Wikipedia talk:Large language models/Archive 6

The following discussion is an archived record of a request for comment. Please do not modify it. No further edits should be made to this discussion. A summary of the conclusions reached follows.

Should this proposal in its current form be promoted into policy status?

• Option 1 Promote to policy, preferably to a policy but if not at least to a guideline?
• Option 2 Promote to guideline
• Option 3 Do not promote

Ca ^{talk to me!} 00:15, 27 August 2023 (UTC) ; modified 15:30, 27 August 2023 (UTC)

Survey

Option 2, I am against the use of LLMs but such proposal on this is highly necessary, and overreliance on such models can degrade the quality of articles of people who use LLMs are not bothered to review their LLM contributions. We cannot stop usage of LLMs due to it being difficult to detect, but this proposal definitely pushes the factor that all contributions with LLMs must be properly reviewed before being published. — Karnataka ^talk 00:04, 28 August 2023 (UTC)

For the mild increase in ease for those who got here via cent: direct link to proposed policy text Nosebagbear (talk)

• Question How does one identify LLM generated text? Without a reliable way to identify it, there is no way to enforce guidance or policy that would be fair or unbiased. · · · Peter Southwood ^(talk): 02:44, 27 August 2023 (UTC)

  There is no bullet-proof way but various indications can be used. We may assume that many (but not all) editors are honest and tell you if you ask them. There are some obvious phrases used in LLM responses, like "As an AI language model,...". Other indications come from editing behavior. If a new editor adds long and in-depth sections to a series of unrelated articles faster than other editors can read through them, this would raise eyebrows. There are certain content problems associated particularly with LLM output, like making up fake references or historical events. If many edits of an editor showed these problems, that could be used as one indication. There are some automatic AI detectors but they are very unreliable and can probably not used.

  In the end, it would probably be similar to policies covering the usage of multiple accounts: there are various signs that can be used to identify potential policy violations but no absolutely certain procedure that works in all cases. It would have to be decided on a case-by-case basis. If a case is based only on ambiguous indications, there would have to be a lot of strong evidence before sanctioning someone. Phlsph7 (talk) 09:15, 27 August 2023 (UTC)

  Agreed. To add:

  • See e.g. here for a good recent overview on how these detectors are extremely unreliable. (And likely to become even less reliable in the future as LLMs continue to improve. An exception might be if OpenAI and others follow through with adding watermarking to e.g. ChatGPT-generated text.)
  • To expand on the fake references point: Citation issues are probably one of the most effective ways of spotting problematic ChatGPT-generated content currently. This can manifest in both made-up sources (citations to publications that don't exist) and in citations where the source exists but does not support the statement they are cited for (sometimes an issue with human editors too, but no less problematic in that case). Related to TonyBallioni's point below, these should already be well-covered by existing policies and guidelines (in particular WP:INTEGRITY).

  Regards, HaeB (talk) 07:15, 28 August 2023 (UTC)

  @Pbsouthwood, I tried an automated LLM detector on content I'd written myself, and the results were pretty much a coin-flip. WhatamIdoing (talk) 19:38, 30 August 2023 (UTC)

Comment This includes everything from having ChatGPT write a new article about a living person to checking the grammar of an existing article. The former should probably be outright banned (assuming Peter’s question is addressed), while having to disclose the exact version used for the latter is overkill that waters down the seriousness of allowing LLM generated BLPs. ~ Argenti Aertheri^(Chat?) 08:28, 27 August 2023 (UTC)

Notified: centralized discussion. Ca ^{talk to me!} 09:00, 27 August 2023 (UTC)

• Don't promote. Even with all these checks and balances it's too early to allow LLMs to write articles. They're a new technology. We should start to consider allowing them after further improvements and iterations, when academic study confirms their general reliability. By the time a human editor has checked LLM generated text with enough thoroughness they could have written the article themselves.—S Marshall T/C 09:43, 27 August 2023 (UTC)

  I fully agree with your sentiment: LLMs are terrible at writing content. However, the proposal says:

  Do not publish content on Wikipedia obtained by asking LLMs to write original content or generate references. Even if such content has been heavily edited, seek other alternatives that don't use machine-generated content.

  The proposal sets out to limit exactly that - they shouldn't be used to generate articles. I am not sure where the contradiction is. Ca ^{talk to me!} 18:26, 27 August 2023 (UTC)

• Don't promote, or promote to guideline by the time LLMs can create true and factual articles on their own, they would likely be persons and considered editors in their own right. Until then, however, there does not appear to be a reliable way to sift LLM from non-LLM content except by editor content. I would support, however, the requirement to disclose LLM editing similar to paid editing. – John M Wolfson (talk • contribs) 12:34, 27 August 2023 (UTC)
  • Don't promote - Once you make something a policy it's very hard to deprecate it if it ends up being problematic, and this is still a very fresh and fast-developing topic. No objections to making it a guideline necessarily. I'd like to know what justification there is for making it either, though; I don't really see that so far. _{Duly signed,} ⛵ WaltClipper -(talk) 13:36, 27 August 2023 (UTC)

