Post by @monkeyborg@triangletoot.party

2026-05-01 15:09 UTC

@anne_twain @sashin I apologize, I intended no disrespect. I don't believe that's a human-written article. My day job involves editing articles for a university magazine. The writing style here immediately felt off to me, much like an AI-generated image feels off. There is too much imitation of writing formalisms, too little specific information. I could be wrong. But I can't find a Linda Tran at Berkeley. Even if there were, why would a physicist be writing an article on human psychology?

Replies (4)

@anne_twain@theblower.au 2026-05-02 03:06

@monkeyborg @sashin Thank you for your apology, though I don't blame you at all. I look at it this way - we were living in the Information Age, now we're moving into what I call the Age of Bewilderment, when we are constantly uncertain about the credibility of what we see, hear and read. Even if one person is certain, they'll meet with others who are not certain. Stopping to debate every possibility will just be exhausting, don't you think?

Open ##2036972
@mirth@mastodon.sdf.org 2026-05-05 16:10

@monkeyborg @anne_twain @sashin Agreed, additionally it would be unusual to use the "Prof." title as opposed to "Dr.". The bio reads like a field from a database of prompts.

Open ##2036975
@varx@cybersecurity.theater 2026-05-06 00:11

@monkeyborg @anne_twain @sashin Also, you can look at the other articles that the "author" wrote: https://biolecta.com/authors/prof.-linda-tran/ - "Diverse Adaptations of Land and Sea Animals" - "Mathematics in Programming: Essential Insights" - "Understanding Dark Matter: A Deep Dive" Unlikely that this is all one, real person.

Open ##2056145
@mathew@universeodon.com 2026-05-06 01:46

@monkeyborg @anne_twain @sashin I have a slop detection app, and it rates the article as slop with 90% confidence. It rates the article's image as slop with 78% confidence. There are three LLM-isms just in the first paragraph: 1. "In examining A it is crucial to B" 2. "they are not just A but B" 3. "draw on X, Y and Z" (rule of 3)

Open ##2056147