LOL, LMAO: Inside the first 'SEO heist' of the AI era. Web2 is going great! (www.businessinsider.com)

submitted 1 year ago by AcausalRobotGod@awful.systems to c/techtakes@awful.systems

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Basically: use GPT to help copy an entire web site, then jack their search results, get profit. Aided by the fact that search engines are shit. This is something you could do before, GAI just made it faster.

Web2 is going great!

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[-] sailor_sega_saturn@awful.systems 18 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

"It's unusual that something acceptable, if done once, suddenly becomes unethical when reproduced at scale," he wrote on X earlier this month.

Ugh no gross. SEO grey goo is not "ethical" if done once. Do better. Do it zero times please.

This would be like saying: "It's unusual that bitcoin mining, if done on a CPU in 2009, suddenly becomes 'bad for the environment' when done with huge numbers of janky poorly regulated server farms in 2023"

[Google spokeswoman says] AI can be a useful tool to help people with creative endeavors, including the development of great content

And of course Google is too high on their AI supply to do anything about it...

[-] roaminchemicals@mastodon.social 5 points 1 year ago

@sailor_sega_saturn @AcausalRobotGod It's like someone read Immanuel Kant's Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals and proceeded to bash themselves over the head with it.

[-] roaminchemicals@mastodon.social 8 points 1 year ago

@sailor_sega_saturn @AcausalRobotGod It's literally the opposite of the categorical imperative, the philosophical equivalent of saying, "it's rare that ducks go quack"

[-] 200fifty@awful.systems 8 points 1 year ago

even putting aside philosophy/ethics, have they never heard of common expressions like "too much of a good thing" or "the dose makes the poison"? it's just an extremely, extremely common idea basically everywhere except in the tech industry

[-] Soyweiser@awful.systems 8 points 1 year ago

Taking the totally wrong lesson away from the story of the tragedy of the commons because reading more about it than just the 'this is a real thing' is too much work, and now they can argue 'if I don't do it somebody else will'.

this post was submitted on 19 Dec 2023

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