Forging AI Content

in ai •  8 years ago 

I wanted to expand on some of my earlier research into article spinners, and take a look at a service that claims to generate original content based on user provided keywords.

My initial assumption was that this particular method of content farming would be harder to identify. I thought that without the need to conform to any specific piece of source material, the content engine could produce content which was more intelligible. I assumed that it would be vapid and vague, yet coherent.

I was fortunately way off base with my assumptions.

Compared to the content spinner, the errors were based in logic and meaning, rather than grammar and syntax. It was not a matter of broken English or poor word choices. They content produced was pure nonsense.

The rest of this post will show some of my results in more detail. But I want to state right up front that I don't think this particular sort of content is nothing to worry about.

If you think AI authors are something to fear, this might change your mind.

Obviously this is just one product on the market, and there may well be much more sophisticated applications. But this particular one poses very little threat to human authors.


Article Forge - The Smartest Content Writer That Isn't Human

Bold claims. Never have to pay a cent for content again!

Of course, this is a paid service. But nevermind that, if it works, it works.... right?!

It's just so easy!

I decided to start with a theme that has been common on Steemit in the past several weeks. I figured that one lacking in specificity and open to interpretation would provide the engine with the widest margin of error.

It shows you a status bar while you wait for your content. It's all very exciting!

The Moment of Truth!

OK, lets clear the air here. I'm not a professional writer. I don't even think I'm a particularly good writer.

But even I know you don't start an article with, "In addition..."

The entire article is rife with far too many problems for me to even list here. I'll just let you "enjoy" the text for yourselves.

Who Is Misleading Us About Positivity?

Hearsay, Lies and Positivity

In addition, there are many health advantages to optimism and positivity. Mental health is very important and a wholesome mind may lead to a healthful body. Our physical wellness can very often go together with our mental wellbeing and outlook, so attempt to start small in the event you can with things such as walking more.

With each new challenge you're becoming stronger to deal with new troubles. There are a number of problems lately, and lots of bad vibes, It isn't effortless. If you believe positive about change your life will be impacted in a far superior way.

In life you'll get knocked down. Such meaning gives people a reason behind their everyday living and that there's a larger purpose to existence. In contrast to the pursuit of pleasure and material wealth there's a true meaning to our everyday living. It is important in our lives in order to seek out activities that takes our complete engagement. Particular men and women come into your everyday living to reveal the true significance of daily life. Perhaps you want to generate a living from your advertising abilities.

Such thoughts haven't any scope for virtually any doubt or vacillation. Negative thoughts make it more challenging to reach and keep at a wholesome weight. The negative thoughts produce strain and anxiety, which is a recognized factor accountable for causing obesity. It's a feeling that arrives from within, spontaneously. You could acquire a heightened feeling of confidence in the procedure, and a stronger belief in your abilities. You will start to get overcome with an awareness of clarity. Be certain to have no less than a basic comprehension of the copyright laws in your nation.

So, at this point I can't imagine that anyone would find this acceptable and actually publish it or try to pass it off as worthwhile content. But I figured that I would give the engine the benefit of the doubt and generate another article. This time somewhat longer, in the hope that more space would allow it to develop a coherent idea... or even two.

I picked another topic which many of us ar familiar with, for which there are many other examples on Steemit.

I was optimistic when it said it had an original thought!

But... well... I'll let you be the judge.

In Conclusion

I think it's safe to say that your favorite Steemit author is at least human. AI generated content would appear to have a long way to go. I'm sure it's great with sports scores, poll results, or economic data... Particularly if the software is sophisticated and expensive professional software. But as for consumer products that claim to generate content on any subject? It fails with distinction.

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In addition, excellent and interesting information and evaluation.

Plus, you posted it in "feces"

I hope no one suggested that you should tag your posts under that category!

I felt that it was an appropriate tag because it was the subject of the article. :)

Absolutely @bacchist!

The internet should tag that whole website under feces

Good recommendation @senseiteekay!

Fascinating but I wonder how fast this will improve/

I agree that the content is easy to identify as nonsensical - at least to a native speaker. It may be more difficult to detect by someone who is translating. I'm also pretty sure that this type of content isn't being currently upvoted onto the trending pages either. However, it could possibly be used to generate a foundation for content, then be tweaked to make it more palatable to readers, particularly to lower-IQ readers or just skimmers. As this stuff improves, it would only make that easier to pass off as "original" and "acceptable."

Whether article spinners are being used or AI-generated content is, it's certainly possible to generate the feces, then shine it up for a feces post where 90% or more of the people voting for your post aren't even reading it. I'm not saying that it happens here, but it probably wouldn't be that hard to pull off.

(I think we should conduct an experiment?)

Polish the turd, in other words?

Yep. Some people are pretty good at polishing turds. If an AI program can do most of the heavy lifting, then it would only take a few minutes for a semi-literate person to make the sentences readable. I would argue that most people, especially when reading an unfamiliar topic, probably wouldn't notice logical errors and inconsistencies. Grammar, perhaps - but seeing the current state of education these days, I'm not so sure. Have you spoken to a millennial lately?

The thing is with this... it seems like each sentence has nothing to do with any of the surrounding sentences.

Look at the one on anarcho-capitalism... what is it saying? They're just a bunch of unrelated sentences that mean nothing.

Look at the one on anarcho-capitalism... what is it saying? They're just a bunch of unrelated sentences that mean nothing.

Some people would argue that anarcho-communism is the same way. Ha! Gotcha!

  ·  8 years ago (edited)

In addition, I believe one of short stories by Vladimir Nabokov starts with "Secondly". So who knows, maybe it tries to model prominent writers =)

Clever!

What scares me most about this...is that those articles are actually being upvoted. It is difficult enough to get an upvote with proper original content:(

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