You and I wouldn't notice if that entire industry was replaced by ChatGPT because nobody reads that text, it doesn't exist to be read, it exists to tickle some ranking model deep in the bowels of Google. But you can be sure that the people selling coherent text for $0.01/word will notice when ChatGPT can generate the same thing for $0.000001/word.
What I need is not an AI that generates that bullshit, but an AI that detects it and ensures I never have to encounter it.
I don't disagree, by the way. I think ChatGPT may be a net negative for us, but the issue you describe has more to do with the way Google rewards the web
The post you're replying to has had a lot more effort put in than the usual forum post but... long form? Anything longer than 160 characters is long form now?
It still seems to me like most of the articles on HN are human-written, and I heard CNBC tried replacing writers with ChatGPT and it went terribly. But I've also heard anecdotes of freelance writers getting replaced [1] [2] [3], and every once in a while I spot or hear about something ChatGPT-written in the wild. I'm sure ChatGPT replaces boilerplate writing (e.g. legal documents, mandatory code documentation, technical specifications, formal communication) but what about "real" writing (articles, papers, slogans, and books)?
ChatGPT (including GPT4) has a distinctive writing style (neutral-helpful tone, verbose), and in my own experiments and observations I can still recognize it even when it's prompted to write differently. But this is selection bias: when ChatGPT writes something I can't spot, I just don't notice and assume it's human-written. And I know for a fact I can't recognize ChatGPT's writing in isolated paragraphs (I took the quizzes), so it's clear some writings slip past my radar.
This is an important thing to track. Idk how we'd track it in a way that's even remotely accurate; perhaps by taking small samples where you know for sure whether each article was written by GPT or human (if your subjects disclose, or if they have edit history turned on). But we can't say how much ChatGPT is replacing human writing, and how it's affecting human thinking, until we have actual evidence this is happening at a large scale.
[1] https://www.reddit.com/r/ChatGPT/comments/139o1q6/lost_all_m...
[2] https://www.reddit.com/r/ChatGPT/comments/138clv9/spent_5_ye...
[3] https://www.reddit.com/r/freelanceWriters/comments/12ff5mw/i...)