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Aggedor

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Dec 10, 2020
797
919
Someone mentioned this in the thread about that anodized blue Apple Watch Ultra, and I've just read the news item about what to expect from a possible 24" iMac update. Both of the original news items look very much they were written by AI, not a person.

Can MR confirm that ChatGPT is not being used to write articles, and that their staff (whether employed, freelance, or contract) do not use it to write the content they submit to the site?
 
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phrehdd

macrumors 601
Oct 25, 2008
4,321
1,313
And now we're living in a world where you can no longer write original content without being questioned about AI. Times are changing that's for sure.
Soon AI will read for us and maybe report back if AI finds it meets the criteria for 'might be interesting or informative.'
 
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floral

macrumors 65816
Jan 12, 2023
1,010
1,230
Earth
AI is definitely revolutionary. I hated it in the beginning and tried to dodge it/thought it was a fad, but of course, all of the positive aspects (such as healthcare and co-writing) grew on me. Anyways, I don't think it's quite reached the level that it can write a whole macrumors article with no errors/human intervention... Maybe in a few decades.
 

jclo

Managing Editor
Staff member
Dec 7, 2012
1,973
4,308
Someone mentioned this in the thread about that anodized blue Apple Watch Ultra, and I've just read the news item about what to expect from a possible 24" iMac update. Both of the original news items look very much they were written by AI, not a person.

Can MR confirm that ChatGPT is not being used to write articles, and that their staff (whether employed, freelance, or contract) do not use it to write the content they submit to the site?

So, for fun, I asked ChatGPT to write that article. I think our jobs are safe, and you can be assured we are not going to be relying on ChatGPT for content.

If you're seeing ChatGPT spitting out answers somewhat similar to what you might see on sites like MacRumors, 9to5Mac, and other news sources, it's because it was literally trained on our writing. It's a language model that uses text databases from the web, including articles, Wikipedia, books, etc. It's often inaccurate, super generic, and doesn't quite get things right, so it's pretty far from being able to replace a person.

I do like to have ChatGPT whip up choose your own adventure games for me (highly recommend) and it's also pretty good at giving me design recommendations for paint colors, but I haven't found it useful for anything else.
 

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so it's pretty far from being able to replace a person.

I do like to have ChatGPT whip up choose your own adventure games for me (highly recommend) and it's also pretty good at giving me design recommendations for paint colors, but I haven't found it useful for anything else.
The bolded part! 🙌. It's still pretty amazing how ChatGPT manages to write a whole article. Definitely good for recommendations and new ideas. I think that's where it becomes useful but not enough to replace a human brain with creative writing capability. 📝
 
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ericgtr12

macrumors 68000
Mar 19, 2015
1,774
12,174

kevcube

macrumors 6502
Nov 16, 2020
402
569
Someone mentioned this in the thread about that anodized blue Apple Watch Ultra, and I've just read the news item about what to expect from a possible 24" iMac update. Both of the original news items look very much they were written by AI, not a person.

Can MR confirm that ChatGPT is not being used to write articles, and that their staff (whether employed, freelance, or contract) do not use it to write the content they submit to the site?
so what if they do?
 

ndouglas

macrumors 6502a
Jun 1, 2022
617
538
This reminds me of something I often wonder about, what does it mean when an “author” is listed as “Macrumors Bot”?
 
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jzuena

macrumors 65816
Feb 21, 2007
1,125
149
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ericgtr12

macrumors 68000
Mar 19, 2015
1,774
12,174
What happens when AI is trained to add in the same watermark? AI doesn't know why it is adding it in, only that what it was trained on had it so it should have it too.
I figure it's not much different than making a simple announcement on your own. In either case you're just letting your users know you aren't using it on your site as a sign of good faith, a site like this has been around for years with seasoned and experienced writers, I highly doubt they would go that route.
 

Weaselboy

Moderator
Staff member
Jan 23, 2005
34,156
15,646
California
This reminds me of something I often wonder about, what does it mean when an “author” is listed as “Macrumors Bot”?

That is not the author of the article. If you go to the article itself, you will see the name of the article author. That macrumors bot account is the forum account the editors use to post the news thread for the article.

Screenshot 2023-04-05 at 5.18.18 AM.png
 

ndouglas

macrumors 6502a
Jun 1, 2022
617
538
That is not the author of the article. If you go to the article itself, you will see the name of the article author. That macrumors bot account is the forum account the editors use to post the news thread for the article.

View attachment 2184784
Oh okay, I’ll look for the author more carefully next time I see the bot name listed… it’s been a while, but it used to show up regularly, and made me curious about AI or what. Thanks!
 
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floral

macrumors 65816
Jan 12, 2023
1,010
1,230
Earth
It's not. As I said in April, we are not using AI. Still written by humans! No plans to use any AI here. In fact, it's still really dumb so we couldn't even if we wanted to.
I thought so. I just wondered why so many people considered it an automated article.
 

Airforcekid

macrumors 68000
Sep 29, 2008
1,707
680
United States of America
So, for fun, I asked ChatGPT to write that article. I think our jobs are safe, and you can be assured we are not going to be relying on ChatGPT for content.

If you're seeing ChatGPT spitting out answers somewhat similar to what you might see on sites like MacRumors, 9to5Mac, and other news sources, it's because it was literally trained on our writing. It's a language model that uses text databases from the web, including articles, Wikipedia, books, etc. It's often inaccurate, super generic, and doesn't quite get things right, so it's pretty far from being able to replace a person.

I do like to have ChatGPT whip up choose your own adventure games for me (highly recommend) and it's also pretty good at giving me design recommendations for paint colors, but I haven't found it useful for anything else.
This is poor prompting though no data to build the article around and it looks like GPT3 so of course the article will be generic and bland.
 
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