I'm going to agree with the OP. I've read several articles myself and more than half the time, I need to read them over and over again, and even then, nothing makes sense. This is my opinion: these guys and gals try to outdo each other in being more eloquent, poetic, flowery or whatever. And that's fine. But all that does to me is confuse me and makes me not want to read a stereophile review again. and that never works either.
AI-Written Stereophile Articles
Has anyone else noticed that some of Stereophile's articles are sounding decidedly "off" and just plain badly written? I have now read several that sound suspiciously like they're AI generated (bizarre phrasing, odd syntax, etc.). Just curious if others are noticing the same.
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It's not just Stereophile articles that seem poorly phrased or have weird syntax. I'm seeing more of it lately from all over. I find myself rereading some things too many times making me think I'm dyslexic. It could also be writing habits (shorthand) from online blogs and sites spilling over to the "professional" world. All the best, |
Six Moons is eccentric - not AI. I would have to agree though that writing is deteriorating in general across the internet and in print media as well, and for obvious reasons - literature is not taught with much inspiration or confidence in the schools; and the vast majority of graduates do not care to luxuriate in language as in the days of old. It's all visual media now. My daughter is a copy editor for The New Yorker online and she knows her stuff, but she was raised in a household that liked to read and liked to listen to music too. The other problem is the pace of the modern workplace which is too rushed for anyone to catch a breath. It shows in the writing and the poor editing too. You can see in so called "major publications" awful, derelict editing - errors that any junior high school teacher would mark in red "careless error!" |
Well naturally I asked AI. The definitive answer: “ Unfortunately, I do not have any definitive information about whether AI systems write articles for Stereophile magazine. Stereophile is an audio equipment and music review publication, but the specific processes and technologies they use to produce content are not something I have detailed knowledge about. As an AI assistant, I don’t have insider information on the editorial practices of particular publications. Whether Stereophile employs any AI-generated content is not something I can say with confidence. The use of AI in journalism and publishing is an emerging area, but the specifics of how it is being applied, if at all, by a particular magazine like Stereophile is beyond the scope of my knowledge base. I can only provide information based on what is directly contained in my training data, which does not include details about Stereophile’s content creation workflows or the technologies they may utilize. If you have a more specific question about AI and publishing that I could try to assist with, please feel free to ask.“ ie: “I don’t know”
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It's interesting that you bring this up. I have also noticed a decline in the quality of some articles lately. The phrasing and syntax in several pieces do seem odd and out of place, almost as if they were AI-generated or at least heavily reliant on automated tools. This is a significant shift from the high-quality, well-crafted content they are known for. I wonder if this is a result of increased pressure to produce more content quickly or a deliberate move towards incorporating AI in their writing process. It would be reassuring to hear from the publication about their current editorial practices and whether they've made any recent changes that might explain the noticeable difference in writing style. Has anyone else observed these changes? What are your thoughts on the possible reasons behind this shift? |
My day job is being Director of Content and media for a digital marketing agency. I can tell you that everyone is playing with AI generated content at some level. On top of this, everybody is using some form of AI grammar checker and grammar suggestion, such as Grammarly and a few others. That is probably why Content reads differently these days. |
For those whose careers were not involved in the large corporate business world and its motivations, you can be sure that AI was created by persons interested in one thing, to make as much money as possible. Their goal envisions the replacement of jobs being manned by people with computers so the cost of employing people will be reduced as they are eliminated. Costs will be reduced even more than outsourcing work to other countries.
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AI done right is good for certain things. They tend more to be objective not subjective things. So in the case of hifi audio I could see using AI to help get facts straight in a product review. It may even be possible for AI to provide an accurate assessment of what something truly sounds like. People are more error prone doing that and less reliable if the AI is done right.
