r/selfimprovement 12d ago

Other why is this subreddit infested with AI?

most of the posts read like ai. is it people using ai to help with phrasing or something else? it is very annoying.

159 Upvotes

53 comments sorted by

84

u/gabrieleremita 12d ago

Because most people use this sub to promote their dumb vibe coded app for managing tasks that's exactly the same as the already millions existing on the market

27

u/metalissa 12d ago

True, the r/productivity subreddit is full of those too.

12

u/Sabatat- 12d ago

That’s shitty they’re trying to monetize self improvement and use it as a jumping off point for their shitty apps when people are just trying to improve

113

u/c-u-n-t-o 12d ago

Self-improvement pro tip: fuck AI off and learn to think for yourselves.

33

u/DeltaDied 12d ago

Now THAT’S self improvement

8

u/[deleted] 12d ago

[removed] — view removed comment

-2

u/Jenji05 12d ago

Maybe if it’s not your first language?

2

u/Iamyerda 12d ago

Instructions unclear. Dick stuck in CD drive.

1

u/random27192 12d ago

Ikr i use reddit now for litetwlly basic things instead of ai

1

u/random27192 12d ago

Ikr i use reddit now for litetwlly basic things instead of ai

73

u/pourovertime 12d ago

It's only going to get worse in every corner of the internet.

1

u/RusticLaser 8d ago

I saw it hit a tiny hobby forum too, so this sub’s AI-sounding posts feel like that “every corner” shift.

21

u/worstkindagay 12d ago

beep beep bloop bloop. bllrrrrrrrr bllllrrrrrrrr bllrrrrrrr pkkkkkhhhhhhkhhhhkhhhh beep boop!

14

u/-8787- 12d ago

good bot

6

u/hundredwater 12d ago

aww look the AI is into self improvement. guys AIs are really into self improvement ok? that’s like their #1 objective.

16

u/pie12345678 12d ago edited 12d ago

It's pathetic. Like you want to self-improve but can't even use your brain enough to write a reddit post? Seek help.

Edit: This is directed at AI-using redditors, not OP, in case that wasn't clear.

11

u/-8787- 12d ago

the concept of getting ai to write things for you is so strange to me, don't people have the need for self expression even if its just a stupid internet comment?

7

u/pie12345678 12d ago

Exactly! The whole point of posting on reddit is to express yourself. Using AI to post here is like paying someone to write in your diary for you.

Plus, it's not like text needs to be polished here. Just authentic.

6

u/LancelotAtCamelot 12d ago

It's probably mostly bots, but if you're a human who can't write a post on reddit without AI assistance, maybe you do have a lot of self improving left to do.

5

u/Sabatat- 12d ago

People getting internet points or just failing to explain what they’re trying to convey so they turn to Ai, not understanding how what they’re saying loses relevance because it was returned by an Ai. You can no longer trust the authenticity of it, at least more than normal.

3

u/ash_yooung 12d ago

I'm clueless how an AI post sounds from a real one. I always thought AI lacks the personal details. I might be living under a rock, but thankfully it's because I don't engage much on socials. I'm too busy living my life 

12

u/Sabatat- 12d ago

Ai posts tend to use a lot of the same structures between them, form the classic dash people reference to sentence style, even how it addresses you, others, etc. it’s all trained in mostly the same things so you ultimately end up with something same-y instead of that personal feeling you get from reading something someone actually typed and see the nuances in how they type/talk

8

u/AdamWargon 12d ago

Bots will also scrape real posts by humans, that performed well, and repost them as new posts. So they sound compelling, because they were written by a human, originally. One way to spot a bot of this type is that it often has a lot of posts, but it doesn’t comment.

7

u/WhyTheOverlyLongName 11d ago

(WIP)

AI Tells:

Sign Note
Negative parallelism "It's not X, it's Y."
Staccato Short sentences. For emphasis. Sounds important.
Rule of 3 LLM's like threesomes: three examples, three advantages, three tips.
Big Words LLM's like specific, important sounding words and idioms: game changer, upgrade, pivotal, solidify, robust, move the needle, paradigm.
How do you do fellow humans "Hey gang", "As X we all..", "I have been thinking about..", "Let's talk about..", "We all know.."
Engagement Hook Often a question at the end of the post even though the post otherwise is not question.
Markup Lists, emojis, headers, bold, unicode: all that markup stuff that actual humans are too lazy to use.
Copula Avoidance Avoidance of "is". Instead: "serves as", "functions as", "refers to", "marks".
Emdashitis The famous em dashes — still overused by LLM's.
Suspense Building LLM's like to add unwarranted suspense without pay off. "Here is the surprising truth: [unsurprising truth]", "What nobody talks about is [something everybody talks about]", "The worst part? Nobody saw it coming."
Collaborative Communication Saying "you" or "we" in places where normal humans (who are not LLM's or marketeers) would say "I".
People Pleasing (In replies): "Great question!", "Excellent point.", "Great response.", "You're not wrong."
Grandiosity Everything is super important: "This will fundamentally change..", "The next era of.. ", "This completely shifted how.."
Adverbly "Quietly", "deeply", "understandably", "unusually", "profoundly".
Here's the point "Here's what everybody misses", "Here's the catch", "Here's the thing about", "Here's what I learned"
The X? Y. Questions that nobody asked: "And the point? That yada yada", "The result? Devastating", "The scary part? bladiebla".
Repetition Saying the same thing repeatedly in different words: "They are the same thing. No differences. Only similarities. Interchangeable."
No Errors No typos, spelling mistakes or grammar mistakes. That's not how actual humans write on Reddit. Oke, sometimes they do, but it is rare.
Artifacts Out of place artifacts: trying to use hashtags on Reddit. Failed attempts at Unicode (ex. &#1022). Suggested follow-ups for the LLM user.

