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As of February 2, 2023, there is a permanent and complete ban on the use of ChatGPT and AI generated content on Ask Ubuntu.

This permanent ban involves:

  1. Deletion of all ChatGPT or other AI content, whether acknowledged as such or not
  2. Moderator email for initial occurrence, if minor in scope
  3. Seven day Suspension for subsequent occurrence, or initial occurrence if larger in scope, and then the usual escalation of penalties for further infractions

The Moderation team has decided by majority vote and decision, after review of opinions and the volume of posts from ChatGPT which have been flagged as problematic or violations of the previous temporary ban, that this ban on ChatGPT and AI generated content is now a permanent ban, effective February 2, 2023. This can be revisited in the future, however it is not going to change for the foreseeable future.

Extra Notes:

  • Community Consultation: On December 19th, 2022, Community discussion commenced on AU Meta concerning our position on AI generated content. This discussion attracted considerable Community interest and involvement.
  • Temporary Ban: On January 5th, 2023, while Community discussion was taking place, there was a considerable upsurge in the number of of ChatGPT-generated answers and spam messages posted on Ask Ubuntu. To get control of this upsurge of incorrect, nonworking, and unvetted content in answers, a temporary ban on AI-generated answers was instituted. This ban continued until February 2, 2023, when a permanent ban was instituted.
  • Grammar and Spell Checking Tools: Note that it is the moderator team's opinion that the use of Grammarly and spell checking tools to correct grammar errors and spelling errors is not AI-generated content. Using those tools to improve your own written posts' grammar or to correct spelling errors is not forbidden; however, we are specifically barring the use of ChatGPT and other AIs as the sole source of generating answer content.
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  • 1
    Is this ban limited to ChatGPT generated answers? Or is using ChatGPT to assist in editing posts also banned? I realize it says a complete ban, but I’m also aware there was some discussion about using it to improve questions (and answers?), hence my question
    – cocomac
    Jan 5 at 7:15
  • 6
    Ideally discussion will take place on the linked Meta thread where I would be keen to see your input. But: i am not convinced about the use of AI to improve posts in this way. The actual Ask Ubuntu experience with ChatGPT has been very, very different, it has been multiple copy and paste posts that have been for the most part really poor answers. It has been a cool and calculated effort by users to gain rep fast with no interest in accuracy or the production of quality answers.
    – andrew.46 Mod
    Jan 5 at 7:45
  • 2
    @andrew.46 In light of this announcement, does this thread need any further update/clarification/commentary?
    – Levente
    Jan 5 at 11:57
  • 2
    @Levente AI grammar checkers are 'limited' in their scope to grammar improvement amd spell checking. This ban is on AI generated content (which is what ChatGPT and others do) not the use of Grammarly AI which in the free grammarly is specific to grammar improvements and spellcheckers.
    – Thomas Ward -On Strike Mod
    Jan 5 at 15:52
  • O.k. which flag can I use (that's available to me) to contribute to enforcing this ban? I look at the list of the available flags and it's not totally clear. I did not want to ring "moderator attention" for every single such instance. Do I have another choice?
    – Levente
    Jan 19 at 17:27
  • 1
    @Levente I'd use a custom mod flag. I typically include why I think it is ChatGPT, the GPT detector result, and any other related info. If it helps, here's a (lightly modified) ChatGPT custom flag I raised on SO recently: This appears to be ChatGPT-generated. The GPT detector gave it X% as how likely it was to be AI-generated. There might be a better flag, but I typically have a bit of info to give (the detector result and if the user has other ChatGPT answers), so I always use a custom flag. A mod can confirm, but I'd guess custom-flags are the best way
    – cocomac
    Jan 19 at 17:44
  • @cocomac by "custom flag" do you mean the bottom-most option, "in need of moderator intervention", combined with a textarea? If yes, that's the basis for my question: I was looking for something that did not need additional mod attention. I was looking for something more automated, e.g. how I believe the spam flag works (auto deletion after like 5 votes).
    – Levente
    Jan 19 at 17:48
  • @cocomac yes that's a custom mod flag. Moderators give attention to lots of things every day, including the non-custom flags. Do not feel bad about writing custom text if it is a legitimate reason. You should probably not strictly rely on the GPT checker though, as it has been known to flag human-written text sometimes. You can corroborate it with things like the user writing many answers in a short time, writing answers with info that looks okay at first glance but is actually nonsense, consistently failing the checker, etc.
    – user253751
    Feb 1 at 18:31
  • I am still trying to figure out if @cocomac 's first comment above has been answered? Can AI be used for improving questions and comments or perhaps simplifying answers?
    – C.S.Cameron
    Feb 4 at 4:35
  • 1
    @C.S.Cameron The issue on AU has never been people using technology like ChatGPT wisely, it has been people using ChatGPT to game the Rep system, to produce empty and many times misleading answers in bulk, to easily create spam and flood AU with it. Hence a blanket and complete ban on its usage.
    – andrew.46 Mod
    Feb 4 at 5:39
  • @andrew.46 So the answer to cocomac's comment is "No, there is a complete and total ban on ChatGPT and similar AI on AU. It can not be used in any way, not even to improve questions or comments or when editing". Is that correct?
    – C.S.Cameron
    Feb 4 at 7:40
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    @C.S.Cameron Well they are actually your words not mine 🙂. The first statement in the announcement pretty much covers it all: "There is now a permanent and complete ban on the use of ChatGPT and AI generated content on Ask Ubuntu." I cannot really add anything more to that...
    – andrew.46 Mod
    Feb 4 at 7:53
  • How does an upstanding member of the community tell if an answer has been AI generated or not? Like, I'd report it if I knew, but I don't know how it would be possible for me to know. EDit: above comment by @user253751 somewhat answers this
    – thomasrutter
    Mar 1 at 9:58
  • @thomasrutter Sometimes there are tell-tale signs - people who play with ChatGPT a lot may notice. It writes relatively formally, for example. Complete sentences only; paragraphs starting with words like "First," and "However,". Another sign is if the answer is confident but subtly wrong (requires you to have actual knowledge to judge the content). Another hint is a user who posts many answers on completely unrelated topics in succession.
    – user253751
    Mar 1 at 10:19
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    Here you go: Title: GPT-generated content Description: This question/answer appears to be generated by a bot or appears to be generated from ChatGPT (END) (P.S feel free to improve it when giving it to the mods)
    – Rishon_JR
    Mar 10 at 5:51

