an unstoppable deluge of spam.

In other words, it's not surprising to see a company like AdVon turn to AI as a mechanism to churn out lousy content while cutting loose actual writers. But watching trusted publications help distribute that chum is a unique tragedy of the AI era.

Xaris has issued a correction as of 12:20 on May 12, 2024

# ? May 12, 2024 12:17

euphronius: Feb 18, 2009

110 billion a year in development

# ? May 12, 2024 12:37

the popes toes: Oct 10, 2004

euphronius posted:

110 billion a year in development

A pittance for the reward. We will be masters of all we see. Everything stretching to the horizon will be our due. The burgers will overflow, and the taste! The taste!

# ? May 12, 2024 13:29

Palladium: May 8, 2012; Very Good
✔️✔️✔️✔️

euphronius posted:

110 billion a year in development

reminds me when mushroom poisoning has some of most well-documented facts out there and the LLMs still recommended deadly toxic species as safe for consumption

# ? May 12, 2024 13:36

Skaffen-Amtiskaw: Jun 24, 2023

https://twitter.com/u_m_a_m_i/status/1789436601270944097?s=46&t=iXLhfzEmnFOZYfQKQ2O7-g

Found the AI master plan for techbros.

# ? May 12, 2024 13:51

Cheesus: Oct 17, 2002; Let us retract the foreskin of ignorance and apply the wirebrush of enlightenment.; Yam Slacker

silicone thrills posted:

I honestly because of where and how I grew up nothing has really changed for me. My diet has gotten way better though because premade food is so loving expensive and its unhealthy and its a hassle.

Same.

And I've found that when I have those rare days where i think I need McDonalds, I over order ("it's a treat!!"), and feel like poo poo afterwards, re enforcing my not wanting to eat again for awhile.

# ? May 12, 2024 14:08

Raskolnikov38: Mar 3, 2007; We were somewhere around Manila when the drugs began to take hold

Honest Thief posted:

I know a ton of tech youtube is now misery content but yeeeeeesh

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3xD_aUGKk_4

haha eat it computer perverts

# ? May 12, 2024 14:23

Raskolnikov38: Mar 3, 2007; We were somewhere around Manila when the drugs began to take hold

"i'm so angry i can't even do the math"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=48H34ukFe8g

# ? May 12, 2024 14:28

Buffer: May 6, 2007; I sometimes turn down sex and blowjobs from my girlfriend because I'm too busy posting in D&D. PS: She used my credit card to pay for this.

Honest Thief posted:

I know a ton of tech youtube is now misery content but yeeeeeesh

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3xD_aUGKk_4

A mere 2-3 competitors per job feels like heaven after a lifetime of like 10-100+

# ? May 12, 2024 15:13

loquacius: Oct 21, 2008

Buffer posted:

A mere 2-3 competitors per job feels like heaven after a lifetime of like 10-100+

Yeah tbh that's way better than my personal experience last year

Anyway I've been saying this would happen and all the learn2code bootcamp poo poo was designed to make it happen sooner, the goal being to pay people less. Death to capital etc etc

# ? May 12, 2024 15:23

Raskolnikov38: Mar 3, 2007; We were somewhere around Manila when the drugs began to take hold

meanwhile in anything related to humanities its at least 10 applicants per slot

# ? May 12, 2024 15:34

CN CREW-VESSEL: Feb 1, 2024; 敌人磨刀我们也磨刀

Raskolnikov38 posted:

meanwhile in anything related to humanities its at least 10 applicants per slot

# ? May 12, 2024 15:35

Raskolnikov38: Mar 3, 2007; We were somewhere around Manila when the drugs began to take hold

you stemlords and computer perverts deserve everything thats coming

# ? May 12, 2024 15:37

The Oldest Man: Jul 28, 2003

silentsnack posted:

it's more of a samurai caste since they can disregard peasant laws, but still know not to gently caress with politicians and the billionaire oligarchy that owns them

Good point

# ? May 12, 2024 15:40

RealityWarCriminal: Aug 10, 2016

it's not too late to start a union. would have been better when you still had bargaining power but you could still do it

# ? May 12, 2024 15:40

loquacius: Oct 21, 2008

Raskolnikov38 posted:

meanwhile in anything related to humanities its at least 10 applicants per slot

Was for me in web dev last year too. More than that even, because everybody just swarms the online listings.

# ? May 12, 2024 15:46

The Oldest Man: Jul 28, 2003

There are plenty of openings in the digital gardening department

# ? May 12, 2024 15:47

loquacius: Oct 21, 2008

The Oldest Man posted:

There are plenty of openings in the digital gardening department

Is this what the AI prompt guys are calling themselves now

# ? May 12, 2024 15:48

The Oldest Man: Jul 28, 2003

loquacius posted:

Is this what the AI prompt guys are calling themselves now

https://youtu.be/XQLdhVpLBVE

# ? May 12, 2024 15:53

Honest Thief: Jan 11, 2009

loquacius posted:

Was for me in web dev last year too. More than that even, because everybody just swarms the online listings.

