this post was submitted on 28 Apr 2024
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Technology

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[–] [email protected] 41 points 6 months ago (3 children)

Seems like good old Word Of Mouth where information is relayed among people who know each other in real life, is probably going to make a big comeback for this kind of stuff.

Because if you can't trust any media on the internet being "real" the only trustworthy sources you'll have is the real people in your real life.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

Along with non-profit verified review orgs like Consumer Reports.

[–] refalo 12 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Maybe this will lead to the Internet going back to how it used to be in the beginning. Wouldn't that be something.

[–] silasmariner 5 points 6 months ago

Boy I can't wait for the flash animation renaissance

[–] [email protected] 7 points 6 months ago (1 children)

I would never trust any recommendations of any people I know.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 6 months ago (2 children)

Are you sure? Because that might say as much about you as about the people you know.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 6 months ago

It definitely does.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 6 months ago

The average person is notoriously shit at doing objective analysis, so yeah, you shouldn't trust people you know.

[–] [email protected] 35 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (2 children)

I don't read five star reviews ever anymore. If I want to find a believable endorsement of a product, I'll look for a four-star review that contains a criticism that isn't that bothersome to me personally, but legitimate enough that I can imagine a customer who would be deterred by it.

We moved a year ago, and I found my favorite pizza guy, Tony, by maybe the most convincing online review I've ever read. The most recent review on google maps was a one-star that was basically like "I met Tony and he casually used foul language etc etc there is no need for profanity etc pizza was some of the best I've ever had though"

[–] [email protected] 22 points 6 months ago (1 children)

I read all the one star reviews. If they are all something akin to "my food was too colorful" or "the waitress didn't refill my water enough" then it's probably ok

[–] [email protected] 10 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (1 children)

I love when owners give a sassy response, or when a one star review tells a story about the owner that makes me laugh.

My favorite local pizza shop is several generations family run, everything from scratch, and everything is done a certain way. I know everyone who works there and has ever worked there, and when me and the boys read this review, even though we all moved away, we knew it was true because it's completly on brand.

Best Pizza going, but their menu is on bristle board and they don't do complicated orders.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 6 months ago

This is my favorite stupid review from a local bookstore:

[–] [email protected] 4 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Well, how was the fucking pizza?

[–] [email protected] 7 points 6 months ago

Tony's great. He does a thing he calls "Detroit style stuffed pizza" which does not really seem to be a Detroit style pizza at all but it's fantastic nonetheless.

A lot of people like his sandwiches and visually they look very appetizing, but for whatever reason they don't hit the spot for me. His pizzas are spectacular, and good breadsticks and wings too.

[–] [email protected] 21 points 6 months ago (2 children)
[–] [email protected] 16 points 6 months ago

I completely agree. Schools need more funding

[–] [email protected] 10 points 6 months ago (2 children)

You can't outsmart fake reviews though. At this point the only smart thing is assuming all reviews are fake.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 6 months ago (1 children)

We could, I dunno, ban misinformation 🤷‍♂️

Make it a crime or something.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 6 months ago (1 children)

How would you enforce that?

[–] [email protected] 0 points 6 months ago

It would be difficult, but it would fund itself. Just fine them enough and they’ll stop.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Yeah, reviews are relatively easy to fake with current technology. They're short and most of them follow a fairly limited set of formats. This isn't like generating hands where there are a ton of ways for an AI to give itself away. Not that most humans are very good at drawing hands.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 months ago

I mean, just look at reddit. It's full of whole fake threads of bots talking to bots using copied comments and the only way you can guess it's a bot is by going through their history.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

Often times reviews are written by people with English not as a first language, or the reviews are machine translated (nowadays with AI itself). Many AIs use real reviews as templates to train on, so its not surprising to me that the differences aren't easily spotted. The main tells are when it uses too flowery language and tone and doesn't get to the point.

To me it seems similar to if you heard an electronic speaker playing a bird call vs. a real bird call, could you tell the real one from a distance?

If you were an expert birdwatcher you could probably tell easier. If the speaker repeated the exact same call on a loop you could tell, if you were in earshot of electronic buzzing in the background you could also, but depending on how sophisticated the speaker is setup (like delay and variety of calls, you might not.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 6 months ago

I am not surprised. I can rarely tell the difference.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 months ago

Is there a non paywalled article somewhere? It asks for a sub the alternative asks for sign up and free trial.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 months ago

"Interestingly, this effect cannot be explained by differences in participants’ experience with generative AI models, as that variable is insignificant in the mode"

When predictors are correlated, which is most likely the case here, this analysis cannot separately estimate their effects. The software will end up splitting the total effect size between the two predictors. Without describing collineariry between predictors, it's not possible here to judge whether experience with AI is truly unimportant or the analysis is merely incapable of spotting the effect.

As for eroding confidence in reviews, this will make it worse, but I already put next to no stock in user reviews anymore. You don't need AI to make a good human-like review that lies about a product, and there are plenty of those around.