    @WaltCip Established editor Ettrig used LLMs non-constructively, and it was evident to everyone that they did so, but they did not disclose this before the fact, refused to do so after the fact, and refused to stop using them, and were indefinitely blocked with the following rationale by Canterbury Tail: You have been blocked from editing Wikipedia because your contributions are a net negative to the project. It is extremely clear you are using AI chatbots to add very poor quality edits to the project. These edits are resulting in many editors having to spend a lot more time than you spent clicking some buttons to clean up your edits. Because you are solely responsible for your edits, you are solely responsible for the time and effort you're costing other editors to bring your edits up to standard even when they are correct. This all amounts to your edits being a net negative to the project. So while you continue to make such poor quality edits, whether you use AI powered tools or not, and cost other editors time you will not be permitted to edit. This is just one in a list of incidents involving LLMs. Said block rationale encapulates this proposal, no one has objected to the block, so it seems useful to record this type of good practice on a project page with some explanatory content for those to whom things aren't very clear, for example why the edits are very poor quality edits; to many the issue is clear, but to many it isn't. The purpose of WP:PAGs is to describe best practices, clarify principles, resolve conflicts, and otherwise further our goal of creating a free, reliable encyclopedia. —Alalch E. 14:01, 27 August 2023 (UTC)

    @Alalch E.: I disagree. Consider the block rationales of WP:NOTHERE, WP:CIR, and WP:NOFUCKINGNAZIS and how frequently they are used by administrators to remove editors that most reasonable people can agree are an active, substantive detriment to the project. Those rationales I mentioned are essays. We do not need to codify anything as policy in order to use them as block rationales in the manner that you are describing. I actually think the WP:PAG page is a bit outdated in that it says that essays do not reflect established widespread consensus, and indeed, for many of our most commonly-used essays, there is a strongly held consensus in favor of them. The main resistance to promoting them is because it's unnecessary or superseded by a more generalized policy. In this case, very poor quality edits and the time and effort you're costing other editors is quite clearly a WP:DE and WP:IDHT issue. _{Duly signed,} ⛵ WaltClipper -(talk) 12:29, 28 August 2023 (UTC)

    Incidentally, you will never get a consensus to promote this if the page gets rewritten to indicate a total, sweeping ban on LLM use throughout all of Wikipedia. _{Duly signed,} ⛵ WaltClipper -(talk) 12:34, 28 August 2023 (UTC)

    The justification or motivation would be to have it regulated. Currently, there is no regulation. That means that there is no prohibition on any usages of LLMs (except for following other Wikipedia policies). So if people want to copy-paste LLM output into existing or new articles, nothing is stopping them and they don't have to declare it. It's a little bit like the Wild West. Not everything was bad about the Wild West. The question is if we want that. Phlsph7 (talk) 14:12, 27 August 2023 (UTC)

    LLMs are a very powerful swiss army knife. Typically you probably shouldn't directly copy/paste LLM output, I think fairly obviously? But I can think of many trivial exceptions where cut/pasting LLM output directly into a page would definitely not be a problem. It depends on what you're using the LLM for, and how you're using it.

    Of course with great power also comes great danger, as there's nothing stopping you from using an LLM as a footgun either.

    General guidance on how LLMs can be used effectively would be a good idea, but everyone is still out getting practice with them, and there's no real experts I don't think. Conversely, telling people not to use them would be kind of silly. It'd be like telling people calculators or computers were banned. They're already ubiquitous and useful, so of course people will use them.

    A balanced approach is needed. One that allows people to get used to these new tools and how to use them wisely.

    Kim Bruning (talk) 17:05, 27 August 2023 (UTC) "Use your brain, or I'll replace you with a very small LLM!"

    It'd be like telling people calculators or computers were banned. You have no idea how many classrooms I've attended in my young adult life where the teacher or lecturer indeed said this very thing, even for those assignments which would necessarily warrant the use of a calculator or computer. _{Duly signed,} ⛵ WaltClipper -(talk) 14:50, 28 August 2023 (UTC)

    That's a very good exercise! It's definitely good to learn to be able to do things without the computer, else how would you know what the computer is doing? I learned these things too: I grew up in a transitional time where computers were only just being introduced, so I actually still learned how to do everything without computers.

    Either way, professionally: normally if tools and equipment are available that make your work easier and faster, it's usually a good idea to use them. (be it eg computers, calculators, cranes, forklifts, powered saws, screwdrivers, robots, etc. ).

