this post was submitted on 05 Jan 2025
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Enough Musk Spam

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Original reporting in German: https://archive.is/gWLZL

[W]hat if Elon Musk hadn't written the article himself? What if Welt am Sonntag had not printed a controversial guest article by one of the most powerful people on the planet, but an AI-generated text created in seconds? One that presumably agrees with Musk's views, but whose argumentation may have been cobbled together from millions of freely available bits and pieces about Germany and the AfD on the internet?

If one asks [Musk's] language model Grok to write an opinion piece for a conservative newspaper that shows why only the AfD can save Germany, the program spits out a text that is remarkably similar to Musk's “Welt” article. In tone, argumentation, structure - and in many places literally. Like Musk's op-ed, the AI-generated text begins with the words: “Germany is at a critical point - its future is teetering on the brink of economic and cultural collapse”. This is followed shortly afterwards in both texts by the formulation that has particularly angered many in Germany: the AfD, it says, is the last spark of hope for Germany. Dozens more overlaps follow, some of them verbatim.

Translated with DeepL.com

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[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Who cares if he, or an AI, or a ghostwriter, or even a random internet troll wrote it: he owns it. He hasn't made any attempt to distance himself from the comment. That's the important thing.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Because it would show the massive failure of journalistic integrity by the Welt editors

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 week ago (1 children)

But would it?

Let's say he used AI to write his turd. He used AI like he could have used a keyboard, or a dictation software, or dictated to a secretary (is that even a thing anymore?). The means of writing the piece is unimportant - although it certainly is interested to know that he used AI. The important bit is that he wrote the piece.

At best, you could say Welt am Sonntag could have been more thorough and could have found out about the AI bit. But it's a side information that's not relevant to the main story, which is that Musk supports an extreme right German party.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 week ago (2 children)

The important bit is that he wrote the piece.

If it was written by AI by definition he didn't write it.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 week ago

Politicians: "Oh I said that in my last speech? I had a LLM create it for me so I don't take responsibility."

Me: "Oh I said I'm proficient in writing Rust? I had a LLM write my application, so I don't recall.".

Doesn't matter if you use a ghostwriter, intern, or AI, you sign it, it's "yours".

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Why the fuck does he want to get the AfD in power? Is he hellbent on driving the world straight into the shitter?

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 week ago

What he wants is unclear to me. He's a fascist though and they have historically liked other fascists

[–] ZILtoid1991 1 points 1 week ago

Pretty much yes, except he sees it as "saving the world from the woke mind virus".

[–] riodoro1 4 points 1 week ago

Twitter still not banned in germany?