Going on the internet right now really sucks. Every post on every website is AI generated slop or garbage of some variety, but the people who aspose "Anti-AI beliefs" are just as mindless as the people posting AI-generated pictures of Obama as a monkey. How I long for the days when COVID-19 was the worst thing we had to worry about.
So i'll level with you about my use of AI in constructing this site. Becuase it was used, and though I maintain that this is my site, I want to be transparent about exactly what's going on here.
How AI was and wasn't used in making this site
On the frontend, AI tools (cloud-based and locally hosted) helped construct the html, javascript, and css for this website. And when I say "construct," I purely mean the mechanical aspect of actually writing the code. I created everything from the layout and spacing, to the mobile mode parameters, and even specifically changed the fonts and colors myself. See, I do know HTML/CSS/JS, but i'm a full-time student. I can use my skills to keep them maintained, but the mechanical aspect of having them written really did allow me to focus my limited time on more important parts. Like the backed.
On the backend, none of the server architecture was created by AI. The structuring of the files and media was all done by me, the physical and logical networking was done by hand, and the server is generally a passion project of mine. This server, however, does also host a suite of local LLMs which I use for testing purposes both personally and with my school's AI club. They exist, and are being used in a project to optimize server maintenince using small local models. They are not responsible for generating any content on this website, nor are they allowed to actually execute any commands as of now. They are simply monitoring agents.
Is AI generated content allowed on TDS?
Absoluetely, unequivocally not. The truth is that I could have used a template or a premade website and it would have had the same artistic value as what I did with the AI tools. (I chose not to mostly because the state of IP law surrounding AI generated webpages makes this a significantly cheaper way to get a bespoke website.) But without completely human-authored content, TGS would have nothing of value to add. We will not allow AI generated content onto our platform lest we turn this whole thing into an exersice in masturbation with mouse and keyboard.
Every TGS article is human written. That means sometimes there will be spelling and grammar mistakes, and sometimes there might be *really* awful opinions in the Op-Eds. But that's our mission. We aren't a social platform, we don't need your engagement. We don't run ads, so we don't need your impressions. Just read what someone else has to say and take a minute to consider it. If we can get you to have done that, then we will have succeeded.
If you see something that you think is AI slop, email us. We will look into it and suspend it if you are right. We can't be perfect and in the pursuit of giving people a platform, sometimes we miss things. Our email for reporting AI slop (or anything you think is slop, really, so long as you don't abuse that power) is
stop-slop@thedraugrsymposium.org
Email them with your reports and I'll check it as soon as I check it.