    First learn how the tools work, but then by all means: Use the tools, that's what they're for! --Kim Bruning (talk) 23:20, 29 August 2023 (UTC)

    Just to be sure, mere mortals were still doing much by hand in the 80's and 90's. --Kim Bruning (talk) 11:59, 30 August 2023 (UTC)

• It's too soon for me to know how to vote, but Phlsph7's response to Peter feels insufficient to me ... if that's the best answer anyone has to that question, then, even in the best case, making this page a policy page would have really awful consequences. But maybe someone has better data, I don't know. - Dank (push to talk) 13:49, 27 August 2023 (UTC)
• Question: If this page is marked as a failed proposal, how will this affect {{uw-ai1}} (that is in active use and I would say that editors agree that it is a useful warning template), which links to this page in order to explain to users, generally new ones, what the problem is, i.e. what Text produced by these applications is almost always unsuitable for an encyclopedia actually means. Serious question.—Alalch E. 14:09, 27 August 2023 (UTC)

  Basically the problems are so critical and numerous that they can't all fit into, and can't be stressed strongly enough, in the template itself; a separate, explanatory, page is needed. Why would not this be that page? —Alalch E. 14:11, 27 August 2023 (UTC)

  @Alalch E., there's no requirement that a page be marked as a {{failed proposal}}. Wikipedia:BOLD, revert, discuss cycle has failed proposals at least three times so far, and it's not marked as a failed proposal. WhatamIdoing (talk) 19:58, 30 August 2023 (UTC)

  I see, thanks —Alalch E. 13:33, 1 September 2023 (UTC)

You introduced a math problem by splitting those with a "promote" viewpoint into two different possibilities. May I suggest either rewording or agreeing to interpret choice #1 as "Promote, preferably to a policy but if not at least to a guideline? Sincerely, North8000 (talk) 15:21, 27 August 2023 (UTC)

I don't feel the proposed guidance should be given the status of a guideline or policy. I think its focus on a single technology makes it overly specific. I feel that community consensus will be more easily discernable by categorizing software programs/features into types based on use, and gauging community opinion on these types. isaacl (talk) 15:42, 27 August 2023 (UTC)

• Don't promote: LLMs shouldn't be used at all, in any circumstances. As S Marshall said, they're new technology. There are way to many problems, it's easier to just say "No". Edward-Woodrow :) _[talk] 16:38, 27 August 2023 (UTC)

  Like the Internet? jp×g 09:05, 1 September 2023 (UTC)

• Not ready to be promoted. A bit too premature, and rolling back stuff once it gets an official policy/guideline/essay sticker is tricky (Is there a policies for deletion process yet? :-p ). I mean, for sure, you should not take LLM output as holy writ and immediately paste it into wikipedia as such, that'd be silly. However, it can be hugely useful as a part of the complete editing process though! (I was considering using GPT-4 for translation tasks in particular, where it is vastly superior to eg. gtranslate. It obviously can't do *all* the work, but it can definitely do a lot of the boring bits.). --Kim Bruning (talk) 16:47, 27 August 2023 (UTC)

  Even for simple translations, I had instances where ChatGPT hallucinated claims not present in the untranslated text. I wouldn't use it to translate texts unless you are familiar with both languages. At least Google Translate gives a more faithful translation, at the cost of sacrificing flow and coherence. Ca ^{talk to me!} 17:28, 27 August 2023 (UTC)

  Precisely. Like many computer-assisted tools (on and off wikipedia), LLMs should not be used unsupervised. All edits should ultimately be the responsibility of a human editor who should take care and know what they are doing. But if an edit *is* the responsibility of a human, I don't see a reason not to allow it. Kim Bruning (talk) 17:51, 27 August 2023 (UTC)

  Option 2 , change to option 2 after discussion and minor edits to improve wording of the guideline.