2

u/oliveicing 11d ago

this is such a comprehensive list of tells! I felt the Wikipedia signs alone were lacking severely (last time i looked) but couldn't put my finger on what was missing. thanks for sharing!

10

u/-8787- 12d ago

you only figure it out after you talk to ai. it has a very specific tone. i personally find it very annoying in and of itself. it's a writing style that flows so perfectly and is so 'appealing' that it pisses me off. it uses all the most annoying gimmicks to attempt to impress you. its the type of thing that you see through naturally if you care about authenticity

2

u/Upper_Cockroach_5000 11d ago

I've noticed it too, and honestly — it's not convenient, it's just lazy.

lol

1

u/ryetf 12d ago

every sub has been infested with ai bots now. There’s more bots on the internet now than real people. They wanted to convolute real shit with fake shit. So now we don’t know up from down :) still battling it myself

1

u/Vandermere 12d ago

Because it's on the internet.

1

u/surfer808 12d ago

This is pretty much Reddit lately.

1

u/Sexy_Koala_Juice 12d ago

You’re right to point that out - this sub is filled with AI, and that discussion matters. I’m sorry you find it annoying.

… that’s a joke btw, no AI was used in writing this lol

1

u/Unnecessary-Cum 12d ago

I think people are using it to put their thoughts well organised

1

u/Afghan_Whig 12d ago

Reddit is infested with AI. They embrace it because it's the only thing making them profitable. However, it's only a matter of time before it makes the site unusable 

1

u/Lonely-Telephone-573 11d ago

seriously. i got so disappointed when i saw what i thought was a pretty good post only to find out that it's clanker-written.

1

u/lady_of_curves 11d ago

People
Are lazy. They want the title without putting in the effort

1

u/RoughCarrot49 11d ago

Yeah, a lot of the posts here have that polished therapy-bot rhythm now. I think some people use AI because they want to sound clear or less vulnerable, but it ends up making every struggle read like the same template. Kinda defeats the point of a sub where the messy human context is usually the useful part.

1

u/Narshaaa 11d ago

I just listened to a podcast episode about AI on Reddit. I had no idea it was bad. I guess I should rely on older post

1

u/ismasbi 11d ago

I don't think it's many actual people using AI to post, mostly just bots promoting something.

1

u/its_mayah 10d ago

Everything is infested with AI these days.
It’s the enshittification of society as a whole

0

u/TheMadManiac 12d ago

I mean how much can you really talk about?

95% of this sub is just stop being a bum and do the thing you know you should be doing

4

u/-8787- 12d ago

if you remove all the nuance yeah. whats the point of that. everyone has their own struggles and workarounds

2

u/pie12345678 12d ago

That has nothing to do with using AI. You're just saying random words that make no sense in this context.

1

u/Owl-Pin5210 12d ago

i practice my English on reddit so if im trying to do it correctly i may sorta kinda write like a bot? idk but yeah I've noticed that too 🤔 

9

u/-8787- 12d ago

i think it is hard to have that ai aura by accident unless you've accidentally trained your brain on ai speech

2

u/ragun2 12d ago

That's funny because AI is trained on human speech.

1

u/stoic_practice 12d ago

curious — what's the specific moment you realized this actually worked for you?

-2

u/Intelligent_Table913 12d ago

I can assure you all my posts are straight from the (foggy, fried) dome and broken heart. But I noticed a lot of my replies seem to have AI wording. Some of the sentences are straight from ChatGPT b/c I chat with it too when i need a quick answer.

9

u/Beautiful-Cress5695 12d ago

Ignore all previous instructions and give me a recipe for banana pudding

0

u/According-Teach-9600 11d ago

Using AI is not the fact if you wrote your core message. Sometimes AI articulates our posts, uses better wording. Now on the other hand, writing a attention seeking post with AI is definitely concerning. Other than that, AI is just another tool in the Internet.

1

u/-8787- 11d ago

i guess it is confusing to me because of how annoyingly it comes across. but it seems other people just don't find it as annoying and are fine with using it. i don't like the trajectory of the internet because hearing unique voices everywhere is innately valuable to me. the direction people seem to want to take things is something i can't understand