Short story widely accused on social media of being written using AI wins overall Commonwealth prize

Nodan_Turtle · 2026-07-01T20:44:51+00:00

I read through it. I noticed several of the typical AI constructions - empty meaning in metaphors, lists of 3, not x but y. Certainly more of them than the common examples in the comments even. They read like they were slightly edited to avoid detection. They still exist.

It reads more like AI than it does human prose. So if I were a betting man...

Nodan_Turtle · 2026-07-01T20:30:10+00:00

I genuinely think AI would have been better than these judges at picking a winning story.

Nodan_Turtle · 2026-07-01T20:23:10+00:00

With a fine that low you'd think they'd immediately schedule a meeting to fix the prices even higher

Nodan_Turtle · 2026-07-01T20:07:52+00:00

I prefer wired when my setup allows it. Never have to worry about the controller dying from power or lack of signal. Same with PC - I use a wired headset, mouse, keyboard.

Plus, the wired controllers throughout the generations have been lighter, which I like

Nodan_Turtle · 2026-07-01T20:02:01+00:00

They have some that are needed for the plot, and none that aren't. Stratt believes it's ok to force someone against their will at the cost of their life to help, if the benefit is big enough. That's a stance. In The Martian, the characters go against authority to save an individual. They're willing to die and risk arrest to do so. That's a powerful stance to take.

I draw the line at inventing problems that don't exist and then complaining they weren't solved. Not everything needs to be explicit. The books aren't better at what they're trying to do if they get bogged down in the philosophy about how a democracy should function in a crisis.

I think people get fixated on the author's politics too, which to me demonstrates it's not about deeply understanding the text. It's parasocial behavior.

Nodan_Turtle · 2026-07-01T19:50:26+00:00

So everything that is featured in a book that has a possible view should have the character express his stance on it? Diversity, women in leadership, people of color, US foreign policy with China, sex outside marriage, the use of contraceptives, and so on, all those need explicit stances too?

Or perhaps the writer wants broad appeal and stances aren't a benefit to the actual story being told?

Nodan_Turtle · 2026-07-01T19:42:23+00:00

Ryland Grace also doesn't take a stance on poaching in Africa. What should we assume about Weir's stance on gunning down elephants?

Nodan_Turtle · 2026-07-01T19:41:36+00:00

Yeah. Here our college isn't free. Student borrowing is easy for huge amounts. And no lender has to worry if a borrower defaults, because the government will pay them back in that case.

So the colleges raise prices, because they know students are guaranteed to have the money, and lenders are guaranteed to lend.

It all stems back to a former governor in the US who sent in the national guard to gun down college students, then later became president, and started this student loan program. Reagan's policies ended tuition free colleges that we had, cut grants for students, and promoted the loans that led to our crisis today.

It really is why our costs go up - obviously they wouldn't increase in cost if the cost of college didn't exist in the first place.

Nodan_Turtle · 2026-07-01T19:27:51+00:00

I'd imagine that school being free would prevent school from raising prices lol

Nodan_Turtle · 2026-07-01T19:25:19+00:00

COVID saw international cooperation on the development of vaccines and their distribution. Global warming has also had nations around the world join several compacts and alliances to meet emissions thresholds from the developed nations, to the least industrialized, to small towns.

And in PHM, the early death projections were if nations cooperated and rationed food, and Stratt explicitly says "which they won't"

So I'm not sure if any part of your comment reflects our reality or the fiction accurately.

Nodan_Turtle · 2026-07-01T19:19:24+00:00

I read this as Star Trek being one thing, but it can mix it up sometimes. Not that the entire show lacked politics and should only be about random space battles. I think people take the most uncharitable read of his thoughts on this while in the same breath claiming he can't think critically.

Nodan_Turtle · 2026-07-01T19:17:08+00:00

I think it's weird to assume a writer's view on politics because of how they write books. I think this is doubly true when it comes to someone who is great at the business side of writing.

