Ask HN: How do you feel about posts about GenAI taking over the HN front page?

There seem to be a lot of opinion pieces about GenAI on the front page lately. How do others feel about this?

I feel conflicted. I understand that GenAI is one of the biggest topics in tech right now. Yeah it makes sense that it gets a lot of attention. But I would find it a loss if the front page became too heavily skewed towards commentary on a single topic... more so when there are so many other technical areas worth discussing.

6 points | by blenderob 6 hours ago

5 comments

  • mikewarot 2 hours ago
    Well, it sure is a relief from all of the Rust Über alles posts. There will always be trends, this is just the latest.

    Money got expensive which is why everyone is being let go. AI is a convenient cover story to deflect attention.

  • codingdave 5 hours ago
    If a discussion about GenAI adds something new to the discussion, I think it is great. But most of them do not. Most of them are either generic posts about whether or not someone likes it, stories of someone's experiences as they learn it, or fanfiction about where they want it to go in the future. Or, at the worst, links to simplistic wrapper apps someone is trying to market.

    I would prefer that it lands in the same place as any other topic - if it is interesting, it gets traction, and if it is boring, it does not. But how to make that happen is a challenge.

  • necovek 6 hours ago
    I was thinking of making an alternative frontend to HN with GenAI stuff filtered out — using GenAI to do it, obviously (both build it and use it to filter things).

    But mostly as a social experiment to test how fed up are people with AI-in-our-face ;)

    This is what my sentiment is: there is genuinely useful stuff, but it really overwhelmes anything else and it's hard to find non-AI valuable stuff on the frontpage these days.

    [-]
    • blenderob 5 hours ago
      Thank you. It is good to know that I am not the only one feeling this way.
    • linkdd 2 hours ago
      I do apprehend this kind of ideas. It would make it easier for models to be trained to bypass that filter, making it even harder for humans to detect slop.
      [-]
      • necovek 10 minutes ago
        This is not about detecting AI generated content but detecting HN posts which mention/discuss AI.
    • Imustaskforhelp 5 hours ago
      Fun fact but I suggested it by making a Ask HN post about it nearly 2 years ago at this point:

      Ask HN: Are you interested in a Hacker News alternative which doesnt focus on AI:https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41789661 (oct 9,2024)

      I for one would be interested if you do end up making one.

      Some people have ended up making Ublock origin blocklists which block any post which mentions AI iirc.

      [-]
      • necovek 5 hours ago
        I am not surprised others had a similar idea well before me: I'd just keep it as a "lens" into HN, and not a new thing.

        As always, it's all about execution: we just need someone to do it.

        [-]
        • Imustaskforhelp 4 hours ago
          > As always, it's all about execution: we just need someone to do it.

          Agreed.

  • paulcole 1 hour ago
    I feel awesome about it!

    IMO this would be like in 1997 (or pick whatever year you think the Internet took off) asking, "How do you feel about posts about the Internet taking over the HN front page?"

  • OutrageousTea 5 hours ago
    [flagged]