zahlman 2 days ago

Because it's presenting a bunch of smooth prose that utterly fails at logical continuity.

1. What point is the author trying to make? Leading off "Glubux even began" implies that the effort was extraordinary in some way, but if this action was "key to making the system work effectively and sustainably" then it can't really have been that extraordinary. The writing is confused between trying to make the effort sound exceptional vs. giving a technical explanation of how the end result works.

2. Why, exactly, would "removing individual cells and organizing them into custom racks" be "key to making the system work effectively and sustainably"?

3. How is the system's effectiveness related to its sustainable operation; why should these ideas be mentioned in the same breath?

4. Why is the author confident about the above points, but unsure about the level of "manual labor and technical knowledge" that would be required?

Aside from that, overall it just reads like what you'd expect to find in a high school essay.

Edit: after actually taking a look at TFA, another thing that smells off to me is the way that bold text is used. It seems very unnatural to me.

endtime 2 days ago

Nice try, ChatGPT.

More seriously, for me it's the "likely".

  • ziddoap 2 days ago

    Using "likely" is indicative of AI now...?

    Absurd.

    The only thing as annoying as people using AI and passing it off as their own writing is the people who claim everything written not exactly how they are used to is AI.

    • cyral 2 days ago

      > This task, which likely required a great deal of manual labor and technical knowledge, was key to making the system work effectively and sustainably.

      This is obviously AI. The writer should know that it either required manual labor or it did not, not maybe (AI loves to not "commit" to an answer and rather say maybe/likely). It also loves to loop in some vague claim about X being effective, sustainable, ethical, etc without providing any information as to WHY it is.

      That and it being published on some blog spam website called techoreon.

      Edit: For fun, I had o1-mini produce an article from the original source (Techspot it looks like), and it produced a similar line:

      > This ingenious approach likely required significant manual effort and technical expertise, but the results speak for themselves, as evidenced by the system's eight-year flawless operation.

      What these sites are doing is rewriting articles from legitimate sources, and then selling SEO backlinks to their "news" website full of generated content (and worthless backlinks). It's how all those scammy fiverr link services work

      • ziddoap 2 days ago

        At least this is a better effort at explaining why you would believe it is AI than the other poster who just says it's AI because they used the word "likely".

        I still find it very annoying that in every thread about a blog post there's someone shouting "AI!" because there's an em dash, bullet points, or some common word/saying (e.g. "likely", "crucially", "in conclusion"). It's been more intrusive on my life than actual AI writing has been.

        I've been accused of using AI for writing because I have used parenthesis, ellipses, various common words, because I structured a post with bullet points and a conclusion section, etc. It's wildly frustrating.

      • ToValueFunfetti 2 days ago

        Techspot:

        >However, in this ingenious setup, Glubux took those individual cells and assembled them into their own customized racks – a process that likely required a fair bit of elbow grease and technical know-how, but one that has ultimately paid off in spades.

        Either this is also AI, or saying that it likely required a lot of manual labor is not indicative

        • cyral 2 days ago

          I wasn't going to get into that but I got the same feeling about the techspot article ironically

      • soulofmischief 2 days ago

        I've been approached to build a few of these sites now. No thanks.

      • yellowapple 2 days ago

        > (AI loves to not "commit" to an answer and rather say maybe/likely)

        Well fuck, I might very well be an AI, then ;)

    • hn_throwaway_99 2 days ago

      But using "likely" is obviously AI in this context, or at least it's really, really shitty reporting.

      This is supposed to be a news article, not someone who's hypothesizing about something that could have been. I mean, it either required a great deal of manual labor and technical knowledge or it didn't - no guessing should be required. If the author doesn't know, they can do proper research or simply ask the subject.

      FWIW this article didn't immediately scream AI to me either, until the commenter pointed out the use of "likely". When you think about it, it absolutely becomes a fingerprint of AI in this context - it's not just that "likely" anywhere means it's AI.

    • ajkjk 2 days ago

      Your inability to tell when things are AI doesn't mean other people can't.

      Same phenomenon happens all the time with food or wine. One person thinks everyone is making up the subtle flavor profile comments and sneers at them. Everyone who can tell rolls their eyes. You can't convince someone that there's something they can't perceive besides just telling them.

      I've had this experience with records: as a kid I rolled my eyes at people wanting to listen to music on vinyl cause obviously it was the same; as my hearing has improved I have found I can clearly tell the difference and definitely prefer it.

      • ziddoap 2 days ago

        >Your inability to tell when things are AI doesn't mean other people can't.

        I didn't even comment on whether this article is AI or not. My point is that it is absurd to point at a single word as proof of something being written by AI.

realprimoh 2 days ago

this part: "key to making the system work effectively and sustainably".