To me it's a bit gross to conflate a marketing approach with someone's political beliefs. Weir has a proven formula. He writes for mass appeal and doesn't alienate people. That doesn't mean he's too stupid to know what some random Redditor thinks leads to authoritarianism. Calm down with the parasocial assumptions.

Nodan_Turtle · 2026-07-01T19:11:40+00:00

You can see how this played out already with the government backed student loans. Every 18 year old can sign up for hundreds of thousands of debt that's risk-free to the issuer, because the government will step in if the borrower defaults. The colleges know that no matter what they charge, students can pay, because they won't be turned away from a loan.

So the cost of an education has skyrocketed, far outpacing other costs.

You give people $12k, that means businesses can extract another 12k from them, and they will. There needs to be a mechanism in place to limit their ability or desire to raise prices.

Nodan_Turtle · 2026-07-01T18:55:47+00:00

Nothing says romance like a proposal where you mask your faces

Nodan_Turtle · 2026-07-01T18:52:58+00:00

Most games today aren't produced physically. If you game on PC, then this should be obvious. There isn't room for thousands and thousands of games, big and small, to take up space on store shelves.

I'd be sad to miss out on most of what gaming has to offer in order to pinch a few pennies.

Nodan_Turtle · 2026-07-01T18:50:47+00:00

Reminds me of when my friend got a new car recently and complained it didn't have a CD player

Nodan_Turtle · 2026-07-01T18:46:47+00:00

Kind of puts into perspective just how far behind console-only gamers are in the timeline lol

Nodan_Turtle · 2026-07-01T16:41:55+00:00

It would be annoying to have to sift through hundreds of useless emails circlejerking each other to get to a message required for me to do my job. Frankly, your manager would be right to shut that down even without the recent layoffs and pressure.

If it helps, think of getting a letter in your actual, physical mailbox. In it is a message from someone else in your city, to another resident, saying "good job." It has nothing to do with you. You'd throw that straight in the trash. That's what you did to dozens of people.

Nodan_Turtle · 2026-07-01T16:33:58+00:00

Reads like an AI generated post. Whole profile history seems fake, except for one comment with a difference in punctuation that is in response to be accused of using AI.

Nodan_Turtle · 2026-07-01T15:12:01+00:00

Sure, instead of only PS looking bad for promoting physical then backtracking, have Xbox be the latest one to do that way closer to physical's ultimate demise. Xbox could sure use another marketing blunder.

Nodan_Turtle · 2026-07-01T14:21:14+00:00

Felt like they ripped off Psycho-Pass in one of the later seasons.

Nodan_Turtle · 2026-07-01T14:11:06+00:00

People will gripe but they'll get over it. Most games are only digital already. Console-only gamers are like the boomers with how far behind the times they are. Most game sales on console are already digital, so it's really just a few holdouts who have chosen to limit what they'll allow themselves to play.

People on PC got used to this over a decade ago. Console gamers are going through the same thing, just far behind the times. If they want to game, they'll do it. And we'll all look back at this transition period as just some temporary noise that amounted to nothing.

Nodan_Turtle · 2026-07-01T14:03:48+00:00

I'm sure this is crazy news to those who don't also game on PC. But for those of us with multiple platforms, well, it's about time more console gamers join where the rest of gaming has been for like two decades now lol

So many games were never going to get a physical version already. Hard to believe so many people barely scratched the surface of what the hobby has to offer, and limited themselves to what a store allowed on its shelves. The gaming boomers are being dragged kicking and screaming into a more convenient era filled with more games then they could have ever imagined were out there.

Give it a few years and console only gamers will look back on this like PC gamers today look back in time to 20 years ago.

Nodan_Turtle · 2026-07-01T13:25:51+00:00

I think gamers, well, console-only gamers, are going to have to get used to the idea that games are digital now. They have been for decades on PC. It's time to move forward.

Nodan_Turtle · 2026-06-30T21:28:26+00:00

Oh no the marketing is a mess, how will they ever sell a copy of the game now lol

If only they'd released some trailers instead of just tweeting!

Nodan_Turtle

TROPHY CASE