• Option 2 with the note that this should still be considered open to serious revision and expansion. I can understand some of the concerns above people raise about LLMs, but that makes it more important that we have some sort of guidance, not less; and this discussion does roughly reflect the consensuses and practices in previous discussions. If people want to entirely ban LLMs in all contexts they should try and get consensus to rewrite this page to say that - it has been open for months, they've had plenty of time; there were plenty of other discussions where they had the opportunity to do so; and making this a guideline doesn't prevent them from rewriting it to ban them entirely in the future. But rejecting it for the current situation of "you have to read five different massive discussions to get a sense of consensus on LLMs" isn't workable, especially when the consensus of those discussions broadly doesn't even seem to reflect the objections people are raising here. At the very least, having a clearly-established guideline will provide a central place where further refinements or changes can be discussed and clearly implemented. I don't, however, think that it should be a policy, because too much of this is contextual, because things are developing too fast, and because we do want to be able to continue to update and refine it going forwards - this will be easier if we start with a guideline. Also, jumping straight from "nothing" to "policy" is a difficult ask; we can always promote this to policy in the future if things settle down and there's broader agreement (and if it turns out that it needs to have more teeth), no need to try and start there right away. But it has been months and we need to have at least some guideline; this is too important for us to have nothing at all, and nothing in this document has enough problems to justify total opposition. If the people who want a total ban on LLMs in all contexts think sufficient support exists for that position, they should have a simple up-or-down RFC on it (and ideally should have done so months ago to save us all this trouble); but otherwise, to continue to push for it now, some eight months in after five massive discussions that failed to produce enough support for it, is not a workable position to take. EDIT: Regarding the argument that our current (non-LLM-specific) policies are sufficient, which is one I made myself in one of the previous discussions when this first came up (and which I therefore feel I ought to comment on) - I think it's not entirely wrong, and is another reason for this to just be a guideline rather than a policy, but LLMs come up often enough, and have enough potential for long-term disruption if misused, that it's still useful to have a centralized page we can point people to. The ways in which the implications of our existing policies affect (and in some ways restrict) the use of LLMs might be obvious to experienced editors but won't necessarily be obvious to everyone; to the extent that this page is just a summary of what those implications mean according to the community, it is useful as a formal guideline. In general, I feel that making the implications of policy clear in cases like this is part of what guidelines are for. --Aquillion (talk) 18:01, 27 August 2023 (UTC)
• Option 2 - Guideline: This draft prohibits copy-pasted LLM-generated content while allowing potential constructive uses such as copyediting (with a strict human review requirement) which I believe addresses most of the concerns that have been raised. Even though we don't have a 100% accurate way of identifying LLM output, I see this working similarly to our paid editing policy: Good-faith editors who are aware of the rule will follow it, and those who aren't will often out themselves when asked or disclose in an edit summary. Simply having the rule in place will be valuable in handling these situations. –dlthewave ☎ 18:12, 27 August 2023 (UTC)
• Don't promote existing policies adequately cover everything in here. LLMs aren't as groundbreaking as people think. Surprisingly, when you have sound principles, they withstand technological updates. TonyBallioni (talk) 19:26, 27 August 2023 (UTC)
• Option 1 or 2. The LLM page has cooled off, and I believe it's time to promote it. Nothing's perfect the first time, we'll improve it as time goes on and when new problems arise. This is important guidance to have as we face, though I would much rather support a straight-up ban on LLMs per S Marshall. SWinxy (talk) 21:27, 27 August 2023 (UTC)
• Don't promote.I feel this page is a bit too lenient about LLM use. I feel LLMs have the potential to create low effort, high disruption articles and text, akin in perniciousness to WP:CCIs, and are therefore very dangerous due to the high amount of experienced editor effort it takes to clean them up. When their use is discovered, we should take a firm stance against it. I'd like to see a policy or guideline on LLMs that is short, pretty much bans their use, and allows for reversions and blocks to help quickly clean things up. I am also alarmed at the recent use of LLM on talk pages, such as by POV pushers, and by editors who do not want to take the time to write proper unblock requests, both of which are cases I've seen recently. –Novem Linguae (talk) 07:39, 28 August 2023 (UTC)
• Don't promote, every text initially generated or substantially rewritten by LLMs (no matter if it is subsequently edited by humans or not) should be speedy deleted, and editors warned and then blocked if they continue using this. Way too many problems, and just another example of editors preferring lazy solutions over actually doing the legwork of writing a personally sourced article (section, unblock request, ...) in your own words. Fram (talk) 12:56, 28 August 2023 (UTC)
  Example of things wrong with this proposal: "All suspected LLM output must be checked for accuracy and is assumed to be fabricated until proven otherwise. LLM models are known to falsify sources such as books, journal articles and web URLs, so be sure to first check that the referenced work actually exists. All factual claims must then be verified against the provided sources." Er, no. One it becomes clear that an edit is probably LLM-based and contains one or two examples of text not matching the sourcing, it is not necessary at all to "check all factual claims against the provided sources", the edit(s) should simply be reversed wholesale. It is not up to others (new page patrollers, recent changes patrollers, ...) to check a long LLM addition bit by bit to find out which bits may be salvageable, this work is up to the one wanting to add such content but not wanting to put in the effort. Shifting the burden of "checking all factual claims against the provided sources" to others is just not acceptable policy- or guideline-language. Fram (talk) 13:02, 28 August 2023 (UTC)

  My reading was that patrollers start with assuming the text is fabricated until proven otherwise. It's up to the original editor to ensure the text is valid. How could this best be reworded? --Kim Bruning (talk) 13:49, 28 August 2023 (UTC)

  I think you are reading this backwards: the idea is not that patrollers must read every single reference before CSDing it/etc, but that authors must do so before publishing the article. But then again, that kind of ambiguity strongly suggests issues with implementing this page as a guideline, so you are correct to object to it. jp×g 09:09, 1 September 2023 (UTC)

