[tldoc] TeXLive plans in writing the documentation: will be human or chatgpt generated text?

Carlos linguafalsa at gmail.com
Thu Jun 8 00:12:09 CEST 2023


Hello list, hello Karl:

I was just browsing the texhax archives and came across the latest
post at https://tug.org/pipermail/texhax/2023-June/026142.html
 and I noticed — aside from the few articles included in the
publication itself and which  seemed pretty interesting in addition to the
amount of academic work that was put into them — that TUG seems to
be now in cahoots with chatgpt.

As a result of this and since it seems clear to me that TUG is
promoting the use of chatgpt to look up and generate in TeX code all
sort of formulas, such as Euler's for example 

Apart from being just a shortcut to laziness which promotes entitlement
to all, including students; my question, in retrospect is: will the
documentation in the manual, with you as its main author, follow the
same steps as its parent's decisions (TUG's decisions) and perhaps
replace some/almost all/ text/writing in the manual through other
methods such as the ones exploited at large by chatgpt now (your
own included)?

Not that the transition wouldn't be noticed, if anything is obvious,
chatgpt fills that stretching long overdue gap between anyone
behind a computer with tedious and lonesome work required, with the
psychological realm of having a hologram idled by, providing due
feedback as necessary.

Far from original, this has alwyas been the unfulfilled, limited
in scope just an unrealized dream of anyone or shall I rather
say the public at large influenced mainly alongside a legion
of pseudo-scientists who have always pushed over the idea of a
supercomputer in the background writing out the dictations provided
by a human.

Coincidentally speaking and not long ago I had gone over the
amused reaction in the 70's by scientists like Weinzenbaum who after
programming just a set of tricks had made it clear to him that humans
in general were exuberantly flabbergasted by the robotized responses.
Such as a modern deity constantly sending out signals at different
intervals through our basic instincts.

Anyhow, sorry for the ramblings. 
Hopefully your manual will be written out by your own hand rather than
by an assistant in the near future. 


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