viriar.com

[Foggy Paul]

I'm seeing this site pop up more and more in my interweb searches. It certainly appears authoritative. Is it? Is anyone from this group associated with it? Opinions welcome!

https://www.viriar.com/blogs/palms-tree-encyklopedia/ravenea-hildebrandtii-hildebrandts-majesty-palm

[aabell]

The whole site is complete and utter AI slop. One of the many reasons that I absolutely loathe generative AI is that it's polluting the Internet with an endless feedback loop of garbage like this. 

[aabell]

You might think that for something like this, AI scrapes the internet for information about the various palm species and then synthesizes plagiarizes the information to make these articles. What it actually does is even lazier and much stupider: it just makes up plausible sounding facts out of thin air, and then fills in the requested fields (like the incredibly detailed care information) with completely generic and useless information.

This site is now some of the most prominently accessible information on the entire internet when you search for these species (google ranks sites like this that claim to be selling something very highly). This information also gets fed right back into the next plagiarism machine that comes looking for it.  Garbage in, garbage out. It would be funny if it wasn't so scary. 

https://www.viriar.com/blogs/palms-tree-encyklopedia/hyophorbe-amaricaulis

https://www.viriar.com/blogs/palms-tree-encyklopedia/ravenea-musicalis-river-palm

https://www.viriar.com/blogs/palms-tree-encyklopedia/sabal-pumos-pumila-dwarf-bush-palmetto

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These are just a few quick examples of information that is, for the record: completely false, that I was able to find in a minute or two of clicking around. 

Last year I noticed that the International Aroid Society redesigned their website and included an wholly AI-generated encyclopedia of thousands of Aroid species. Just like this one, it was completely nonsensical and full of misinformation. Unlike this one, it was hosted by a legitimate organization which is the official registrar for the Aroid family,  and also a non-profit that promotes education and conservation.  After a few months and some negative feedback that section of their website is currently not active, but we are teetering on the edge of completely losing our grasp on collective reality, as this dangerous technology is pushed on everyone. 

 

[Foggy Paul]

I like the opinions! 🤣 I picked this particular palm as I was pretty sure this level of detailed information does not exist anywhere. I suppose our dumb internet culture is about to get a lot dumber. 

[Silas_Sancona]

2 hours ago, aabell said:

we are teetering on the edge of completely losing our grasp on collective reality, as this dangerous technology is pushed on everyone. 

 

Only if people allow it to happen.

[PalmatierMeg]

Why I go out of my way not to patronize AI sites. People are becoming too lazy and stupid to do their own research to learn, instead rely on others to do (bogus) research for them. I've been dodging Herr Zuckerberg for years after he proposed Facebook set up free individual internet accounts for all public school children nationwide. Someone that brazen and acquisitive is a danger to society and he's going to have to track me down to drag me into his cult. I can only hope younger generations will have the moxie to kick Facebook Fogies to the curb until the site disintegrates into the dust of history. But what awaits us in the future? Intelligence and wisdom have been in decline since the Greatest Generation.

[flplantguy]

No one I talk to likes it, some use it for work but most people hate it.  Most of my friends do not have "social media" anymore, if ever at all, and we are not part of the old crowd (but not that young either). Don't get it twisted that younger people LIKE this stuff, some just try and take advantage like anyone would.  kids trust too much and have not been bitten yet, but they learn in time, especially once they count on the slop and get bit by it.  They are more aware of technology and the downfalls than people give them credit for, but they are also pushed towards it by older predators, like the AI pushers with their real agenda of greed and control.  Remember, half the generation is on the lower half of the IQ bell curve, and that gets the most attention (and sometimes the genius kid too).