Inaccurate AI content overwhelms Stack Overflow content moderation

Occurred: June 2023

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Content moderators at software development community Stack Overflow (SO) have gone on strike in protest against the company's new AI policy, which allows GPT-generated content on the site. 

The tendency for ChatGPT and other chatbots to plagiarise and generate inaccurate but plausible-looking information concerns SO moderators, who worry it will overwhelm the site, confuse users, and damage its business and reputation. 

SO moderators, many of whom are volunteers, also took issue with the company's new policy, which they felt was misleading and said different things in public and private. They also called out that they had not been consulted about it. 

SO had implemented a temporary ban on ChatGPT in December 2022, saying the 'posting of answers created by ChatGPT is substantially harmful to the site and to users who are asking and looking for correct answers.'

Operator: OpenAI
Developer: OpenAI

Country: USA; Global

Sector: Technology

Purpose: Generate information, communication

Technology: Chatbot; NLP/text analysis; Neural network; Deep learning; Machine learning
Issue: Accuracy/reliability

Transparency: Governance; Black box

Page info
Type: Incident
Published: June 2023
Last updated: November 2023