4 Answers 4

Reset to default
9

I am fine with this. To date, the times I have asked ChatGPT for code or linux help, it's been wrong. The whole point of AU and SE in general is learning and helping other. Perhaps the should start a "How to Ask ChatGPT" SE group.

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    My experience is more positive, I've had it help me with a lot of things , but I've always had to go over the code with an eagle eye to spot the crazy. It DOES do some absolutely berko things at times though, inventing entire imaginary libraries, or even trying to correct code that doesnt exist (Oh and for added comedy, dont even think about giving it URLs to read code at, it'll just completely hallucinate the contents and seem mystified when you tell it that its wrong. But in given limited scopes where you fully understand the problem ,its just tedious to DIY , it can be great.
    – Shayne
    May 17 at 12:51
  • " I have asked ChatGPT for code or linux help, it's been wrong" how about using models specifically designed for code generation, such as GitHub Copilot?
    – Franck Dernoncourt
    May 18 at 17:26
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Basically I concur. ChatGPT has been proven to be unreliable, thus a ban is justified. However I've tested some code writing and was surprised that it worked.

I just wonder how we want to figure out if ChatGPT was the author?

-9

As of February 2, 2023, there is a permanent and complete ban on the use of ChatGPT and AI generated content on Ask Ubuntu.

I disagree: we shouldn't blindly discriminate against AI. If some AI model provides a correct answer, then it shouldn't be deleted, provided it has the proper attributions. No need to waste human time if some AI can do it. However, if an SE user tends to post incorrect answers, then they should be banned. Ban users, not the tools.