• Option 3 per WP:CREEP. The vast majority of the page restates longstanding guidelines, because that's all that is actually needed to oppose harmful LLM content. Even the parts that don't currently mention an existing basis in a POG could do so (e.g, unedited LLM use on talk pages). "Demoting" it to an essay would make it obvious what parts should be cut out or downsized to leave over LLM-specific advice (such as use of the ai-generated template). (Tangential: I would like to see a CSD criterion for pages that are obviously copy/pasted directly from an LLM) Mach61 (talk) 13:22, 28 August 2023 (UTC)
• Don't promote as a policy this has too much overlap; basically a policy doesn't need to say that another policy may be used for things, that other policy can already do that and if its scope is actually changing needs to be changed there (it doesn't appear that this is needed in this case). — xaosflux ^Talk 14:20, 28 August 2023 (UTC)
• Option 3 - This proposal resembles something designed by committee. Get this down to about half its current size and I might support option 2. I am against point #8: "Do not use LLMs to write your talk page or edit summary comments." This should not be an absolute prohibition. Schierbecker (talk) 05:55, 29 August 2023 (UTC)
• Options 1 and 2 are both fine. Stifle (talk) 12:38, 29 August 2023 (UTC)
• Don't promote as per TonyBallioni. --LukeSurl ^t c 13:03, 29 August 2023 (UTC)
• Option 3 – don't promote per WP:CREEP. The page explains that this class of technology is increasingly embedded in commonplace tools such as spreadsheets and word processors. Defining the exact scope of the policy would therefore be problematic. Better to remain focussed on existing policies like WP:V and WP:RS. Imaginary sources implicitly violate these already, regardless of how they were generated. Andrew🐉(talk) 19:31, 29 August 2023 (UTC)
• Option 1 We prohibit COPYVIOs and we wouldn't allow anyone to have their employee/ servant edit using the same account. It makes sense that this, too, would be a policy. If we don't take protectionist measures now, our hobby will be out-sourced and then how are you going to seek validation? Chris Troutman (talk) 20:09, 29 August 2023 (UTC)
• Promote to supplement: reading through, I don't really see much in here that isn't covered by existing core policies (V, NPOV, NOR, bot, copyright, CIR and so on), but I can see why it is useful to have somewhere explaining how these policies interact with LLM usage. Under these circumstances "supplement" seems the most appropriate description for the page. – Teratix ₵ 07:42, 31 August 2023 (UTC)

  It may be worth noting that my first draft of this page gave guidelines for LLM use that were exclusively, and explicitly, described in terms of other relevant policies. In fact, this was the whole thing: Editors who use the output of large language models (LLMs) as an aid in their editing are subject to the policies of Wikipedia, including WP:NOT, WP:NPOV, WP:C, WP:CIVIL, WP:V, and WP:RS. It is a violation of these policies to not follow these policies. This applies to all editors. LLM output should be used only by competent editors who do not indiscriminately paste LLM output into the edit window and press "publish page". jp×g 09:03, 1 September 2023 (UTC)

• Option 1 or 2. Having some basic form of regulation for problematic forms of use is better than no regulation. With no regulation, editors are free to use LLMs as they like. This may negatively affect the quality of articles. Not having a policy or a guideline to rely on makes it difficult for reviewers to react to potentially harmful LLMs-assisted edits and LLM-using editors. I see this proposal as a middle way that addresses the most problematic uses while acknowledging that there are valid uses. Teratix's idea to use the draft as a supplement would also be feasible if options 1 and 2 fail. Phlsph7 (talk) 09:34, 31 August 2023 (UTC)

  Is it really true that if we have no regulation, that editors are free to use LLMs as they like? Or is it only true that editors would not be banned from using LLMs in ways that are indistinguishable from an editor working manually?

  If this doesn't get accepted, both human-based edits and LLM-based edits will still have to comply with all the (thousands) of rules, like not putting false information into articles, not citing made-up sources, not creating more than 25–50 articles per day without express permission, not flooding talk pages with more text than others can reasonably be expected to read, etc. WhatamIdoing (talk) 19:31, 1 September 2023 (UTC)

  I guess we are trying to say the same thing. Currently, there are no LLM-specific regulations. So within the framework of current regulations, editors are free to use LLMs as they like. For example, they can ask an LLM to write a new section or a new article, manually add sources, and publish it. They can also use LLMs to argue for them on talk page content disputes or to convince an admin to lift a ban. Phlsph7 (talk) 17:57, 2 September 2023 (UTC)

  They can do these things – but only up until these things violate one of the other rules. You can ask an LLM to write a new section, but you have to make sure it's accurate. You can use LLMs to argue on a talk page, but you can't engage in Wikipedia:Disruptive editing or violate the Wikipedia:Talk page guidelines. LLMs don't get a free pass; even if LLMs don't get mentioned by name at all, the editor posting the LLM-generated content is still responsible for every bit of that content. The wording in WP:AWBRULES is good: "You are responsible for every edit made." WhatamIdoing (talk) 18:07, 8 September 2023 (UTC)

