A.I. suspected in Stack Overflow murder

by BryanLunduke on 7/25/2023, 10:40:38 PM with 9 comments

  • by Guvante on 7/26/2023, 12:31:27 AM

    A sequence of things happened with AI that got broadcasted wide enough that the author would have found it if they looked:

    1. Tons of submissions from ChatGPT started popping up as users tried to get points the easy way.

    2. Moderators began auto banning AI posts as low effort in an attempt to stem the tide.

    3. StackOverflow fearing what the author proposes pushed back and forced moderators to stop auto banning AI content and instead only action incorrect answers.

    4. Moderators revolted due to the huge effort required to sift through AI generated content to figure out what is worthwhile

    I don't know if the moderator actions led to any action from StackOverflow but going to StackOverflow when all questions are filled in by ChatGPT is 100% pointless.

    https://www.vice.com/en/article/4a33dj/stack-overflow-modera...

    Note of course if the site isn't then StackOverflow can still provide value given the inability to know when AI is hallucinating.

  • by NBJack on 7/26/2023, 12:24:09 AM

    I honestly would have assumed it was more a product of the decline in quality of the platform. AI growth just seems to be "capitalizing" on it.

  • by seattle_spring on 7/26/2023, 12:49:59 AM

    Are people really able to replace most of what they'd find on SO with chatGPT queries? I find most of the stuff I need help with comes in the form of modern libraries (eg next.js) and finicky configs.

  • by villgax on 7/26/2023, 1:00:49 AM

    Vitriol from the moderators & members over there is to blame + attitude over automatic answers from documentation using LLMs

    GitHub issues is actually a better place to hope & find answers from people who's code you actually use instead of SO. The only time I go to SO is for obscure Linux/she'll command info

  • by TheLoafOfBread on 7/26/2023, 12:22:29 PM

    I am developing with .NET and since Microsoft put their docs for .NET examples together, then Microsoft docs were always first in search results instead of Stack Overflow.

  • by nubinetwork on 7/26/2023, 3:56:32 AM

    Clickbait. And related https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36855516

  • by ddtaylor on 7/26/2023, 1:23:33 AM

    Stack Exchange has also had a lot of other problems around the same time. They have increasingly treated their creators poorly over the recent years.