Having learned the views of others, I'd like to offer some degree of summary in response, and to deliver some new suggestions.
How to answer to the future, today?
I acknowledge the points of those who claim that AI is the future, and that denying it is futile — foolish even. I also sense the intent of a warning that advises us not to make similar mistakes to those who initially dismissed major, history-shaping technological advancements as unimpactful fads (only to be proven wrong by history shortly afterwards).
Yet, I argue, in itself, this insight is not a sufficient foundation for us to unconditionally embrace "AI produced content" on our website today. Our (e.g. those who engage with meta.askubuntu) main goal here is to be the custodians of a collection of reliable answers about Ubuntu.
The current state of available AI technology is not adequate to meet our requirement for factually consistently correct — and therefore safe-to-apply — information.
ChatGPT seems like an early proof of concept whose primary mission was to produce passable contributions to random conversations.
[ Aside: I have seen arguments that it's not even an AI: it's merely a machine learning model oriented at language. ]
Until an AI or equivalent technology is not capable of installing Ubuntu in a virtual machine and verifying the effects of its assertions, all it can do is to collect information from other, already existing sources — quite possibly including unverified ones — recombine it with unreliable degree of adequacy, and pass it on repackaged into unique, fact-looking linguistic constructs. This is no way to produce reliable answers for our Ubuntu-related questions.
A further, massive deal-breaker — as some of us had already seen — is when the machine grants itself creative freedoms in re-combining and re-shuffling software configuration options, regardless of whether those exist or not.
On these grounds, I don't see the place for the term "luddite" in our argument, for when someone expresses unwillingness to work with information of such low reliability. I believe no one is against technology here. We are against a barrage of useless lies / fiction that the current iteration of ChatGPT is capable of producing under the guise of reliable facts.
Seeing the dialogue in this thread, I am convinced that as soon as an AI will be able to produce truly and consistently reliable information about Ubuntu-related challenges, we will re-evaluate our position. (Impactfully, at that point, we also will have to face the question: what mission would keep this community (and numerous other online collaborations) working together from that point on.)
In the meanwhile, our burden is to keep this site free from misleading, potentially dangerous garbage.
How to maintain a reliable stock of information on AskUbuntu?
We are seeing in this thread that several people:
- are against a blanket ban, for various motivations
- are in agreement about the prediction that with the rapid evolution and refinement of the AI / ML technology, enforcing a blanket ban might turn out to be technically challenging
The following suggestions aim to acknowledge these positions & considerations, and suggest measures for a modus operandi where we have to live together with a constant influx of AI-produced content.
I offer the following suggestions:
Inform proactively: announce a policy
We need to communicate our issues regarding low quality AI posts: this needs to be mentioned in the onboarding process and it needs its dedicated section in the Code Of Conduct.
Additionally, we could consider putting up small, unobtrusive banners where relevant (maybe accompanying the question- and answer submission forms).
Rely on community-delegated moderation
There is a threat that the volume of low quality posts could overwhelm our volunteer moderators. To relieve them, we should develop measures that could maintain order without needing explicit moderator attention for each individual case. This could be implemented through flagging, whose sufficient numbers could automatically lead to the removal of posts (comparable to how the "spam" flag works today).
Use a new, content-oriented flag
I suggest a flag that pretty closely describes the issue:
Low effort answer with inadequate content
It has the benefit of not interfering with using AI / ML for grammatic / stylistic improvements (in which several people expressed interest).
The downside is that the burden of proving that the information is inadequate is on the flagger, and upon the emergence of each new post, it has to be carried out from scratch; it also occupies the energies of each and every person who engages in evaluating. At a large enough volume, this could overwhelm the community in a similar fashion to how DOS (Denial Of Service) attacks work.
Use a new, behavior-oriented flag
I suggest that we acknowledge the newly emerged behavior pattern that some users started to exhibit.
For lack of a better term currently, until we find something better, I would suggest "meddling".
From dictionary.com:
verb meddling
to involve oneself in a matter without right or invitation; interfere officiously and unwantedly
We already have a behavior-oriented flag for spamming.
Now we could think about experimenting with a new, tailor-made flag for this new challenge:
[ Act of | A product of ] meddling
The poster appears to disseminate cheaply sourced third-party content while failing to demonstrate an ability to verify the adequateness of the information within.
Consider encouraging the disclosure of any involvement of AI technology in posts
I'm unsure about this, because I don't know which one is more tiring for elected moderators and other volunteers engaging in quality assurance:
- in lack of encouraged disclosure:
- having to decide on each and every occassion whether AI was involved in producing the post, or
- with encouraged disclosure:
- having to worry that someone, despite the COC-prescribed preference, is not being honest about the involvement of the AI.
Re-evaluate as necessary
Perhaps we don't get it right for the first try. Let's see how it goes, and, if under pressure, update the policies as necessity dictates.
At the end of the day, the ultimate goal is that AskUbuntu remains a reputable source of reliable information. We should maintain only such policies that do not endanger this primary mission.