Fuck AI

The way the ad is presented makes it look like there's something wrong with the original (❌) and that the mangled version is better (✅), as if it was actually improved.

The tool removed all the subtext from the original by using this very neutral, matter-of-fact language. There is actual information lost there, not just rigmarole. And that's the example they chose to put into the ad.

LLMs will also make shit up or completely misinterpret what's being written, I wouldn't trust it to get through an entire book without grossly misleading the reader or flipping out. They can't parse that much text at once right now so all interpretation of a chunk of text will have only a very broad, short and possibly wrong/irrelevant summary of what came before for context.

I don't even want to know what this would do to something like a Pratchett novel or a textbook.

As far as accessibility tools using machine learning go, wouldn't a text-to-speech reader app be better for dyslexics anyway?

Then why not just read the summary of the plot on Wikipedia? It's not about the nuances or the details, it's about actually taking the book versus knowing what the plot is about. The voice of the author matters, and if you're not getting that through a rewrite you're not getting the book as written.

Additionally, literature is one of the most effective ways we have of bettering our feel for a language, and expanding our comprehension and ability. This is even more true for second language acquisition.

There was a famous Hungarian interpreter in the 20th Century who claimed reading books was almost all she did to acquire languages. You just skip over the words you don't know, until after seeing it many times you get an "aha!" moment and work out what it means (and if it doesn't come up again then maybe it's just not that important?). She wrote about it in this book.

If you were to rewrite the text to remove the words completely you're depriving yourself from ever being able to improve your language, all the while sapping the colour and joy out from the words.

As for dyslexia, I don't have much experience with that but I do have with ADHD and getting distracted while reading, and have found audiobooks to be indispensable. I find them harder in foreign languages than my native, but that usually means I end up listening at 1x the speed rather than 2,5x the speed. I used to struggle getting through many books since leaving school until I could listen to them.

My real concern is that AI in its current form is not great at context and continuity. I see it similarly as translating between languages: Google can do a decent job of directly translating a phrase, even adjusting grammar a bit, but it can't tell when it needs to explain or replace an idiom, or which details it definitely needs for symbolism and which can be safely disregarded, or detect when a word is being used in an archaic or unusual way.

So I think this would be a great project for a human with a keen understanding of literature to undertake, but honestly I think an AI paraphrasing without a large amount of editing would would give you a fairly bland and possibly confusing read.

I was all aboard the hate train, because it seems like defacing a work of art. Your points are valid and now I'm thinking it isn't bad after all. This can make those stories more accessible, and it's not like the original was destroyed. If you want to read the original just get it instead of this.

look at the community this was posted in. opinions/votes will be coming in hot and preloaded. If this was 'tech' or something on mander.xyz, sure. but "fuck ai" might be a wee bit slanted.

it is a little weird though for them to post something actually good about AI and then get angry it's doing good. I mean, even Flying Squid is on the hate-train today. Everyone is hating because either they're selfish (like FS) or narrow-minded / prejudiced. It's a shame.

The context of the next passage is laughably applicable but would it be stripped?

Whenever you feel like criticizing any one," he told me, "just remember that all the people in this world haven't had the advantages that you've had.

Had to scroll down so far to find ESL. This is a truly excellent tool for a language learner if working as intended. If it were available to create graded reading materials in many different target languages it would be worth its weight in gold.

Is your username referring to a "BiPAP" and a "Pappy" (like a grandpa)? So like, "I am BiPappy"?

Or maybe even a bisexual grandpa?