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This is really hard to put a finger on but does anyone else feel like they've been reading more AI-written passages on Wikipedia lately?
Like here's an example. I don't know how to explain it other than that the flow and cadence is GPT-like.
![The legacy of Jaco Pastorius is one of the most impactful in the world of electric bass in jazz and in general for every genre, despite his flawed and controversial latter years, [52] although as time passed, his work began to be more appreciated by musicians. Known for his solo career with the self titled album Jaco Pastorius, the track "Donna Lee" is remembered as showcasing his incredible feel and speed on the electric bass,[53] a level of skill which had not been seen before. In his contributions to Weather Report, he is remembered for his incredibly precise and fast bass lines, played with flash and gusto.[53] The fact that he entered the music scene at the age of only 16 has inspired future musicians such as Victor Wooten. Jaco's legacy, while having some aspects that many find to be negative, overwhelmingly shows his unmatched skill and trailblazing in the world of jazz and electric bass performance.[](https://cdn.masto.host/writing/media_attachments/files/111/892/788/693/983/074/original/a6c947d3bb452237.png "The legacy of Jaco Pastorius is one of the most impactful in the world of electric bass in jazz and in general for every genre, despite his flawed and controversial latter years, [52] although as time passed, his work began to be more appreciated by musicians. Known for his solo career with the self titled album Jaco Pastorius, the track \"Donna Lee\" is remembered as showcasing his incredible feel and speed on the electric bass,[53] a level of skill which had not been seen before. In his contributions to Weather Report, he is remembered for his incredibly precise and fast bass lines, played with flash and gusto.[53] The fact that he entered the music scene at the age of only 16 has inspired future musicians such as Victor Wooten. Jaco's legacy, while having some aspects that many find to be negative, overwhelmingly shows his unmatched skill and trailblazing in the world of jazz and electric bass performance.[")
Okay here's what it is: It's the flowery adjectives, and the arms-length editorializing in phrases like "that many find to be negative," neither of which I associate with Wikipedia but I've definitely seen in the stuff that ChatGPT spews out.
@Newmy I wonder if anyone's bothering to edit and update simple.wikipedia with AI. It would probably be easier to detect convincing bullshit if you use smaller words
@Newmy The flow and cadence also sounds like undergraduate music major writing.
@vees Hey, as a former undergrad music major, I resent that!
@Newmy My undergraduate writing was flowery bullshit-adjacent like everybody else. The major doesn't really matter except in the subject matter being subjected to it
@Newmy Grand but imprecise declarations ("one of the most impactful in the world"), avoidance and buck-passing of criticism ("some aspects that many find to be negative")
@jordangloor Yes this is exactly it!
@Newmy It's like aggressively inoffensive
@Newmy I use ChatGPT every day and I would agree. For me, the things that make it obvious are the repetition of certain phrases (electric bass and jazz), and the last sentence in that screenshot. I'm not against using AI as a tool, but this is lazy. A simple edit would have worked wonders here.
@silveringofrose I looked at the edit history and that whole section was added in December 2022, so theoretically by someone who was messing around with ChatGPT for the first time.
@Newmy So back before anyone knew that ChatGPT writes EXACTLY what you tell it to 
Most people still don't get this tbh. But it does make it relatively easy to spot the pure AI written articles vs AI assisted writing vs AI was mostly a research/editing tool.
@Newmy @silveringofrose looks like the user was a college student who did it as part of an assignment https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Jaco_Pastorius#c-Ctysick-20221206184400-Wiki_Education_assignment:_SSC199_Hon. the “peer review” was also from students in that class
@exchgr @silveringofrose I'm not sure if that makes it more or less likely to be AI. (Probably more!)
@Newmy @silveringofrose yeah i’m definitely thinking more, given the media hype around it. but i can’t prove it for sure