alt Hacker NewsCan we get over the detective work about if the text was written by LLM or not in 2026 already ? This is a lost cause, and we could instead focus on substance over syntax.
Replies
To me it's a useful signal not to read an article that someone didn't bother to write.
Which is a shame as real insights are buried inside some of these articles, which if the author bothered to write in his own words could have reached an audience that would have appreciated them.
Writing is one of the areas where I want no LLM involvement.
The problem is that the second you suspect something is written by AI, its a pretty good signal that 50-80% of the text is empty of meaning. Maybe that will change, but LLMs are terrible and inefficient writers.
Only so much time in the day, its a quick signal to not waste anymore of it.
It's not about figuring out if it's LLM written though. The style is hard to read and annoying. With the kind of sentences GP was talking about it's actually harder to get the substance.
The syntax tells you there isn't any substance.
Yes, as soon as models come out that can write properly, we'll all instantly get over it. Until then we'll be having this discussion over and over, as many times as it is necessary.
It's both poor substance and style, in most cases (and this case.)
Pointing out they generated it at least encourages them to write a shorter article that says what they meant.
Evaluating substance takes time - perhaps more than was invested in the article to begin with. So these tells are very distracting because as soon as I see them I wonder if the person who prompted the LLM even bothered to read the output. If they haven't, then I certainly shouldn't invest the time to determine if there is any substance.
What substance? That they consume a newer model from the same vendor?
The substance is shit too with these LLM articles. Stuck in the box of the training set. Nothing new. Just regurgitation.
I have a counter proposition: don't fall for this constant suggestion that LLMs are an unavoidable future would you leave the techbros alone now pretty please, relentlessly keep reminding that we still don't think it's acceptable so people don't start to think this is okay since nobody complains anymore.
I appreciate these comments, they save me time for procrastinating elsewhere.
Not OP but my frustrations come from it being impossible to ignore and outright distracting.
I've found the same thing showing with Claude-coded/designed front ends that overuse the same semi-monospaced fonts, Blue/Yellow/Red palette and rounded corner borders. It isn't that it is bad, but it often isn't fit for purpose.
You're right it wont change anything, but authors shouldn't be surprised when people who care about their time/attention comment on low/no effort pieces.