• Option 3 / Don't promote per TonyBallioni and xaosflux. Existing policies (which are repeated in WP:LLM itself) already cover the issues here. Some1 (talk) 23:15, 31 August 2023 (UTC)
• Do not promote, unless the 8 rules are removed. I wrote the initial version of this draft, and was involved for some time with the process of building it; in the last few months it has grown into something gigantic and unwieldly. For example, an entire set of rules from different proposals have been lumped into it. Specifically, the rules in the "basic guidance" section seem arbitrary — they're not really supported or explained by the rest of the text in the page. Moreover, the way it's written seems like an attempt to sound stern rather than an attempt to write a policy. For example, the phrase The use of Wikipedia for experiments or trials is forbidden is simply not true, we have a gigantic number of experiments and trials running in mainspace at any given time. What I proposed a few months ago was that someone make a vastly trimmed version of this and then propose that as a policy, which I had been intending to do for a while -- this RfC somewhat complicates the issue. What we have is a decent essay, and might even make a decent guideline, if not for the fact that it starts out with eight arbitrary rules (added from a different proposal) that aren't supported by the rest of the text and don't seem like they make a very reasonable or good policy. These are too strict in situations where the use of LLMs cause no problems, and they are not strict enough in situations where they cause huge problems. jp×g 09:03, 1 September 2023 (UTC)
• Option 3 (do not promote). This is a confused mess of vague guidelines, attempts at rules, background information, and repetition of other policies and guidelines. Thryduulf (talk) 11:32, 1 September 2023 (UTC)
• Don't promote for now, as it could use some improvements, and most rules already cover it. After improving the page, and LLMs really become a problem, I would say promote to guideline. ~~2NumForIce (^speak|_edits) 21:03, 1 September 2023 (UTC)
• Don't promote with a second choice of promote to guideline. This doesn't feel at all like policy, so to me that's out. And while I view LLMs as a threat to the reliability of Wikipedia (they can do do a fine job creating bogus articles that look good with low effort), I think the general theme is "you are responsible for what you write" and I don't see how we can enforce something like this. I do think we need some kind of a guideline, I'm just not sure this is it. Hobit (talk) 21:24, 1 September 2023 (UTC)
• Don't promote I don't think the community has really had time to come to a consensus on this and therefore do not feel this proposed policy represents what the community as a whole wants. I'm not saying it is wrong, just too soon. My personal preference would be for a very short policy that makes it clear that you need to do so much to insure that AI-generated material is good enough that you may as well do the work yourself. I also feel that it is basically dishonest, as you are passing off work you did not generate as your own. Beeblebrox (talk) 16:39, 2 September 2023 (UTC)
• Explanatory supplement, but not policy/guideline: I would like to see this as more than an essay to show that it has some official standing. However, the best parts of this essay are not those that aim to introduce new rules, but those that explain the application of particular rules to LLMs (e.g. that raw LLM content inherently fails verifiability). Per WP:CREEP it is ideal to minimise the number of LLM-specific rules we need to introduce. — Bilorv (talk) 18:53, 2 September 2023 (UTC
• Explanatory supplement as I agree that the page is very low on new normative substance and indeed explains existing policies and ongoing practices. I think that the "Risks and relevant policies" section is useful and makes various important points, including those concerning copyright which isn't clear to many people. It's also very natural to place a reference to the {{uw-ai1}} series of warning templates on some page, and, on the other hand, connect those templates to a page which explains the problem to new users, and it appears to me that this should be that page, so at least those two things are good. If tagged as an explanatory essay, the rule-resembling content that goes beyond what can be put on such a page would then be removed, which is fine.—Alalch E. 14:11, 3 September 2023 (UTC)
• Don't promote I know I'm likely beating the dead horse since consensus appears to be against promoting but I'm concerned that if this became policy it would be used to continually attack editors. Are you having a disagreement with an editor? Accuse them of using ChatGPT. Don't like an edit someone made? Say they used a LLM. At this point I'm satisfied that we can address LLM abuses using our current guidelines. What matters most is whether an editor is aiding or harming Wikipedia, not the tools they use.--SouthernNights (talk) 13:03, 5 September 2023 (UTC)
• Option 3. I do think that a policy regarding LLMs should exist; however, I believe that the current draft is too prohibitive on LLM use and overly pessimistic. Frostly (talk) 20:05, 5 September 2023 (UTC)
• Option 3: Do Not Promote - It's too long, it's unclear, and parts of it overlap in scope with other policies thus reinventing those wheels. The problem is the garbage that LLMs spew, when they spew garbage. We already have well-written policies to prevent and dispose of garbage. Working on an LLM policy draft is a waste of time better spent on designing the next generation of Wikipedia, collaborating with machine learning developers and working with AI tools directly to integrate AI into Wikipedia and its various interfaces and activities: searching, browsing, editing, categorizing, scripting, discussing, helping, and beyond. Keep in mind that we are in the middle of an AI technological revolution. If Wikipedia doesn't become the go to intelligent encyclopedia you can converse with in any language, then it will be obsoleted by a brand new AI encyclopedia, or AI app with encyclopedic scope, that will take Wikipedia's place as the world's encyclopedia. My guess is that this will happen within 6 years from now, perhaps in as little as 2. See: Accelerating change.    — The Transhumanist   10:32, 6 September 2023 (UTC)

  I would bet real life money against that happening. Mach61 (talk) 23:09, 11 September 2023 (UTC)

  I'll take your money now! _{Duly signed,} ⛵ WaltClipper -(talk) 12:30, 12 September 2023 (UTC)

• Reduce to three sentences and make guideline: The use of large language models (LLMs) for any task on Wikipedia is discouraged. Editors must take full responsibility for any edits they make with the assistance of LLMs. Misuse of LLMs may lead to blocks from editing and the deletion of pages as hoaxes or vandalism. -- Tamzin^{[cetacean needed]} (she|they|xe) 06:36, 7 September 2023 (UTC)

  Strongly support this 3-sentence proposal, though I'd make it a policy. DFlhb (talk) 06:43, 7 September 2023 (UTC)

