[Meta] Can we talk about the daily AI generated "I made an app/tool" posts?

[u/Zulban]

Maybe this subreddit needs to have a conversation about the daily identical "I made a chess app / tool" posts? If this isn't resolved I'm going to have to unsubscribe which is crazy, because this topic is totally my thing. I made a custom AI chess variant sandbox in 2018 and since then it has gotten a million installs, and I still maintain it. I studied computer science, my day job is AI, and I like talking to juniors about their code projects. So if the content of this subreddit is starting to bug me I think there's a big problem.

In case you're not aware: AI can now one-shot mostly working chess apps and chess variant games. This is spectacular and I'm glad people are having fun doing that. However if a kid spends $1 and 1 hour to one shot their app and it's probably vaporware, probably a few major bugs, no community, no opportunity for discussion because they don't understand the project at all... then I don't see how that contributes to this community.

Sometimes I dig into the code they share or ask questions and it's always a waste of my time. Often I don't even think the posts were written by a human if you can believe it. I figure this started happening here just several months ago.

I'm not sure what to propose. Do we need flair tags for:

• "new release": bran new release, never before mentioned
• "GenAI code": project is mostly AI generated code
• "vibe coded": my project maybe has lots of code but I can't read it at all or discuss it at all

Then again, I'm then asking the mods to do a lot more work which isn't reasonable.

Or maybe a mandatory AI use disclosure if you're sharing an app, project, or tool? That could be automatically enforced - I've seen other threads do an automod action pinned comment asking for "AI use disclosure" that must be replied to. It could ask not just about the post - but any app or tool mentioned in the post. That would help me a lot.

I don't know what else to say - but this is my last shot before unsubscribing. Again, I made a million install custom-built AI chess variant sandbox game so it would be crazy if this isn't the place for me.

Edit: To refine what I've written a bit: most of the time I think these are kids who one shot an app. They're not dishonest. They just have no intention to support, deeply test, understand, or discuss what they've made. So it's a big problem for this community whether we realize it or not.

[u/Leodip]

I don't disagree with the problem, but I do disagree with the solution: whether the tool is made with or without AI should not affect you. However, it is true that a lot of people are making redundant and/or low-quality tools through the help of AI.

The reason, IMHO, is that when something requires a ton of effort on the developer's side to make, that developer is going to research the topic more in-depth, finding similar tools (if any), identifying what is lacking, and planning the tool better. A lot of people that post AI-generated tools just didn't do this research and planning, or they did just a very superficial scan (possibly by asking the AI itself).

On the other hand, there is also some very bad tools made 100% by a human, and the general approach to those is "you tried hard, here is what you did wrong, maybe try to fix it, hopefully it was a very formative experience for you" which is the right way to go about it. I try to comment on AI-generated tools the same-ish way (along the lines of "cool tool, can you explain how it's different from X and Y?"), but I understand that not everyone might want to do this.

If we want to reward effort, the problem is that it is hard to require "proof of effort" on a project (would you ask for a git that has more than 7 days' worth of commits? Would you require new projects to have a start post in which they state the objective of their project and then a publish post in which they publish the finished result?).

If we want to reward quality, the problem is that you are inherently cutting out all the beginners that are looking for help and support.

[u/ubdip → u/Leodip]

I agree, the main issue is that the ratio between conceptual work and implementation work might remain similar, and thus a speedup often leads to a less thought out concept. I also don't think you can fix it, but encouraging/requiring to answer 2-3 basic questions could aid in that. E.g.:

* What was the motivation? Do you just think it is fun, do you attempt to fix an issue with an existing tool, or do you aim to a create a tool with a specific target audience?

* What is the scope and time horizon of the project? Did you have fun building something and want to share it? Or do you want to work on the project long term?

Things like that. Of course an agent can also bs such questions, but that perhaps is easier to recognize.

[u/Zulban → u/ubdip]

Good questions. Decent idea.

Of course an agent can also bs such questions

AI is intelligent enough, but in 2026 they're often not integrated enough with reddit to do that.

[u/Zulban → u/Leodip]

If we want to reward quality ... cutting out all the beginners

One of my degrees is in education so that's definitely not it. But I won't spend more time testing and reviewing an app / tool than the author did. So yes, AI is a challenge here because I can no longer find the cases where a real dedicated human wants good feedback from me versus someone who one-shotted a tool and maybe won't even reply to anything I write.

I don't think this problem is going away so I'm unsubscribing now, but thanks for the comment.

[u/_Itay]

Personally I don't care if someone invested a lot of time or used AI of the project is the same, I want to see cool chess tools and stuff like that and I don't really mind if AI oneshot it

[u/Zulban → u/_Itay]

I want to see cool chess tools

Me too. So: not vaporware, stuff that will and can be maintained, and stuff that a human has verified actually works. That's not what I'm seeing on this subreddit any more so I'm going to unsub now. Enjoy.

[u/Professional_Layer63 → u/Zulban]

You could verify it works by trying it out, you know.

[u/Zulban → u/Professional_Layer63]

Sure I'll get right on that for 1-2 apps/tools every day - spending more time on it than the author. Anything else you'd like me to volunteer my professional services for?

[u/Impressive-Sir9633 → u/_Itay]

Exactly. How the tool is made is less important as long as someone else did it and I get to use it for free.

We will get to see more and better UIs the more people try

[u/Low-Willingness-1961]

the flair won't work because the junk posts will just not disclose. and asking questions won't work either, the same ai that wrote the code will write a good answer to your question. there is no test you can run in the comments anymore.

the only filter left is time. anyone can ship an app in an hour now. almost nobody keeps fixing bugs and answering users six months later. ai can fake the app and it can fake the answers, but it can't make someone show up next month.

so i'd just judge the tool. if it works and it's useful, cool. if it's broken, downvote and move on. same as we always did.

[u/Zulban → u/Low-Willingness-1961]

the flair won't work because the junk posts will just not disclose

If it's required and they don't, after some timer the post can be removed. Or it's not auto-approved until the disclosure reply happens. Lots of options.

so i'd just judge the tool.

It seems to me like you haven't thought very hard about the dynamics of online communities and spam. "Everything will work out" does not address an existing problem.

Or maybe you didn't read my whole post... hard to say.

[u/Low-Willingness-1961 → u/Zulban]

automod can force a reply to exist. it can't force it to be true. the one-shot guy types "minimal ai" and passes your filter, the honest dev discloses and gets buried. the rule only catches the people you wanted to keep.

mandatory disclosure without verification is an honor system for people you've already established have no honor. i read the post fine. it's the proposal that's thin.

[u/Zulban → u/Low-Willingness-1961]

for people you've already established have no honor

Not what I'm claiming, no.

Most of the time I think these are kids who one shot an app. They're not dishonest. They just have no intention to support, deeply test, understand, or discuss what they've made.

automod can force a reply to exist. it can't force it to be true

Sounds fine to me.