Recently, I've been noticing an increase in new users using chatbots to answer questions that they don't otherwise know the answer to. I've seen both:
A. Users presumably copy-pasting the thread question into a chatbot, and then pasting the chatbot's result back into their reply, and
B. Users referring other users to chatbots (E.g. "I don't know the answer, but maybe ask ChatGPT and it'll help you".
The biggest reason why this is a problem is because AI often isn't designed to give the answers that we provide here. Most chatbots give extremely generic or vague steps, or directly copy advice from existing sources. This, in my opinion, is fundamentally opposed to the purposes of this forum, which is to provide specific and tailored assistance to users experiencing issues that can't always be answered elsewhere.
As a result, any post that obviously uses AI is usually ignored (or called out and subsequently ignored). AI is not helpful for the vast majority of technical issues here, and newer users passing off AI-generated answers as their own is both annoying and incredibly obvious to anyone who's previously used a chatbot.
I'm proposing a rule regarding the use of AI with specific regard to technical questions. At this point, it feels like spam and is about as helpful as spam. Something along the lines of "Do not provide AI-generated answers as your own if you do not know how to solve the current issue" and "Do not refer other users to chatbots if you do not have any relevant advice yourself". Something along those lines.
Obviously I'm not proposing a complete ban on AI. The only reason I'm bringing this up at all is because I've seen several instances of unhelpful AI posts (and with AI becoming more mainstream, I anticipate this becoming a bigger problem rather than a smaller one).
I mean, for Christ's sake. Our own April Fools' joke was an exaggerated metaphor for chatbots being unable to solve specific issues.
Please let me know any thoughts on this. Or, alternatively, if I'm completely delusional and this is an unreasonable request please let me know as well. Thanks!
-ATT
A. Users presumably copy-pasting the thread question into a chatbot, and then pasting the chatbot's result back into their reply, and
B. Users referring other users to chatbots (E.g. "I don't know the answer, but maybe ask ChatGPT and it'll help you".
The biggest reason why this is a problem is because AI often isn't designed to give the answers that we provide here. Most chatbots give extremely generic or vague steps, or directly copy advice from existing sources. This, in my opinion, is fundamentally opposed to the purposes of this forum, which is to provide specific and tailored assistance to users experiencing issues that can't always be answered elsewhere.
As a result, any post that obviously uses AI is usually ignored (or called out and subsequently ignored). AI is not helpful for the vast majority of technical issues here, and newer users passing off AI-generated answers as their own is both annoying and incredibly obvious to anyone who's previously used a chatbot.
I'm proposing a rule regarding the use of AI with specific regard to technical questions. At this point, it feels like spam and is about as helpful as spam. Something along the lines of "Do not provide AI-generated answers as your own if you do not know how to solve the current issue" and "Do not refer other users to chatbots if you do not have any relevant advice yourself". Something along those lines.
Obviously I'm not proposing a complete ban on AI. The only reason I'm bringing this up at all is because I've seen several instances of unhelpful AI posts (and with AI becoming more mainstream, I anticipate this becoming a bigger problem rather than a smaller one).
I mean, for Christ's sake. Our own April Fools' joke was an exaggerated metaphor for chatbots being unable to solve specific issues.
Please let me know any thoughts on this. Or, alternatively, if I'm completely delusional and this is an unreasonable request please let me know as well. Thanks!
-ATT