How much of a post are you comfortable for AI to write?
Currently, I think AI writing isn’t good enough to be better than good human users of the Forum, but I think this will quickly change, and I want to prioritise ideas and impact over who wrote the final words. I expect it will be longer before AIs are at the frontier of doing EA research and cuase-prioritization, so I think posts with only AI ideas will be bad for a longer time to come. But posts with human ideas written up well by an AI I could well imagine being better quality than most Forum writer’s posts within a year or two. I feel differently if someone is writing something to me personally, if someone writes me a poem or a birthday card or something that has sentimental value, then AI writing reduces that. But the Forum I see as primarily content-value rather than sentimental value.
I value content and human connection about equally on the EA forum. Its a “forum” after all, I think human-to-human forum discussion has far more value than just “sentimentality” We are a group of people working together to find the best ways to make the world better and put those plans into action. That needs connection and comradery, with perhaps some sentimentality too. I think if a forum is reduced to only “content value” it will cease to be a forum at all in some ways, and will lose significance.
On the content front, If forum posts with human ideas heavily written by AI were better than or as good human posts, I think your argument would be stronger but right now they are not. I challenge you to find one excellent forum post which is over 50% written by AI. It may be there but I doubt it.From a forum norms perspective, don’t think there’s a lot of value speculating about the future here, we need to adjust to AI reality as it comes.
Good point re communal values of the forum, seems right.
Ah, maybe I interpreted the original question differently to what you intended. SInce you said it is not about ‘post quality’ I was trying to put that aside and imagine AI-written posts that are better than human-written posts, and I think in that case I would be happy to read them. But I agree that currently I am turned off by AI writing and far prefer people write themselves in most cases. I suppose I was answering the question more in principle, i.e. if an AI-written post was amazing I would be comfortable with it, but currently they are not. So for me it is more a quality issue than fundamentally and AI-written issue (except for the communal/sentimental aspects, which I agree have value).
Currently, I think AI writing isn’t good enough to be better than good human users of the Forum, but I think this will quickly change, and I want to prioritise ideas and impact over who wrote the final words. I expect it will be longer before AIs are at the frontier of doing EA research and cuase-prioritization, so I think posts with only AI ideas will be bad for a longer time to come. But posts with human ideas written up well by an AI I could well imagine being better quality than most Forum writer’s posts within a year or two.
I feel differently if someone is writing something to me personally, if someone writes me a poem or a birthday card or something that has sentimental value, then AI writing reduces that. But the Forum I see as primarily content-value rather than sentimental value.
I value content and human connection about equally on the EA forum. Its a “forum” after all, I think human-to-human forum discussion has far more value than just “sentimentality” We are a group of people working together to find the best ways to make the world better and put those plans into action. That needs connection and comradery, with perhaps some sentimentality too. I think if a forum is reduced to only “content value” it will cease to be a forum at all in some ways, and will lose significance.
On the content front, If forum posts with human ideas heavily written by AI were better than or as good human posts, I think your argument would be stronger but right now they are not. I challenge you to find one excellent forum post which is over 50% written by AI. It may be there but I doubt it. From a forum norms perspective, don’t think there’s a lot of value speculating about the future here, we need to adjust to AI reality as it comes.
Good point re communal values of the forum, seems right.
Ah, maybe I interpreted the original question differently to what you intended. SInce you said it is not about ‘post quality’ I was trying to put that aside and imagine AI-written posts that are better than human-written posts, and I think in that case I would be happy to read them. But I agree that currently I am turned off by AI writing and far prefer people write themselves in most cases. I suppose I was answering the question more in principle, i.e. if an AI-written post was amazing I would be comfortable with it, but currently they are not. So for me it is more a quality issue than fundamentally and AI-written issue (except for the communal/sentimental aspects, which I agree have value).
Thanks @OscarD🔸 yes the question was ambiguous, your interpretation was entirely reasonable, mine was just more “here and now” than theoretical.