PhysicsForums and the Dead Internet Theory [old specialized forums have started backdating millions of LLM-generated posts]
PhysicsForums and the Dead Internet Theory [old specialized forums have started backdating millions of LLM-generated posts]
An exposé no one will read, about the widespread falsification of user posts in PhysicsForums, a scientific community founded in 2001. This is a microcosm of the death of the human-written Internet.
Official response from Greg Bernhardt
It's years since I last used PhysicsForums, but found it immensely useful in the old days while going through my undergrad physics degree (it was less useful for PhD courses). I am not morally opposed to providing AI attempts at an answer in threads where nobody else chimes in. However, using real accounts that belong to other users is wildly over the line. I was surprised to see this wasn't really called out in the official response thread by the existing users as that is the part of all this that is the most egregious to me.
Oh God...
I remember first reading Dead Internet and 'wow this is some high grade vaguely antisemetic conspiricy bullshit here'
And now...
I live in an America where one of the major political parties has people doing the fucking nazi salute and corruption is talked about as if it were normal with dissenting voices dismissed as crankery.
At this point if the Ai thinks we should be exterminated? I've no counter-argument that is based outside of a desire to want to live....
At this point if the Ai thinks we should be exterminated? I’ve no counter-argument that is based outside of a desire to want to live…
People's right to self-determination over their lives maybe? This is no better than the fascists wanting to kill whatever their "undesirable" minoroty of the day is.
Anti sematic behaviour is unfortunately part of the internet and general historical data, which means it could very well be an undercurrent in training data. AIs then could exhibit subconscious biases, no matter how many times the creators tell them not to be racist.
Nono, the theory most people hear is the one about AI taking over. I read the original post with the theory written there devolving into this big giant global conspiricy where (coded language for jewish shadow government) is profiting off of everyone because of the AI takeover.
The idea that human contnet is getting croweded out, that part i absolutely buy.
This is wild. Another problem with fudging what used to be a trail is what that means for fingerprinting people online. Especially given recent attempts to take down the Internet Archive. I'm not saying forum histories are/were iron-clad "paper"/e-trails, but they can and do get used for cross-platform profiling.