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I read Stereophile and TAS and I've also noticed a decline in writing quality. I have attributed this to a lack of editing. I think that the editors now just check for factural accuracy and let the articles go through with poor wording. Let's face it; it's hard to make a review about a DAC interesting. What can you say that hasn't been said before? I suspect some of what we are seeing is the result of the reviewers trying harder and harder to say something original. I never thought about A.I. being a potential cause of this but I think that A.I. wouldn't be particularly good for writing audio equipment reviews. Maybe I just don't understand the capabilities of A.I. but the weird phrasing and odd syntax we are seeing is probably a clue that A.I. isn't being used. A.I. is better than that. |
I own a restaurant & was in need of a new dining room manager several months ago & received many applications on Indeed which is a great tool for such needs. Some of the applications were well written & impressive ( which doesn’t necessarily correlate to the person’s actual ability to perform their job…), some were poorly done w/ incomplete sentences, improper punctuation etc & some were so absurdly over the top that it was clear they were written by AI. They repeated more or less the same things over & over in slightly different ways it became entertaining. |
I think Chat GTP offered a fine response, nice catch secret_mission_1964
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A few years ago, a reviewer posted a link to a review he had just written for one of the major audio publications, I can't remember which one, on another audio forum. I read the first paragraph of the review, which consisted of a long string of words and a period at the end. I must of reread it a dozen times, trying to figure out if it actually qualified as a sentence. It just seemed to be a series of clauses without any point. I asked him on the audio forum if it was actually a sentence. He said, "no, it's not, and it wasn't meant to be one." I'm all for creative writing, and poetic license, but there has to be a coherent idea in the writing for me to read it. |
I feel your pain... Years ago (before starting my own business in the 90's) I was a publications writer and editor for a division of a large corporation. I got the job because every pub they issued I would mark up with all the errors they had made, and they had to recall and republish it. They figured my salary would be less than the incessant reprinting costs and they would save money by having me do it right the first time. My daughter followed a similar path and is a published author and magazine editor. My current source of amusement in my retirement years is to "read" pulp Sci-Fi creations on YouTube, where the voice will seldom pronounce the same word the same way twice, the scrolling script will have a different spelling for repeat uses of the same name or descriptive term, and it is very easy to work out that what the author had actually intended is often a third variant! I currently consider "AI" to stand for Almost Intelligible. YMMV has morphed into "Your Meaning May Vary". I see a direct parallel between the current state of AI writing skills to be equivalent to typewriters 50 years ago that tried to write in cursive. Both were hyped to be faster than what they tried to replace, but neither made a good first impression. |
😏...as a known abuser of the Anguished Stranglage, I can safely claim that any AI that would post the things I’ve done and may do in the future..... ...would have gotten a C/Format input early on..... Being the organic biped I is....too messy to deal with on a permanent basis.... ;) ...at least y'all can rest easier, knowing I do whatIdo on purpose, rather than a 6th generation machine learning cycle.... |
AI: Super senstivie measurements. No subjective listening biases. Expansive vocabulary. Audio review(er) problem solved? Except ... ... people have less than perfect instruments on board, are subject to bias(es) and stumble with finding the right words to describe our observations. So, we need people, not machines, to have meaningful conversations about high performance audio. |
A Google engineer says AI has become sentient. What does that actually mean?
"If we think consciousness is important, it probably is because we're concerned that we're building some kind of system that's living a life of misery or suffering in some way that we're not recognizing," said Vold. "If that really is what's motivating us, then I think we need to be reflective about the other species in our natural system and see what kind of suffering we may be causing them. There's no reason to prioritize AI over other biological species that we know have a much stronger case of being conscious." |
Vold sounds like someone I'd like to share a drink with. All this brouhaha with AI is a result of our hubris, which can harm us (Forbidden Planet is a great lesson) and not a boon (out of the head of Zeus sprung Athena). Being sentient doesn't imply brilliance or rational intelligence. Take a look around at what's been going on for about 300,000 years with us. Half of us are still below average IQ. This reminds me of what an old teacher told me of people he knows who are experts in their fields but outside of their fields of expertise, he sees them as educated idiots. Any AI program put in complete control of any program that could harm us, and does, cannot be attributed to the AI itself, but to the stupidity of the people who put it in charge. We've a long way to go before AI can supersede us but a short way to go for it to upend us. All the best, |
The decline in writing skills is a multi-decade phenomenon. I was on the staff of an Army school in the 1980s; our students were mostly Army officers with advanced degrees from civilian colleges and universities. I saw the same problem a few years later with slightly more senior Reserve Component officers, some of whom worked in institutions of higher learning. In both cases, some of them wrote superbly, but a good number had real problems in expressing ideas in a concise, direct, and meaningful manner. I think the problem is that, to a troubling degree, our education system has shifted away from foundational skills that leave students less capable of clear expression, especially with the written word, and as these younger people enter the work force in increasing numbers, the problem will become even more evident. Just my two-bits worth … inflation, you know! |
@mike4597 + 1 |
I occasionally watch YouTube celebrity biography and history videos. My wife and I laugh at the obvious A.I. generated narration which mispronounces names often and not in accordance with any foreign living person would do to the English language. As to audio reviews, nearly all are positive and they are often subtle in their negative observations. Combine that with system synergy issues, acoustics and music selection for reviews, I cannot rely on reviews. I have to hear the equipment in my system. I attend audio shows where I have found phenomenally great sounding systems despite the acoustic and electrical limitations. Those were a few great systems. I also met a great distributor and dealer who understands and shares my preference for acoustical music reproduction first. My current audio system is based on use of his recommendations that didn’t cost me $1+ million but sounds close at 15% or $150,000 the cost. My best friend’s system which is just as satisfying if lower in resolution costing 15% of that, or $22,500. We have both have Von Schwiekert speakers. |
