I'm excited about this new policy. I think most people don't realize how much of the "content" they consume is artifical, and really nothing more than propaganda. There's been a lot of talk about how "divided" the US has become, but if you go and talk to people face to face it's a lot easier to find common ground than it is on the intern…
I'm excited about this new policy. I think most people don't realize how much of the "content" they consume is artifical, and really nothing more than propaganda. There's been a lot of talk about how "divided" the US has become, but if you go and talk to people face to face it's a lot easier to find common ground than it is on the internet. The internet is toxic because I feel a lot of AI has been programmed to normalize hate speech. What Medium is doing is a step in the right direction. What you're saying is true: they likely can't really detect all of it. However, their mission statement sets the foundation for removing writers who don't conform to the standards of the platform. Human beings shouldn't be worried.
I agree on your point about content online being largely artificial, though not about AI being programmed to “normalize hate speech” (I don’t really believe that hate speech is a thing, I feel like it’s simply a mechanism for disguised discrimination and it doesn’t solve or even really attempt to solve problems, it exacerbates division by various means, I digress). The data used to train AI algorithms (really just an advanced machine learning algorithm, in my opinion) is data that already existed in the world and if you’ve ever used a service like ChatGPT for any length of time you’ll realise it’s heavily biased (toward the ‘left’ as it were) and quite hamstrung. Do some A/B testing yourself, you don’t have to simply take my word for it, and even if you search online you’ll find countless examples (heed caution though, some people will make subtle changes to prompts to make it seem even more biased so take what you find online with a grain of salt).
Okay, I also agree that Medium are headed in the right direction because it’s too easy to flood the Internet with crappy, ill-thought out content to make money, much like the way that SEO helped destroy the quality and variance of interesting content online. My biggest worry is how they’re going to detect it. There are technical solutions I can think of, however, they will also interfere with functionality and sins of the purpose of these systems to begin with. As LLMs advance further it will become more difficult to solve.
"Human beings shouldn't be worried." I like that ^^
But have you heard about the purge of spammers? I know some people who have been removed even though they were authentic authors.
It's definitely a good idea to back up your stories.
I think it was in 2022 when I suddenly couldn't log in to my Medium account. That was scary. The helpdesk couldn't help me because I couldn't log into the system.
Luckily, I got in touch with one of the Trust & Safety people and they helped me get access again via email.
Purges like that are only going to become more common. As platforms learn the tools, writers are going to have to be patient. I've heard of a few people who got falsely flagged but who had their accounts reinstated.
Yes, by "divided" I'm talking about American politics. The population of the US is averse to intellectual discourse anyway. I think few of them realize how much they're being manipulated by bots.
I see almost no hate speech on Medium. I do have to block an occasional account, but on other platforms I'll get hundreds of hate speech comments a day.
I'm excited about this new policy. I think most people don't realize how much of the "content" they consume is artifical, and really nothing more than propaganda. There's been a lot of talk about how "divided" the US has become, but if you go and talk to people face to face it's a lot easier to find common ground than it is on the internet. The internet is toxic because I feel a lot of AI has been programmed to normalize hate speech. What Medium is doing is a step in the right direction. What you're saying is true: they likely can't really detect all of it. However, their mission statement sets the foundation for removing writers who don't conform to the standards of the platform. Human beings shouldn't be worried.
I agree on your point about content online being largely artificial, though not about AI being programmed to “normalize hate speech” (I don’t really believe that hate speech is a thing, I feel like it’s simply a mechanism for disguised discrimination and it doesn’t solve or even really attempt to solve problems, it exacerbates division by various means, I digress). The data used to train AI algorithms (really just an advanced machine learning algorithm, in my opinion) is data that already existed in the world and if you’ve ever used a service like ChatGPT for any length of time you’ll realise it’s heavily biased (toward the ‘left’ as it were) and quite hamstrung. Do some A/B testing yourself, you don’t have to simply take my word for it, and even if you search online you’ll find countless examples (heed caution though, some people will make subtle changes to prompts to make it seem even more biased so take what you find online with a grain of salt).
Okay, I also agree that Medium are headed in the right direction because it’s too easy to flood the Internet with crappy, ill-thought out content to make money, much like the way that SEO helped destroy the quality and variance of interesting content online. My biggest worry is how they’re going to detect it. There are technical solutions I can think of, however, they will also interfere with functionality and sins of the purpose of these systems to begin with. As LLMs advance further it will become more difficult to solve.
Thanks for listening to my SUB Talk.
I get a ton of clearly artificial comments that promote hate speech every time I write an anti-racism article.
On Medium or Substack? It’s possible they’re using local or self-trained models. There are other methods though I can’t speak for their effectiveness.
Everywhere on the internet.
"Human beings shouldn't be worried." I like that ^^
But have you heard about the purge of spammers? I know some people who have been removed even though they were authentic authors.
It's definitely a good idea to back up your stories.
I think it was in 2022 when I suddenly couldn't log in to my Medium account. That was scary. The helpdesk couldn't help me because I couldn't log into the system.
Luckily, I got in touch with one of the Trust & Safety people and they helped me get access again via email.
Do you see hate speech on Medium?
By "divided" do you mean political?
Purges like that are only going to become more common. As platforms learn the tools, writers are going to have to be patient. I've heard of a few people who got falsely flagged but who had their accounts reinstated.
Yes, by "divided" I'm talking about American politics. The population of the US is averse to intellectual discourse anyway. I think few of them realize how much they're being manipulated by bots.
I see almost no hate speech on Medium. I do have to block an occasional account, but on other platforms I'll get hundreds of hate speech comments a day.