  Perhaps it could be genericized slightly and become part of an existing policy. It might fit into either Wikipedia:Editing policy or Wikipedia:Bot policy. The fact is that we hold editors responsible for their edits no matter what tools they are (or aren't) using, even if they're not the ones using them. WhatamIdoing (talk) 18:13, 8 September 2023 (UTC)

  I !voted for tagging as an explanatory essay, but this would also be good. —Alalch E. 16:25, 7 September 2023 (UTC)

  I'd prefer something closer to 8-10 sentences, but this works well too. Mach61 (talk) 19:25, 8 September 2023 (UTC)

  Option 3, or use the three-sentence proposal as a guideline. I think we should broadly discourage LLMs, but recognize that they offer accessibility benefits to less verbal thinkers, and those individuals will be more well versed in the shortcomings and risks with LLMs than your average casual user. As such, the detailed proposal at this point seems like it will overfit and both allow too much not of benefit, and disallow too much of benefit. A short warning about not misusing a relatively new tool, and affirming the editor's responsibility seems like the right level of guideline here. —siroχo 20:22, 18 September 2023 (UTC

  This suggestion of Tamzin's pretty much says all that actually needs to be said. The rest is already covered by existing policy and guidance. If we keep this essay, which is fine by me, everything that is claimed as fact should be linked to the relevant policy or guidance page.· · · Peter Southwood ^(talk): 11:57, 12 October 2023 (UTC)

• Option 2 While the current form overlaps with existing policy, it provides a clear explanation of the risks of LLMs. Though recent cases of AI-generated content were already resolved with editing blocks under current policies, the appeals show that the offenders are often unable to recognize why such editing is disruptive in their focus on efficient content generation. I would suggest standardizing the disclosure statement, such as ending edit summaries with "LLM-assisted with GPT-3.5" so that such edits can be quickly sorted among user contributions. BluePenguin18 🐧 ( 💬 ) 19:12, 9 September 2023 (UTC)

  Clearly the offenders wouldn't recognize why such editing is disruptive even if WP:LLM as a policy clearly outlined explicitly why it is wrong and disruptive. As WP:CREEP itself explains, there's a recurring issue on Wikipedia in that nobody reads the directions from beginning to end; and those same editors who don't understand why LLM-assisted editing is problematic would have just as much difficulty understanding no matter what policy you cite at them. And really, if a LLM-using editor's response to being blocked is to ask ChatGPT to write their unblock rationale for them, they have problems beyond that of just using the LLM in the first place. _{Duly signed,} ⛵ WaltClipper -(talk) 16:11, 11 September 2023 (UTC)

• Option 2 - This is written as a guideline rather than a policy, which is probably as it should be. Yaris678 (talk) 19:25, 11 September 2023 (UTC)
• Option 3/don't promote not as a policy, guideline, or explanatory supplement either. The reasons have been explained in detail by other voters already, in short: Wikipedia already has way too many polices/guidelines/supplements/etc. and no new ones should be created unless it's really, really necessary; this isn't necessary, as everything there is to say in terms of rules about LLMs (which boils down to the general rules, "use reliable sources" and "don't copy and paste text from another website onto Wikipedia") is already said in other existing policies and guidelines; and I disagree with a lot of the "rules" or advice in this proposed policy/guideline. I don't really think Wikipedia needs even an essay about the dangers of LLMs anymore than it needs an essay about the dangers of word processors or thesauruses or any other writing tool. I could see maybe throwing in a sentence about copy/pasting from LLMs in WP:E and a sentence about LLMs not being an RS in WP:RS, but that's about all that's needed. Levivich (talk) 21:49, 13 September 2023 (UTC)
• Option 2. Policy is a bit scary/too early IMHO. But as a guideline, I think it is reasonable enough. There are some good points here that should be stressed as 'best practices', and I think that's what we call 'guidelines' around here anyway. --_{Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus| reply here} 08:34, 15 September 2023 (UTC)
• Option 2. Policy is too early and is somewhat WP:TOOSOON for policy. I see that there are good points here besides Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2023-09-16/News and notes where there is a section where an editor using ChatGPT gets indeffed. I am personally against using LLMs for writing Wikipedia articles, as they usually count as WP:OR and also I've seen an editor write an apology with ChatGPT. There's a good idea to make a guideline similarly to AI generated art.

  

  -- Wesoree ^{(talk·contribs)} 14:58, 18 September 2023 (UTC)
• Don't promote I was one of the contributors to this draft, and expected it to attract more contributors, maybe from WP:VPI, so that it could grow and reflect wider community views. That's not happened, and I see that as an indicator that there's insufficient interest, or insufficient consensus, to have a fleshed-out policy/guideline on LLMs. In other words, that it's too soon. I also don't like the section on "Handling suspected LLM-generated content", because raw LLM output should be removed on sight, not tagged or verified against the provided sources.

