The Plagiarism Machine

June 25, 2024 8:01 AM

"What I learned from this experiment is that flooding the internet with an infinite amount of what could pass for journalism is cheap and even easier than I imagined, as long as I didn’t respect the craft, my audience, or myself. I also learned that while AI has made all of this much easier, faster, and better, the advent of generative AI did not invent this practice—it’s simply adding to a vast infrastructure of tools and services built by companies like WordPress, Fiverr, and Google designed to convert clicks to dollars at the expense of quality journalism and information, polluting the internet we all use and live in every day." I Paid $365.63 to Replace 404 Media With AI

"Luckily, after going through this process, I also learned that while doing this is profitable to some, the practice relies on a fundamental misunderstanding of what journalism is, what makes it good, and therefore gives me more confidence than ever that a fully automated blog will never be able to replace 404 Media, or other investigative news outlets."

posted by Aya Hirano on the Astral Plane (9 comments total)

404 media found
posted by chavenet at 8:13 AM on June 25 [1 favorite]

a spinner is essentially an automatic thesaurus tool that replaces words in a given text with synonyms, allowing people to instantly create thousands of slightly different versions of articles. It is not “AI,” but it accomplishes the same task of stealing someone else’s work and replicating it infinitely with slight variations.
posted by HearHere at 8:26 AM on June 25 [7 favorites]

a spinner is basically a programmed thesaurus device that replaces words in a given text with equivalents, permitting individuals to make huge number of marginally various forms of articles immediately. It isn't "Man-made intelligence," yet it achieves a similar errand of taking another person's work and imitating it boundlessly with slight varieties.
posted by paper chromatographologist at 8:36 AM on June 25 [9 favorites]

In light of the name, "404 Media," it would be funny if 404 Not Found pages were replaced by a bot that did its best to invent the page you were looking for. ("You were searching for Bojack Hoseman. Hmm. Well, that was likely a dramatic series about a heroic firefighter named Beau. Beau lives in a remote cabin in the Pacific Northwest...")
posted by SPrintF at 8:43 AM on June 25 [3 favorites]

This is Just to Say

that a spinner
is basically
a programmed
thesaurus device

that you were
probably
saving
for breakfast

I replaced words with equivalents, immediately
It's hardly "man-made intelligence"
So there
And so cold
posted by chavenet at 8:45 AM on June 25 [15 favorites]

a spinner is pretty much a machine driven synonym finding thingy that substitutes words in a given text with second-stringers, okaying people to do oodles of sorta kinda contrasting shapes of articles ASAP. It isn't "artificial insemination," but it copies off the smarter kid at the next desk all day long and gits 'r done.
posted by Strange Interlude at 8:46 AM on June 25 [2 favorites]

a gyro is pretty much an algorithm for word-by-word translations that takes out character-strings in some writing and puts in synonyms, instead, letting agents construct lots of barely distinguishable works. It is not "Almost Interesting," but it does the important work of thieving from other agents' labor and repeating it indefinitely in subtly-different versions.
posted by Jonathan Livengood at 8:50 AM on June 25 [2 favorites]

a gyro is more or less a type of rotary-wing aircraft for word-by-word missions that takes stuff in some things and puts in other stuff instead, letting these agitators construct lots of barely distinguishable things. It isn't even wrong but it does the sorry job of accumulating from other sort of aircraft things and repeating their flight plans indefinitely at subtly-different altitudes.
posted by philip-random at 9:04 AM on June 25 [3 favorites]

Metafilter: It's hardly "man-made intelligence"
posted by JohnFromGR at 9:06 AM on June 25 [3 favorites]