Tantek’s Thoughts 2023-6

No large language models (LLM) were used in the production of this post. Inspired by a subtle but clear sign-of-the-times one-line disclaimer at the end of RFC9518’s Acknowledgments (https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc9518.html#appendix-A-4) “No large language models were used in the production of this document.” I have added a similar disclaimer to the footer of my homepage: “No large language models were used in the production of this site.” 2023 was certainly a year that LLMs took off and stole the hypecycle from #metaverse and #blockchain before that. Yet unlike those previous two, #LLMs are already having real impacts on the way people create (from emails to art), communicate (LLM chat apps), and work (2023 Writer’s Strike), fueling growing concerns about the authenticity of content, especially content from human authors. I expect we will see more such disclaimers in the future. For now, if you blog on your own site with words written by you not #ChatGPT or a similar tool, I encourage you to add a similar disclaimer, and then add your site as an example to the #IndieWeb wiki: * https://indieweb.org/LLM#IndieWeb_Examples #largeLanguageModel #LLM #generativeAI #AI There is the related problem of, when you discover what seems to be an independent site written by a human, how do you know that human actually exists? For now I’ll mention that XFN rel=met links, published (e.g. metrolls / met-rolls), aggregated, indexed, and queried, can solve that problem. This will be similar to how XFN rel=me links solved #distributed verification on the web (see https://tantek.com/2023/234/t1/threads-supports-indieweb-rel-me and posts it links to). This is day 48 of #100DaysOfIndieWeb. #100Days ← Day 47: https://tantek.com/2023/365/t1/capture-first-edit-publish-later → 🔮 Post glossary: blockchain https://indieweb.org/blockchain large language model / LLM https://indieweb.org/large_language_model metaverse https://indieweb.org/metaverse rel=me https://indieweb.org/rel-me rel=met http://gmpg.org/xfn/11#met XFN https://gmpg.org/xfn/

Writing about writing: capture first, edit & publish later. Braindump timely thoughts & experiences into as many draft notes as it takes, while ideas & memories are fresh. Collecting higher fidelity memories seems more important than editing past writings or finishing/polishing a post for publishing, which can be done at a later time. Sometimes the passage of time helps provide insights and broader understandings that can help with writing more effective posts, from better summaries to narratives that help sense-making. Bits of even this minor post sat for weeks, and only today did I add a summary and related thoughts. Similarly, it makes sense to edit and publish small notes on a subject, without feeling compelled to turn them into a larger blog post, or a longer list of points. This is a key advantage to publishing on your own #indieweb site, you decide on the granularity of your posts, small, medium or large, instead of being constrained, burdened, or pressured by any particular #socialMedia user interface, character count limitation, or audience expectation. Like Twitter before it, even the default #Mastodon user interface has limitations, and the #fediverse itself as a whole has audience/cultural expectations (certainly quite a few articles have been written about that). On your own site you decide if you want to publish a post to make one point, or mention a related point or two, or collect things into a list or longer article, or eventually all of the above. On your own site you feel more free to prioritize and share what is on your mind, instead of feeling compelled to first respond to whatever topics are trending, or to whatever you happen to read in your algorithmic feed. #writingAboutWriting This is day 47 of #100DaysOfIndieWeb. #100Days ← Day 46: https://tantek.com/2023/296/t1/posse-syndicate-link-reply → Day 48: https://tantek.com/2023/365/t2/no-large-language-model-llm-used Related: * “More Thoughtful Reading & Writing on the Web” (https://tantek.com/2023/277/b1/thoughtful-reading-writing-web) Post glossary: algorithmic feed https://indieweb.org/algorithmic_feed article https://indieweb.org/article note https://indieweb.org/note post https://indieweb.org/post sense-making https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sensemaking_(information_science) social media https://indieweb.org/social_media