The meta now is to swarm listing with AI CVs generated out of keywords on the listings. It's awful lol and bootcamps now pivoted to do interview trainings

https://learn.interviewkickstart.com/

I used to be able to cruise into a job interview and gently caress up at like the sixth round, now I'm barely getting a screening by a human

# ? May 12, 2024 15:56

Skaffen-Amtiskaw: Jun 24, 2023

https://harpers.org/archive/2024/05/the-life-and-death-of-hollywood-daniel-bessner/

quote:

The truth was that the forces that had opened doors for Smith were the same ones that had made her individual work seem not to matter. They were the same forces that had been degrading writers� working lives for some time, and they were cannibalizing the business of Hollywood itself.

Thanks to decades of deregulation and a gush of speculative cash that first hit the industry in the late Aughts, while prestige TV was climbing the rungs of the culture, massive entertainment and media corporations had been swallowing what few smaller companies remained, and financial firms had been infiltrating the business, moving to reduce risk and maximize efficiency at all costs, exhausting writers in evermore unstable conditions.

�The industry is in a deep and existential crisis,� the head of a midsize studio told me in early August.

We were in the lounge of the Soho House in West Hollywood. �It is probably the deepest and most existential crisis it�s ever been in. The writers are losing out. The middle layer of craftsmen are losing out. The top end of the talent are making more money than they ever have, but the nuts-and-bolts people who make the industry go round are losing out dramatically.�

# ? May 12, 2024 16:09

Dr_0ctag0n: Apr 25, 2015; The whole human race
sentenced
to
burn

RealityWarCriminal posted:

it's not too late to start a union. would have been better when you still had bargaining power but you could still do it

They'd be better off using their skills to destroy their former companies with ransomware and hack the systems they were exploited into creating.

# ? May 12, 2024 16:09

Biplane: Jul 18, 2005

Dr_0ctag0n posted:

They'd be better off using their skills to destroy their former companies with ransomware and hack the systems they were exploited into creating.

Industrial sabotage is based as gently caress.

# ? May 12, 2024 16:17

Potato Salad: Oct 23, 2014; nobody cares

Homeless Friend posted:

when your power provider profits look like this, the math always works out

lol that's ten billion dollars that could have been reinvested in critical electrical infrastructure if PG&E wasn't allowed to operate as a leech

# ? May 12, 2024 16:20

gradenko_2000: Oct 5, 2010; HELL SERPENT; Lipstick Apathy

Raskolnikov38 posted:

you stemlords and computer perverts deserve everything thats coming

My in laws are in construction and I'm holding out that that's my parachute once the reckoning comes

Either that or doing gig deliveries on a bicycle, which will kill me but at least I'll lose weight

# ? May 12, 2024 16:20

Lpzie: Nov 20, 2006

much easier to destroy than to build. as silicon valley and hollywood is gonna find out very soon. always be installing backdoors

# ? May 12, 2024 16:24

Paradoxish: Dec 19, 2003; Will you stop going crazy in there?

Honest Thief posted:

I used to be able to cruise into a job interview and gently caress up at like the sixth round, now I'm barely getting a screening by a human

tbf things are already definitely hosed when you're talking about a sixth round in interviews

# ? May 12, 2024 16:40

Hubbert: Mar 25, 2007; At a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act.

gradenko_2000 posted:

Btw whatever happened to that discovery of superconducting material

Xaris posted:

it was fake adn stupid as I said it was at the time. all they did was run a computer simulation of some hypothetical structure that could* exist and everyone jacked them off as if it were a real thing and not just a product of the simulation.

the dumbest part is there were even several goons going no no this time it's real! its a gamechanger! this will revolutionize everything e: found it, it was Slow News Day lol

gradenko_2000 posted:

https://twitter.com/Andercot/status/1686215574177841152

# ? May 12, 2024 16:44

FlapYoJacks: Feb 12, 2009

I wouldn�t join any company that has more than three rounds of interviews.

First interview: Quick phone call with a recruiter to make sure you aren�t a scammer.
Second interview: Talk to a manager or two at the department you would be working at.
Third interview: Interview with the team to make sure you are a good fit and won�t drive everyone crazy.

# ? May 12, 2024 16:45

Skinnymansbeerbelly: Apr 1, 2010

Potato Salad posted:

lol that's ten billion dollars that could have been reinvested in critical electrical infrastructure if PG&E wasn't allowed to operate as a leech

CPUC'd

# ? May 12, 2024 16:45

Adbot: ADBOT LOVES YOU

# ? May 26, 2024 23:08

biceps crimes: Apr 12, 2008

Honest Thief posted:

I know a ton of tech youtube is now misery content but yeeeeeesh

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3xD_aUGKk_4

the computer touchers that aren't insufferable FIRElords are hosed. The new grads are most hosed of all

# ? May 12, 2024 17:14

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > C-SPAM > [Doomsday Economics] Home of Kirbeh's FREE SLICE ($25 delivery fee)

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