KidKo92Feb 27
Mathew J. Schwartz

"Why this matters." As a cybersecurity journalist who receives a ton of pitches from PR folks, and who regularly and happily combs through research reports and blogs, I'm seeing the increasing use of "why this matters" as a phrase or subhead in written material. Also further afield in LinkedIn posts and even crowdsourced product reviews. (Yes, I'm really curious to know "Why this iPhone case matters.")

I suspect this is an artifact of AI-generated writing?

Why this matters: It's driving me nuts.

Why this matters: Seeing these sorts of "tells" makes me less interested in reading whatever is sporting this phrase.

In writing, emphasizing the conceptual takeaway for something can often be super helpful. But in today's fast-moving digital landscape, erm, with the volume of information being flung about these days, ideally if/when people use GenAI, what it generates would serve only as a draft. Subject to be refined. Condensed.

Why this matters: Are these sorts of apparent AI tells synonymous with lazy writing and/or thinking?

Feb 27 at 2:18pmWeb
Show threadWendy NatherFeb 27
@euroinfosec I suspect they’re typical of people who are not expert enough in an area to appreciate how much skill it really takes — in this case, writing. Being able to phrase things in a way to capture your attention, rather than homogenizing the writing, is underappreciated.
Show threadWendy NatherFeb 27
@euroinfosec Are you proud of me? I resisted the urge to tell you why it matters 😜
Show threadMathew J. SchwartzFeb 27
@wendynather LOL — I am strongly genuflecting in your direction as I type!
Show threadChristoffer S.Feb 27

@euroinfosec Effects of textual homogenization and some sort of regression toward the mean.

There are "all" these indicators, or small bits of tell-tell signs, that gives that AI-generated vibe.

Hard to pinpoint exactly when and what, but you kinda know it when you read it 🙂

Show threadMathew J. SchwartzFeb 27
@nopatience Spot on — you get that chill down your spine going "I don't think this was written by a human." Chill gets even stronger with poorly subtitled videos on social media that hilariously have nothing to do with the actual video. 
Show threadGarrett WollmanFeb 27
@euroinfosec Pretty sure this was a journalistic tic long before LLMs existed.
Show threadMathew J. SchwartzFeb 27
@wollman Arguably the LLMs learned it from somewhere? But whereas maybe it was a marketing doc cherry on the top, I'm seeing it become widespread across many different types of writing/outlets. Not just Amazon reviews but Facebook recaps of long-gone schlock TV episodes.
Show threadC SFeb 27
@euroinfosec @wollman I suspect it's a qualia of news articles that's a natural evolution of clickbait headlines. "Why this matters" is both recognisable and generic enough that it can be used to lure a reader into continuing reading, because once you've gotten the attention of a reader through the headline, the next step is to bait the body of the article with subheaders meant to maintain engagement, specially if it's an article interspersed with ads.
Show threadMathew J. SchwartzFeb 27

@claus @wollman Qualia: Great word (had to look it up).

Definitely a big yes/thumbs-up to clickbait tactic evolution. Really good point you make there. Also about how it's evolved past headlines and page layout to the choice/flow of the text itself.

Thankfully at least some things now (recipes, at least) you can often just click a box ("go to recipe") to avoid the "engagement" drivel.

Show threadC SMar 3
@euroinfosec @wollman Damn it, now that I'm aware of this pattern I'm seeing it in other domains too, like pull requests and "discussion" threads. I do not like this timeline...
Show threadGarrett WollmanFeb 27
@claus @euroinfosec It feels very classic USA TODAY tbh. (Which probably means that it isn't.)
Show threadMathew J. SchwartzFeb 27
@wollman @claus Your saying that tripped something in my brain. Axios. I think they even copyrighted this thing, where they do a "why it matters" at the top of each (?) piece. Maybe that's what "inspired" the GPTs.
Show threadJan SchaumannFeb 27
@euroinfosec ahem... https://mstdn.social/@jschauma/116138908490360953
Show threadMathew J. SchwartzFeb 27
@jschauma Spot on! And with emojis to boot 🏆
Show threadJan SchaumannFeb 27
@euroinfosec It's everywhere. It's so exhausting.
Show threadMathew J. SchwartzFeb 27
@jschauma Right? It is SO exhausting.