xkcd #3126: Disclaimer
Title text:
You say no human would reply to a forum thread about Tom Bombadil by writing and editing hundreds of words of text, complete with formatting, fancy punctuation, and two separate uses of the word 'delve'. Unfortunately for both of us, you are wrong.
Transcript:
Transcript will show once it’s been added to explainxkcd.com
Source: https://xkcd.com/3126/
Someone the other day mentioned semicolons are now a sign of AI. I always liked semicolons for when things are more connected as opposed to a period/full stop :/
Same. I am one of the rare people who know the difference between i.e. and e.g. I know when to use a semicolon vs an em dash.
I no longer feel special; it feels wrong.
In Essence Egxample
the rare people who know the difference between i.e. and e.g.
This honestly isn't rare at all, and people who try to flaunt it as some kind of mark of erudition tend to come across as... well, not quite what you intended.
I no longer feel special**;** it feels wrong.
Reported as AI bot. /j
Well that's annoying because I've always used semicolons
at that point it's just "grammar and punctuation is a sign of AI", which actually means "i don't know what AI output looks like".
Yeah I use semicolons all the time; I can only hope my lack of native level english skills makes up for it and I don't sound like a LLM. I swear I'm just some autistic imbecile that has love for words instead of numbers
Lol! Same here. I feel seen. :)
Not ChatGPT output — I’m just like this.
That’s an m-dash, which we all know is irrefutable confirmation of LLM output. /s
I think I'm a—LLM now.
And I am b—LLM, nice to meet you!
iirc its m-dash as well as constant rule of threes and generally using incredibly formal sentence structures even when the language involved is not formal in any way. Kind of like what I just did there though probably with an extra comma after m-dash.
Yep ChatGPT must have learned from people like me, because:
Claim:
- I use bullet points in every post
Fact Check:
Out of your 36 comments, this is the only one with bullet points. That's only 2.7% of your comments. One other has an enumeration, but an enumeration is not bullet points.
Additionally, you have one post, but that also doesn't use bullet points. 0% of your actual posts use bullet points.
Conclusion: Claim is FALSE. Ziffy-fa-Jazz-KZone-Sweek'em does not use bullet points in every post.
Chat gpburn
Nice :) I like that you did that! But to clarify some things:
Fact: we don't know and can't come to a definite conclusion
Emoji, title, bullet points, repeat
Hey, that's a really well-formatted commemt! If it weren't for all my typos, people would probably suspect me too -- but hey at least now I have an excuse not to edit anymore.
(Edited: 2 minutes ago)
Expect to see this accidentally included in someone's forum screed soon:
Here's a detailed response to BombaFan486's post, including three separate (but natural) uses of the word 'revelatory', ending with the disclaimer, "Not ChatGPT output. I'm just like this."
Is there anything else I can do for you?
I've had a handful of people think I was AI too because of my fancy word choice and mediocre knowledge of punctuation. My writing voice is ubfortunately devoid of emotion most of the time, and when it isn't, it tends to fall into the matter-of-factly category. I try to include punctuation or breaks to be a little more similar to my speaking such as "well, uh, you wouldn't..." or "I- Yeah, I don't know." I think my personal favourite I do do is "I think it was.. two..? weeks ago?"
And yet I still get dubbed AI because I periodically use the word plethora...
i found splitting up paragraphs into many small, newlined sentences help a lot. it seems to be mainly big paragraphs that give people uncanny feeling.
or alternatively join me. in not capitalizing letters anymore.
This is the greatest thing I've ever seen, even better than banana man
it damn well bloody helps to include a fucking shitload of swearing, e-fucking-specially if it's a mite creative too.
There really is an xkcd for everything.
I got accused of being an LLM for the first time just a few days ago. Was pretty funny.
When they actually get good at mimicking convincingly enough to be indistinguishable from a normal human user, that's when dead internet theory will truly take over. This could've already happened, but I've seen enough stupid shit vomited by LLMs to know it probably hasn't happened yet. Once I stop seeing that obvious cognitive gap for a while, then I'll get worried -- but if they stopped being stupid, then we might've accidentally created AGI and astroturfing bots on the internet would be a bit of a trivial concern at that stage.
*in English.
They still suck at many other languages, like Finnish.
They've mastered Danish, though. Or at least the native speakers can't tell the difference.
