Ask HN: Can You Spot AI-Generated Content?

[kgmodi]

Like many others, I've been experimenting with ChatGPT content and APIs. I tasked it with creating articles for a fictitious website related to idlis and idli cookers (Reference: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Idli). I was impressed with the content it generated, so I decided to create a website called https://www.IdliCooker.com using the content and DALL-E generated images.

Below are a few of the relevant prompts I used, along with the content I accepted and rejected:

1. Prompt: Generate a list of articles for idli cookers. Include how they are useful, the best brands, and where to buy them.

ChatGPT generated a list of articles, product recommendations, and benefits. Although it couldn't generate accurate Amazon product links, it recommended suitable products and provided explanations. After some due diligence, I curated the links for the recommended products.

2. Prompt: Create a website with all the above content.

ChatGPT generated an outline of the website homepage, including the logo, website name, navigation menu, featured articles, images, and footer. Note: I used DALL-E to create images based on descriptions. Three out of the eight images are DALL-E-generated, while the remaining are stock images.

3. Prompt: Can you create the homepage in HTML, which includes a list of articles based on the website structure?

ChatGPT began generating a basic HTML outline for the website. While this was amazing, I abandoned the code because it lacked styling. I already had an HTML/CSS template that I could use to plug in the content and deploy the website.

4. Prompt: Create a monetization plan for IdliCooker.com.

ChatGPT generated a list of strategies - E-commerce Store, Display Advertising, Sponsored Content, Affiliate Marketing. I updated the products with Amazon affiliate links. (Note the affiliate links are real, so I may get paid a commission if someone actually buys it). Is it this easy to monetize?

Question: To me, the content is authentic and useful. As a human, can you spot the AI-generated content or do you need to be a SME? Does it matter is it is AI or not if the content is useful and relevant?

[anigbrowl]

It looks pretty good to me. I think a non-AI generated website would probably have a 'New to Idli?' section to help people who might have had it once at a restaurant or something and wanted some background information, but otherwise nothing stands out to me as 'artificial'.

Of course, with a short product-oriented website like this the text does not need to be very complex or sophisticated. Usually in longer blocks of text I will notice little giveaways if it is AI generated (like DAll-E is famous for having trouble with hands). But this all looks Good Enough to me.

I bet if you ask, ChatGPT will give you advice on how to build traffic by spending small sums of money on advertising. Best of luck!

[kgmodi → anigbrowl]

Thank you for your response.

> 'New to Idli?' That is a good observation. I'll add it myself :)

Yes, I observed DALL-E having trouble with creating images of the idli cooker itself. I guess it doesn't have enough the diversity in its training data yet.

[bediger4000]

This reads like an SEO "content farm" web site. I found myself looking for the ads, or whatever the content farmers think they're boosting in google search.

I really don't know if the content is useful or not. I've only had idli a couple of times, and I've never had an urge to make it myself.

[kgmodi → bediger4000]

Got it. Thank you for your feedback. It is SEO optimized content to drive more traffic to the website.

[richardjam73]

Seems like a content farm website and some of the images look wrong. The worst image is the bottom one, is that meant to be rice?

[kgmodi → richardjam73]

Yes, the last one is a stock image showing spices and raw rice.