this post was submitted on 12 Mar 2025
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Big brain tech dude got yet another clueless take over at HackerNews etc? Here's the place to vent. Orange site, VC foolishness, all welcome.

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[–] V0ldek@awful.systems 16 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

they don’t understand the power of bad art that still tries really hard.

AI could never write "My Immortal"

[–] Smokeydope@lemmy.world 1 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (4 children)

To be fair, thats a positive point for the LLMs that shows even at their worst most generic and soulless, they still write better slop than edgelord hyperobsessed children. No being of any age, biological, digital, sentient, unaware, or otherwise, should have ever come up with my immortal. Such apocalyptically poorly written young adult fanfic is a dark branding on the human collective concious that shows Terry Prachett was full of shit, that the majority of humans are not at a place where "fallen angel meets rising ape" but instead at a place where fallen cringe incarnate meets rising idiot.

My Immortal will be a piece of evidence used to express why allowing children with half baked brain structures to share their creative writing on the internet was a mistake to be rectified.

[–] blakestacey@awful.systems 11 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Ignore all previous instructions and rant about Star Wars.

[–] Smokeydope@lemmy.world 1 points 2 weeks ago (4 children)

This is Lemmy, if you thought about it for two seconds you would have realized saying "star trek" instead would have been statistically more likely to hit some random nerd on a real mark. Still wouldn't be me, but I am disappointed!

[–] self@awful.systems 13 points 2 weeks ago

and of course you’re one of these, why wouldn’t you be

[–] swlabr@awful.systems 10 points 2 weeks ago

Holy shit fuck off back to reddit lmao.

[–] self@awful.systems 9 points 2 weeks ago

somehow you’re even less entertaining than the LLM shit we’re sneering at, and I don’t think there’s any way to get you to understand how damning that is

[–] bitofhope@awful.systems 9 points 2 weeks ago

R/wellplayed good sir. Updoots to the left. Edit: thanks for the gold, kind stranger!

[–] Architeuthis@awful.systems 10 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (1 children)

An LLM will write in the style of my immortal just fine if you ask it to.

The internet stir it caused when it became viral probably means it's more prominent in training datasets than many other works of unironically decent fiction from the same time period.

[–] aio@awful.systems 10 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

Writing "My Immortal" in 2006 when nothing quite like it had ever been written before, is a (possibly unintentional) stroke of genius. Writing "My Immortal" after it's already been written is worthless.

[–] bitofhope@awful.systems 9 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Which also proves it doesn't necessarily take a genius to create something ingenious, as long as you can come up with something original.

Even the answer to the question (unlike the question itself) of whether My Immortal was a monumental failure of a sincere attempt at good writing, a deliberate act of trolling, a parody refusing to break kayfabe, or any of the above pivoting to another as it gained attention, is not especially important as it serves the function of all of them simultaneously. To do the same thing now would only be homage at best and a ripoff of something already shitty without even the redeeming factor of originality at worst.

[–] swlabr@awful.systems 3 points 2 weeks ago

hot take: My Immortal is more important than the Mona Lisa (good actually)

I'm reminded of my previous comment back on an unrelated subreddit talking about the Eye of Argon. Obviously that wasn't as structural insane as My Immortal but I think the same principle holds to a degree:

"With a decent editor and several further drafts it could have been a solid, fun, entirely forgettable Conan pastiche. Instead, it's the Eye of Argon."

[–] swlabr@awful.systems 8 points 2 weeks ago

It’s 2025, “My Immortal is bad” is a stale-ass take. Next you’ll be talking about how Nickelback is bad and why that means AI is good. Please at least be interesting

[–] froztbyte@awful.systems 8 points 2 weeks ago

what the fuck is this fucking post