this post was submitted on 10 Jul 2024

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A Beloved Tech Blog Is Now Publishing AI Articles Under the Names of Its Old Human Staff (www.404media.co)

submitted 4 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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[–] [email protected] 55 points 4 months ago (2 children)

I don't feel like signing up to this website to read the article. Here are alternative news about the same subject:

The irony is, that many AI based blogs will use an AI to write these news articles about the AI writing news articles.

[–] [email protected] 32 points 4 months ago (1 children)

If you're not familiar, 404 Media is definitely worth supporting. High quality, no-bullshit journalism.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 4 months ago (1 children)

that’s been my experience too, and i love high quality journalism, but i really don’t need more online accounts with my email address tied to them

[–] [email protected] 9 points 4 months ago (2 children)

Plus I don't want to be tracked what I read and click. But maybe this is a way to fight AI bots from training? Also in future high quality journalism will become more important than ever.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 4 months ago (1 children)

yeah bots famously can’t enter an email address

[–] [email protected] 4 points 4 months ago

Notice my exact wording. I spoke about fighting AI bots, not about its efficiency.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 4 months ago (1 children)

@[email protected] I recommend using an email masking/alias service. The free newsletter is worth signing up to, they send out quite a few free articles.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 months ago (1 children)

but my issue with requiring an email is that i don’t want to receive emails from them for any reason ever

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 months ago (1 children)

I'm not sure I understand your problem here. Mailing lists can always be unsubscribed from and they wouldn't have your real email on file. Just use the alias to sign into the website and read there. Unless you're saying you want everything for free without giving anything in return?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Do we want free articles on the internet? Like we've had for the past 30 years until some publications decided in the last 5 years to start paywalling everything?

Yes. Yes I do want free articles on the internet. And once upon a time, publishers actually wanted my eyeballs on their free articles.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Once upon a time, social media didn't exist. Once upon a time, people bought newspapers. Many things have changed over the decades that led to the media industry adopting paywalls and a subscription-based business model. 404 Media is unusual in that it continues to provide free articles to those who subscribe to its email newsletter, which I think is a fair trade.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 months ago (1 children)

That's not unusual at all. What's unusual is for a small publisher like 404 to demand an email address before letting you view their articles. Personally, it means I don't read them.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 months ago

What’s unusual is for a small publisher like 404 to demand an email address before letting you view their articles.

That's not how 404 started, though. For the first five months it allowed people to view its articles for free. Then it was discovered people were using bots to scrape the articles, paraphrase them with AI and then republish them elsewhere without giving credit. So they introduced an email subscription to counter this. This was explained in great detail on their website at the time.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 4 months ago (1 children)

It's ok, I'll just have an ai summarize your comment and those articles into a rap

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 months ago

Gemini says:

About a blog called TUAW, that took a nasty nap. Shut down ten years ago, but someone's playing tricks, Sold to a firm, then Hong Kong, with some shady clicks.

They're using AI, to write new articles, you see, But here's the twist, they steal old names, a form of identity theft, you agree? Running old content through AI machines, A ghost from the past, haunting the internet scenes.

Debate is raging on the forum right now, Is this legal or not, gotta clear out the doubt? Some say it's copyright infringement, a big lawsuit incoming, Others say it's for SEO, the web game they're winning.

But hold up, there's more to this story, it seems, 404 Media's the source, with quality journalism that gleams. They got free articles, with just an email sign-up, some say it's a hassle, But privacy concerns arise, when online shadows wrestle.

One user suggests an alias, to fight the email game, Another scoffs at bots, unable to play the name. AI vs AI, articles in a rap, the future's unclear, But one thing's for sure, quality journalism we hold dear.

🎤💧

[–] [email protected] 38 points 4 months ago (2 children)

They ai-generated the articles, they ai-generated the author photos, couldn't they ai-generate some bullshit author name?

[–] [email protected] 19 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (1 children)

I think they use the same name, for their credibility. Edit: Names also help for search results and listings of other work from same author.

[–] [email protected] 27 points 4 months ago

Even if the writer signed off on this, this should be illegal.

Actually make every AI generated poop have to list their sources. Corps wanted strong copyright laws, here it is.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 4 months ago

I had an idea for a website that basically did that with "thisfacedoesnotexist" except it was a way for people to submit Onion style articles and have it feel like a news site (since the Onion doesn't take submissions).

But, for humor, and obviously not using people's actual names.

This idea seems like a quick way to be sued for defamation.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Sounds like someone is calling to "Hack Tuaw"