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Cory Doctorow Admits Using a Slop-Machine to Produce His Drone of Propaganda

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2 points by airhangerf15 14 days ago · 1 comment

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jfengel 12 days ago

The word "admits" is always a red flag in a headline. It connotes that somebody has said something negative about themselves that they were previously hiding, and that's often a misrepresentation. They may not have been hiding it, or they don't consider it a negative the way that the headline writer does, or it's an inference the writer is drawing that isn't justified by their actual statement.

In this headline you hardly need that. It's laden with other red flags that this is just affirming the author's preconception.

But it does suggest that it's a good time to propose some kind of rule, on a par with Betteridge's Law. Perhaps "If somebody is said to 'admit' something in a headline, mentally replace it with 'says'".

It still doesn't fix the numerous other red flags in this case. Chopping them out, the headline should perhaps read "Cory Doctorow says that he uses AI", which would merit reading. In what ways does a famous and important writer take advantage of AI, without losing the distinctive things that made him a famous writer in the first place?

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