AI-generated posts

[Cardiffman282]

 My posts are always immaculately handcrafted. However I have noticed a distinct upswing in posts and replies on here that are clearly generated by the various AI platforms like ChatGPT. 

These used to be swiftly deleted but a more relaxed approach seems to be being taken now. 

So... what is the etiquette here? The rules are silent on it. Should I flag them to the Mods or just shrug my shoulders and accept the unstoppable rise of AI gibberish? What if they are spam vehicles to drive traffic to a link at the bottom? 

I'm sure VM Ltd will hand over this platform to the AI bots at some point but what to do in the mean time?

[newapollo]

Hi @Cardiffman282 

If I see what appears to be a chatbot reply and the answer is incorrect I flag it to the modteam. I also mark posts as spam when I find any with links either within the reply text or as part of the signature.  The same goes where the OP seems to be either a chatgp post or has any suspicious links. 

The biggest problem is keeping on top of posts where the signature has been updated and a link added to it after the forum user has made a post(s)

[Cardiffman282]

Good point. 

[goslow]

I follow the same approach as newapollo. The spambots are usually easy to spot as they contain a spurious link and the account has normally been created on the day of the post. These are normally deleted quickly by the moderators when flagged.

A bit harder to differentiate are the posts which actually answer the topic question (to varying degrees of success). Sometimes I get the impression it is a real person posting who has used AI to come up with an answer and just pasted it as a reply. Other times it appears as if it is a fully automated (and reasonably accurate) reply. In either of those cases I don't flag it if it does not affect the topic.

Maybe VM is trialling some AI bot responders on here!

[Cardiffman282]

Yeah point taken on accurate responses. It's a fine line. 

Universities use special software to seek out AI submissions. I reckon VM would be more inclined, in the not too distant future, to generate the AI responses rather than to remove them. 

[Cardiffman282]

I'm going to tag the accurate ones as AI generated in a sort of passive aggressive Neo-Luddist way. 

[Adduxi]

I have absolutely no doubt that Bot replies will be the "Helpdesk" norm, not only here, but everywhere.  Anything that can get rid of overheads, i.e. staff, and increase profit can only be a good thing to some.  I dread to think what the future holds for the much younger generation.   

[Client62]

First posts that ramble on and on in packed paragraphs always look quite suspect.