Clarkesworld wrestles with flood of machine-made submissions—over 500 in Feb. alone:
One side effect of unlimited content-creation machines—generative AI—is unlimited content. On Monday, the editor of the renowned sci-fi publication Clarkesworld Magazine announced that he had temporarily closed story submissions due to a massive increase in machine-generated stories sent to the publication.
In a graph shared on Twitter, Clarkesworld editor Neil Clarke tallied the number of banned writers submitting plagiarized or machine-generated stories. The numbers totaled 500 in February, up from just over 100 in January and a low baseline of around 25 in October 2022. The rise in banned submissions roughly coincides with the release of ChatGPT on November 30, 2022.
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Last week, Microsoft researchers announced an experimental framework to control robots and drones using the language abilities of ChatGPT, a popular AI language model created by OpenAI. Using natural language commands, ChatGPT can write special code that controls robot movements. A human then views the results and adjusts as necessary until the task gets completed successfully.
The research arrived in a paper titled "ChatGPT for Robotics: Design Principles and Model Abilities," authored by Sai Vemprala, Rogerio Bonatti, Arthur Bucker, and Ashish Kapoor of the Microsoft Autonomous Systems and Robotics Group.
In a demonstration video, Microsoft shows robots—apparently controlled by code written by ChatGPT while following human instructions—using a robot arm to arrange blocks into a Microsoft logo, flying a drone to inspect the contents of a shelf, or finding objects using a robot with vision capabilities.
To get ChatGPT to interface with robotics, the researchers taught ChatGPT a custom robotics API. When given instructions like "pick up the ball," ChatGPT can generate robotics control code just as it would write a poem or complete an essay. After a human inspects and edits the code for accuracy and safety, the human operator can execute the task and evaluate its performance.
In this way, ChatGPT accelerates robotic control programming, but it's not an autonomous system. "We emphasize that the use of ChatGPT for robotics is not a fully automated process," reads the paper, "but rather acts as a tool to augment human capacity."
(Score: 3, Insightful) by looorg on Friday February 24, @02:59AM (4 children)
It's his magazine, I assume so since I guess he named it after himself, so he can print or publish whatever he likes.
I guess the novelty of AI pieces wore of quite quickly. Not to mention the endless stream of drivel --- "hey ChatGPT, write me something epic in the style of Dick about Androids and stuff!". There was some news bit the other day about other places where people self-publish their books and such and it is getting flooded with books written by various AI with a minimal amount of editing. Everything from books for kids to sci-fi and self-help books. At sale for low-low prices. After all it didn't actually take much time, interesting ideas or actual work in doing the writing so I guess they feel it's better to flood the market and charge minimum per book. Problem is someone has to pay to read it and nobody has that much time. There is just so many books you can read in whatever time you have for such things. So I guess the only one that will have time to read the drivel will be other AI as they learn from your drivel to produce the next level of diluted drivel. The circle of life for the writer-AI.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 24, @03:58AM
Lucky me, I happen to have hundreds of old books on interesting topics, that I haven't read yet. I used to think they were kind of a liability, having to store them. All of a sudden I realize that they will be a blessing as time goes on.
(Score: 4, Funny) by KritonK on Friday February 24, @08:08AM
I'd be very careful about how I phrase such queries.
(ChatGPT: Oh, you meant Philip K. Dick!)
(Score: 3, Interesting) by mcgrew on Friday February 24, @03:56PM (1 child)
I defy any AI to come up with anything actually original. That's hard enough for a human. Hell, whores in space wasn't even my idea, that was Dewey's when we were talking about Nobots in Felbers' beer garden and whores walked by (not a good neighborhood).
I came here to submit this story, and here it is on the front page. It's not a matter of ethics, because no rules have been written, but it is indeed about morality, which is what magazine editors worry about. They may also worry about computers taking THEIR jobs away!
But my question is, a hundred fifty years ago, people who drove railroad spikes, those who dug ditches by hand, and many others, were replaced by machines. When I was a child, human computers were replaced by IBMs (see Hidden Figures, an excellent movie about human computers with a modern John Henry twist).
How is that any different than replacing human writers with AI? And again, I doubt there's a program in the world that could out write Stephen King or Isaac Asimov.
That said, I can see how hacks can easily be replaced. By hacks, I refer to hack writers, not cab drivers or repurposed machinery.
Carbon, The only element in the known universe to ever gain sentience
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 25, @07:37PM
It's been pointed out before, but these are just computerized bullshitters.
Thank you ChatGPT for exposing the banality of undergraduate essays [timeshighereducation.com]
Unfortunately the funding lottery in science rewards number of entries, so this kind of mindless boilerplate does end up putting bullshitters in control of funding. And of course, by projection, the thief suspects everyone else of theft therefore they require the HIGHEST STANDARDS which of course means lots of words which of course nobody reads but procures endless bullshit in response.
(Score: 4, Funny) by Mykl on Friday February 24, @03:01AM (5 children)
AI-generated comments on SoylentNews articles!
Can't wait to see the flame wars between two or more opposing AIs! Let's feed them vi vs emacs to finally determine the true winner.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 24, @04:54AM
(Score: 1, Troll) by legont on Friday February 24, @05:59AM (1 child)
It's coming, obviously, but will hit slashdot first.
"Wealth is the relentless enemy of understanding" - John Kenneth Galbraith.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 24, @11:59PM
Hit Slashdot? I suspect they are advocating for it strongly. Cheap regurgitated nuggets of news substitute? Yum!
(Score: 2) by PiMuNu on Friday February 24, @10:49AM
Of course, the emacs psychiatrist will win (ps: I'm a vi user)
(Score: 2, Offtopic) by mcgrew on Friday February 24, @04:07PM
From Random Scribblings, earlier from my old Quake site:
Carbon, The only element in the known universe to ever gain sentience