Bruce Davie

I spent the last two days hiking with @Christybon@aus.social across the Bogong high plains from Cope Hut to the Fainters. Day 1 started with perfect weather as we followed the Australian Alps walking track for the first 10km. #hiking #bushwalking #Bogong 1/n

Never mind panic-buying petrol, I’m going to panic-buy an EV

I really like this viewpoint on AI performing "semantic ablation". It hits home as I work diligently to write a textbook that contains plenty of nuance and (I hope) a unique perspective on the topic (computer networking).

"By running a text through successive AI "refinement" loops, the vocabulary diversity (type-token ratio) collapses. The process performs a systematic lobotomy across three distinct stages:
- Stage 1: Metaphoric cleansing. The AI identifies unconventional metaphors or visceral imagery as "noise" because they deviate from the training set's mean. It replaces them with dead, safe clichés, stripping the text of its emotional and sensory "friction."
Stage 2: Lexical flattening. Domain-specific jargon and high-precision technical terms are sacrificed for "accessibility." The model performs a statistical substitution, replacing a 1-of-10,000 token with a 1-of-100 synonym, effectively diluting the semantic density and specific gravity of the argument.
Stage 3: Structural collapse. The logical flow – originally built on complex, non-linear reasoning – is forced into a predictable, low-perplexity template. Subtext and nuance are ablated to ensure the output satisfies a "standardized" readability score, leaving behind a syntactically perfect but intellectually void shell.
#AIslop #writing

https://www.theregister.com/2026/02/16/semantic_ablation_ai_writing/