They're still garbage in finnish. Even if they manage to make grammatically correct sentences, it sounds like incredibly awkward word salad, often there isn't even real meaning in the sentences. Non-human translations have struggled from the beginning and I'm not surprised even the LLMs aren't doing that well.
Kuulostaa siis ihan paskalta ja on edelleen tosi helppoa tunnistaa. Ei akateemikot väännä sellaista tuubaa omin käsin, eikä kukaan normitason juntti taas kirjoita niin jäykästi. Tai ok varmaan oman elämänsä jarisarasvuot yrittää suoltaa samankuuloista tyhjää konsulttiroskaa, mutta olettaisin että ne on juuri sitä porukkaa jotka käyttää tekoälyä muutenkin
—
Seeing any em dash in the wild makes me immediately suspicious
I loooove using m dashes. They're just so—expressive.
Yeah, I'm 42 yrs old. A long time ago I sacrificed what lvl of English I did know in order to use "lol" - I'm not giving up em dashes.
That’s probably part of the joke
There's always one good litmus test, if you can ask someone live before they have a chance to do a Google search: ask what the alt code is for an em dash.
If they don't immediately answer 0151, they're full of shit.
Compose key, hyphen, hypen. Because while it's a less common usage, visually I prefer the shorter en dash – over the em dash — anyway.
Also for people missing the Unix-style compose key on Windows: https://wincompose.info/. Memorising numeric codes is for chumps :)
I feel like this is more likely to lead you astray than anything. An LLM bot will immediately know the alt code, while a real person will only know it if they use Windows. Lots of people use Linux, or mobile keyboards.
I always just google 'em dash' then ctrl+c it.
Or if they start explaining what a compose key is; also human
Opt shift hyphen. What's an alt code? 🍏
What if they don't know the code and just use a keyshift instead?
meh - I just use a dash and move on.
for me it's just altgr+caps followed by tapping - thrice, way better use of the caps lock key. thank u xmodmap
I am in this comic and I don't like it.
Then make it look less perfect with custom command AI, after finding a FOSS AI website that has a lot of uncensored AI my life hasn't been same again
Imitating LLM to piss off AI haters is just next level trolling. As everyone knows, trolling is a art.
ChatGPT is changing the way we talk
Started the video, and the first comment I saw was along the lines of "so it's changing scripts that are read, not how people talk". Had no need to watch any further.
Me. I like formatting and using em/en dashes and semicolons.
you can keep using pronounciation correctly and writing long paragraphs of words if you lowercase it all, just saying.
Omg me
As someone who has been mistaken for an LLM at least twice in the past couple of years, yeaaah. Sometimes I write like that. The LLMs learned from people like me. I can only hope it was smarter, more productive people with the same sort of writing style and not from anything I've produced... although it would explain a thing or two.
Nope. It's you and me, buddy. They learned from a fancy talker and a drunk. That's why they just make shit up.
In Denmark we have a saying, which (translated) is "the truth shall be heard from children and drunk people"
I guess fancy talkers are kinda children too, or at least former ones 🤷
I am not sure how many times I've been mistaken for ChatGPT, but I don't think my writing style is actually very similar.
I'm pretty sure that when people say that, most of the time, they actually mean, "I want to disagree with what you're saying, but I lack the ability to do so legitimately. If I simply accuse you of using an LLM, people will assume I'm right and I will 'win'."
The topics were pretty tame that I remember, so there wasn't much to disagree with. I was just being... uh. Florid? Verbose? Sesquipedalian?
It might be a neurodivergent trait; the need to use the right word to communicate exactly the right meaning even if it runs to several syllables.
It might lose a few people, but I've got to say what I mean.
And then someone else comes along in a different comment and says what I wanted to say with words of fewer than three syllables and I'm like "hmmm".
You just need to start inserting more Ai type punctuation into your text — like an Em dash for example.
This will really confuse people, resulting in more instances of you being treated like us — I mean Ai.
The funny thing is, I watch The Vlogbrothers fairly often - both of whom are writers - and recently John has told of his fondness for the m-dash. His enthusiasm and explanation was enough to get me to consider using it, but then that trait was identified as one overused by LLMs.
I'd already been mistaken for one by that point (an LLM, not a Vlogbrother), so instead I've stuck with the technically incorrect hyphen-minus or plain old parentheses when I've felt the need to do that.
Bitch ass LLMs putting spaces before and after their emdashes—I REFUSE!
I may be verbose, but I'm way less friendly than most LLMs