Robert KingettYou all should read this fantastic post by @onepict about how, largely, AI people just can't leave us the fuck alone. But I'm noticing more and more and more that they get super mad when they wanna shove their #AI creation at you and you simply say, no thanks. That's it. No extra bashing, just, no thanks, and they get super offended. https://dotart.blog/cobbles/ai-and-that-guy-at-the-bar #AIHype #LLM
Bogdan Buduroiu@WeirdWriter @onepict there's literally been a witch-hunt by "never AI" types on Mastodon because Cory Doctorow dared to use ollama to spell check his posts. Idk who is the group getting offended.
@budududuroiu @onepict Using an LLM to spell check is all sorts of cringe because there are better applications of machine learning but moreover how do you know they never use an LLM?
@WeirdWriter @onepict you're literally proving my point.
Someone: I find small LMs useful for spell checking
Anti-AI types: Nooo, how could you? You're so cringe, what's wrong with you.
MarjorieR@budududuroiu @WeirdWriter @onepict we had and still have spellcheckers, which might be labeled AI (machine learning), long before someone had the idea of using LLMs to spell check.
Using a LLM to spellcheck is amazing overuse of resources to do something badly. A spell checker should be trained on your own practice and good quality sources such as dictionaries not on what MAGA idiots write on Facebook, X or Truth Social.
LLMs are general purpose stocastic parrots and have very limited context, they are not trained on how you write, unless supplemented they will not remember how you write.
Using a LLM to spellcheck is amazing overuse of resources to do something badly. A spell checker should be trained on your own practice and good quality sources such as dictionaries not on what MAGA idiots write on Facebook, X or Truth Social.
LLMs are general purpose stocastic parrots and have very limited context, they are not trained on how you write, unless supplemented they will not remember how you write.
Tiota Sram@marjolica @budududuroiu @WeirdWriter @onepict also Doctorow didn't just use an LLM for spell-checking, he pivoted to defending LLM use in general and disparaging those against it because he rightly predicted we'd be unhappy about his use of LLMs for spell-checking.
Also: we're unhappy because the technology being pushed on us is harmful in numerous ways. The AI boosters are unhappy because someone won't use the thing they're trying to sell (and/or because they keep getting called out on the harms). These are very different reasons to be unhappy with different levels of validity.
ben@tiotasram @marjolica @budududuroiu @WeirdWriter @onepict Tbh I feel like a lot of people would have been willing to overlook the use of an LLM just for spellchecking, but Doctorow himself blew it out of proportion, imagined a massive backlash before one had even happened, and pre-emptively doubled down on it by smearing the criticism as 'purity culture'.
@benjamineskola @tiotasram @marjolica @budududuroiu @onepict This! I know I wouldn’t give 2 shits if he used an offline LLM trained from ethical sources or his own stuff but he had to ramp up the backlash by being extremely disingenuous
@WeirdWriter @tiotasram @marjolica @budududuroiu @onepict I think there is a secondary issue that 'open-source' offline LLMs aren't as ethical as people would like to claim them to be. (As far as I know all of the existing models are still based on plagiarism even if you're using an offline version. But I might be wrong about that.)
But it's a matter of degree and picking one's battles. Spellchecking seems less bad (to me) than outright generating new text, etc. I'd rather it was done only with ethically-trained models, obviously, but it wouldn't have seemed worth picking a fight over.
(Basically my perception of him — not just based on this — is that he likes attention.)
@benjamineskola @WeirdWriter @tiotasram @marjolica @onepict open source LLMs are ethical enough for me because it steals straight from the imperial core and provides efficient access to technology to the Global South. I can deploy a genuinely impressive Qwen3.5 on a gaming rig, this is massive. That Deepseek, Kimi, Qwen are all distilled from Claude and GPT is even more awesome.
The issue with slop today is merely accelerated by AI, the slopification of everything started with the financialisation of the internet, open-core SaaS, etc.
That's my take.
@budududuroiu @WeirdWriter @tiotasram @marjolica @onepict Tbh I'm not really interested in arguing about whether so-called 'open source' LLM are 'ethical enough'.
The point is that there was no 'witch hunt'. Doctorow invented it for attention.
@benjamineskola @WeirdWriter @tiotasram @marjolica @onepict tooootally not a witch hunt dude, like totes.
https://circumstances.run/@hipsterelectron/116119492721224685
You're treating pre-emption as an admission of guilt, I understand where he's coming from because I've seen accounts that are usually LLM skeptic post about how they found AI useful for X and immediately get barraged with "i can't believe you'd use fascist technology, blocked", and also the comments under this post prove exactly the "lib purity culture" Doctorow points to: https://hachyderm.io/@[email protected]me.org/116102639675376764
States are using LLMs for wars of aggression and Mastodon is arguing about whether watching YouTube or using an LLM spell checker is more unethical due to energy consumption (which shouldn't matter, we should have renewables and nuclear).
d@nny disc@ mc² (@[email protected])
THE DOWNFALL OF DOCTOROW https://dair-community.social/@emilymbender/116109623550360087 CHUGGING THE HATERADE TO CELEBRATE
@budududuroiu @WeirdWriter @tiotasram @marjolica @onepict You're missing the point entirely, which is that this all came *after* he claimed there was a 'purity culture' 'witch hunt'. He made it up for attention, because that's what he does, and now you're rushing to defend him for ... reasons? I guess? Like, you're claiming that there are bigger issues but that's precisely the point: you're the one who brought him up. Why aren't you focusing on these bigger issues instead?
AI users are desperate to feel like the underdog, basically.