‘I bet Ben did that.’

August 9, 2024 2:30 AM

A former AdVon employee told The Verge that the content that AdVon says is created by humans is nearly identical to the AI-generated content they created while working there. Freelancers who were initially hired as writers were reassigned to roles of editors and tasked with making AI-generated writing sound human. The tool AdVon used — called MEL internally — generated hundreds of words on products using bare-bones prompts like “best televisions,” spitting out links to product pages on Amazon. from Chum King Express [The Verge; ungated]
posted by chavenet (3 comments total)

Oh, I worked for them! It's mind- numbing work, and they were very mean about not letting me put anything fun in the descriptions. The robot also frequently completely misidentified what the products were or how humans used them. Blurbs about hosting parties in doghouses or exercising with kitchen scales etc.
posted by Scattercat at 3:15 AM on August 9 [13 favorites]

I'm actually surprised and disappointed that Sanford 'Spamford' Wallace or the CueCat guy, "J. Phoolya'll" or some such, aren't somehow in this game...that we know of...
posted by zaixfeep at 3:41 AM on August 9 [2 favorites]

Let's just shut off the Internet and meet in a BBS from now on.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 6:49 AM on August 9 [5 favorites]