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    That sounds nice, but it doesn't really work in practice. While AI models sometimes do produce a correct answer, they often produce answers that sound right but are totally wrong, and most reviewers can't easily verify answers to ensure they are correct. Also, some users post tons of AI-generated answers which is annoying and problematic
    – cocomac
    May 18 at 18:09
  • @cocomac if an SE user tends to post incorrect answers, then they should be banned. Ban users, not the tools.
    – Franck Dernoncourt
    May 18 at 20:14
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    Well, we are not blindly banning AI content. We are actually, in a very focused way, trying to avoid anything like the tsunami of AI generated non-answers that is still afflicting Stack Overflow. I personally think that AI is a fantastic technology but its usage on Stack Exchange has always been very, very problematical.
    – andrew.46 Mod
    May 19 at 1:29
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    When the tools are routinely wrong but look correct (or at least highly plausible), they're just not useful. The only way this tool is useful is when a subject matter expert carefully reviews the results, in which case they may as well have written the answer themselves. At this stage it's just easier and better for everyone if AI is banned outright. (Not to mention, if people want an AI-generated answer, they can get it themselves. They come to AU/SE for quality human-written answers.)
    – Clonkex
    May 19 at 4:41
  • @Clonkex "The only way this tool is useful is when a subject matter expert carefully reviews the results" mostly true though some LLMs do provide attributions to some extent such as Bing Chat, where a nonexpert can review the links to check whether they support the LLM output. "Not to mention, if people want an AI-generated answer, they can get it themselves. They come to AU/SE for quality human-written answers.)" I disagree, they come for correct answers, regardless of who or what wrote it. And they can't directly use an LLM for that currently due to the inaccuracies of existing LLMs.
    – Franck Dernoncourt
    May 19 at 5:43
  • @andrew.46 "the tsunami of AI generated non-answers that is still afflicting Stack Overflow" sounds like the LLM ban didn't prevent the tsunami then? The ban doesn't prevent the posts anyway. It just means that instead of judging the correctness of the answers, one assesses the likelihood of whether the answer was written with a language model.
    – Franck Dernoncourt
    May 19 at 5:48
  • @FranckDernoncourt A bit hard to judge whether the ban has had an effect in SO, the only real way would be to stop the ban and see if usage took off. And that would be a foolish gamble. And as for correctness of the AI generated answer: for the most part they do not actually answer the question, certainly the many, many cases I have dealt with on AU have this in common.
    – andrew.46 Mod
    May 19 at 7:48
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    @FranckDernoncourt Well... there are a ton of SO answers that get posted and are AI-generated. And... it would take a lot of reviewer + mod time to test them for correctness. It is way easier/faster to say "They are banned, and if we catch you (I can't share specifics there, but there are good tools we have to find them), then the mods can give you a suspension" (checking for AI-content is faster and more scalable than testing if it is correct).
    – cocomac
    May 19 at 18:33
  • @cocomac that's ok, I know the specifics meta.stackexchange.com/a/384625/178179 point taken but I disagree with letting bad users making SE less efficient for good users.
    – Franck Dernoncourt
    May 19 at 21:11
  • @FranckDernoncourt Judging the correctness of the answers is only possible as an SME. That's the problem. When real people post incorrect answers, they almost always look wrong or low-effort. The problem with AI-generated (or LLM-generated, as you seem to prefer) answers is that they're often indistinguishable from human-generated answers while still being actually wrong.
    – Clonkex
    May 19 at 23:06
-13

If you can’t beat them, join them. ChatGPT can give quicker and better organized answers. If you want it you get. 1 minute no one else needs to be involved. No one gets upset at you for not following a strict set of rules. Espically for newbies, people will prefer ChatGPT. If we allow GPT content that will allow us to have far content then we could otherwise and attract more users.

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    I respectfully disagree. If a user wants a ChatGPT answer, then they can just ask ChatGPT directly. Also, it would result in people posting lots of AI-content in hopes of easy rep. Lastly, ChatGPT can be very confident but wrong, so if a human will manually verify the entirety of a response from ChatGPT, then they should just write an answer themself
    – cocomac
    Apr 11 at 15:40
  • Those are all true of humans except the first. As to the first, that is true. And therefore stack exchange will be less used @cocomac
    – Starship - On Strike
    Apr 11 at 20:31
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    "ChatGPT can give quicker and better organized answers." Than what? Some of the users? Sure. But it's often completely wrong, which is kind of a bad thing on a Q&A site.
    – Organic Marble
    Apr 11 at 21:58
  • 1
    And humans are never wrong. Right @OrganicMarble
    – Starship - On Strike
    Apr 11 at 22:12
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    What you describe has absolutely no correlation to the ChatGPT material that we have seen on Ask Ubuntu. We have seen instead users who abuse ChatGPT to post multiple answers across AU and often across SE. These answers are usually a poor match to the original question, are often incorrect and have rarely if ever been tested by the person posting the answer. This is why ChatGPT has been banned on Ask Ubuntu and more widely in many sites of Stack Exchange.
    – andrew.46 Mod
    Apr 12 at 1:14
  • By your logic human answers should be banned as well. We see answer that are mass posted. Sometimes they are wrong, dont answer the question, and dont work. However, we still deal with the occasional bit of nonsense. Dont throww out the baby with the bath water @andrew.46
    – Starship - On Strike
    Apr 14 at 10:35
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    @Starshipisgoforlaunch Actually I would contest the idea that you have given: "We see answer that are mass posted." This is not seen on AU in my recollection, certainly not with legitimate answers. However one pattern of AI generated answers is something like 5 or six complex answers posted within the space of an hour, and often this pattern is then repeated across multiple areas of Stack Exchange.
    – andrew.46 Mod
    Apr 15 at 7:43
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    the outstanding benefit of Stack Exchange sites is the relatively high signal-to-noise ratio. Which is a result of its design, moderation and community systems. Increasing the noise is a sure way to overwhelm those three systems, either eventually or all at once. It's not like SE is in a competition to answer the most questions. It's true value, for me at least, is the quality of the answers and the context provided by the comments.
    – BISI
    May 13 at 18:01

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