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Has any research been done to try and determine the percentage of the population that are able to detect obvious LLM-generated text?

Interesting question for sure, but for now the writing is just bad. So people might not know it's LLM prose, they just notice its poorly written and engage with the ideas less

majority of population dont read anything at all. Most they a read is perhaps labels and signs at a supermarket.

I think there's probably a large chunk who "read" Facebook and skim the linked articles poorly.

People are still on facebook?

> obvious

Who decide what is obvious or not?


(1) complexity

(2) performance


Both reading and writing are necessary, but writing alone is not sufficient.


Any art needs theory, practice, and study of the greats. Unless you're some kind of exceptional genius talent out of the gate - and no one is, really - you need inspiration from other work, imitation, understanding, and practice of your own work.

It helps a lot if you're obsessive and/or enjoy it a lot. Ideally both.

None of these are a substitute for talent, but likewise talent isn't a substitute for them.


Yes, but there's a significant asymmetry with the advice usually given. I hear "Read a lot" about 10x more than "Write a lot".

I've been reading a lot for decades. I'm a crappy writer. There is a saturation point.


The point OP misses and apparently everyone here does too, is that if your goal is to become a better writer, you should absolutely read, but read with conviction to learn what makes a good or a bad book. You are not reading it for pleasure at that point. An Uber driver who drives a bus every day of his life is not necessarily better than someone who (a) is more skilled naturally and (b) deliberately practices for much shorter times to become a better driver. How is it any different here?

Cal Newport touches this in his books. The best solo violinists dont practice any longer or harder than the other violinists, they practice deliberately and that looks very different.

So in summary I think OP is pretty wrong. Asking people to just read more without adding this nuance is just going to create a bunch of zombies who read a novel a week and are none the better for it.

The only books that are required reading if youre planning to write are "on writing" by King and Strunk n White. Just memorize the latter. Then read your competition, carefully. Then just start writing.


Self-aggrandisement


Even LinkedIn slop isn't as bad as this


Sounds like you're being highly unreasonable and childish to me


Gell-Mann Amnesia: the blog post


Nothing. I get no satisfaction out of side projects nowadays


Ugh, AI slop writing.


Definitely written by codex.


The lack of apostrophe in "dont" makes me think at least part of it was written manually.

It's also a totally readable article, really.


"cooper" derives from the verb "coop", which likely derives from Latin "cūpa", from which we get the word "cup".


Perhaps (citation needed)! Barrel usage in Britain is a lot older than the Roman occupation of Britain. A cup is not a barrel.

If I was to bet, cooper is probably an anglicized form of a brythonic language word. Any Welsh, Scottish, Irish, Cornish or even Cumbric (int al) speakers hanging around here?


Barrel usage in Britain is old, but we do not have the slightest idea about how barrels and those who make barrels were named at that time. Even much later, by the time of Old English, it is not known whether the word "cooper" was already in use.

Etymonline says about "cooper": "either from Old English (but the word is unattested) or from a Low German source akin to Middle Dutch cuper, East Frisian kuper, from Low German kupe (German Kufe) "cask, tub, vat," which is from or cognate with Medieval Latin cupa."

Old English had the word "tunne" for barrel, hence "ton", which is a word widespread in many European languages and in Medieval Latin (e.g. French "tonne", Gaelic "tunna"), so it is uncertain where it comes from.

The word "barrel" was borrowed into English around 1300 from Old French.


No need to bet, and NEVER rely on opinions of people about word origins. False etymologies are insanely common.

"Cooper" from Middle Dutch "kūper" (container or tub) from Latin "cupa" (cask or tub).


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