Also, we're ignoring the main threat: people misusing LLMs in ways that are hard to detect. We need machine learning tools that check our text against the cited source and detects mismatches. Meta made Side AI (available here), which is okay, but we need a more systematic equivalent, reviewing every addition, whose accuracy can be trained and improved through in-the-field use. Only AI can help us fight AI effectively. DFlhb (talk) 15:45, 18 September 2023 (UTC)

• Option 3 (don't promote). I agree with the view that our existing policies and guidelines already cover the situations described by this proposed policy. This page might serve well as a kind of {{information page}} that explains how our existing policies and guidelines apply to specific situations, but it does not need to be a policy or a guideline in and of itself. (See WP:CREEP for why the creation of unnecessary policies and guidelines may be harmful.) Mz7 (talk) 01:43, 19 September 2023 (UTC)
• Option 3 I don't want to see AI text being used here, until it's been proven elsewhere... It's hard enough to patrol what we have coming in now. AI just isn't ready for primetime yet; I suppose if you want to submit a draft article and have some way to check the sources, fine... Seems like a waste of time. Just write the article yourself. Oaktree b (talk) 20:26, 20 September 2023 (UTC)
• Option 3 I think it's inappropriate to use AI text on WP, except for some other situations like copyediting. My main concern is that it would be difficult to find the exact sources from which LLMs get their information. XtraJovial (talk • contribs) 22:06, 25 September 2023 (UTC)
• Don't promote. I don't think this is ready to be promoted to a guideline, let alone a policy. For instance, point 7 is very vaguely worded and would appear to forbid even experiments making read-only use of Wikipedia content, in total contradiction to the way our content is licensed (and would appear to prevent us from even attempting to find out what the capabilities of these systems are, such as the tests reported below in #LLM Experiment - Sources and unsourced information helper). Point 8 would appear to forbid non-native-English speakers getting any automated assistance with talk-page discussions. Point 5 is ambiguously worded: used where? Used to write the edit summary, or something else? Point 2 is advice for what people should think, not a rule about how to edit Wikipedia or how not to; it is totally unenforceable. Etc etc. Badly edited rules make for bad guidance. —David Eppstein (talk) 06:36, 30 September 2023 (UTC)
• Comment. I've requested a formal close at WP:CR —siroχo 04:35, 8 October 2023 (UTC)
• Don't promote, covered by existing policy and guidance. I am not persuaded that it will serve the intended purpose. · · · Peter Southwood ^(talk): 12:03, 12 October 2023 (UTC)

Discussion

What's the current situation? What happens if we don't promote this? A lot of people above are opposing based on the argument that it's too early to allow LLMs to used as a part of writing articles in any context, even with the requirement for specific-competence human checks. But my understanding is that the current situation is that we have no guidance and must decide on a case-by-case basis, which is not ideal either; and that this proposal would therefore tighten the (currently ad-hoc but mostly nonexistent) practices regarding LLMs. That is, my reading is that while people can reasonably argue that we should have a stricter guidance, opposing this without being able to get a consensus for something stricter would, as a practical matter, result in looser restrictions on LLMs. --Aquillion (talk) 17:39, 27 August 2023 (UTC)

If this isn't promoted the status quo is retained which means that the same decisions as those that were made in response to LLM-related incidents linked at the top of this talk page will keep being made, and the decisions have been good so far, so we're fine. There is already a good practice going on, but it isn't recorded anywhere. This proposal is intended to capture this existing good practice as well as it can (this comment is strongly related to my first comment in the RfC, so please read both). —Alalch E. 17:47, 27 August 2023 (UTC)

Starting an RFC prematurely is a great way to kill great essays. --Kim Bruning (talk) 17:52, 27 August 2023 (UTC)

It has been eight months. Discussion has long since died down. LLMs are being used now, constantly, on articles, with no real guideline or policy beyond a vague framework of consenuses from previous discussions, all of which lacked a formal close; and they're going to continue to be used in an ad-hoc manner until / unless we can agree on at least some sort of guidelines. We need something. Smaller problems can still be refined going forwards. If people oppose this on a fundamental level then they need either a clear alternative that can gain consensus (and they need to actually, you know, go through the process to demonstrate a broad consensus for that alternative), or they need a reasonably specific actionable objection that can be fixed. Without one of those things, opposition amounts to "let's not even have a guideline for LLMs and let everyone do as they will", which is not workable (and doesn't even reflect what any of the opposes above actually want!) --Aquillion (talk) 18:11, 27 August 2023 (UTC)

(and it also does not reflect on the following: how editors have been able to tell that someone is being irrational with their time through ill-advised LLM use by shifting the burden of ensuring policy compliance onto them, how recent changes patrollers have made reverts of non-compliant LLM-generated changes and posted {{uw-ai1}} warnings on user pages, how new page patrollers have been able to make a correct decision about draftifying or tagging or nominating LLM-generated pages for deletion, how administrators have so far been able to make obviously helpful and noncontroversial decisions about blocking LLM-misusers etc. All of this has been happening in real time, but many editors are not aware that it has been happening. It will keep happening irrespective of the outcome of this process; we can have a page on which these practices are recorded or we can have no such page, but it won't fundamentally change the practices) —Alalch E. 18:27, 27 August 2023 (UTC)

LLMs are being used now ... and they're going to continue to be used in an ad-hoc manner until / unless we can agree on at least some sort of guidelines. I submit to you that those people who use LLMs in a patently disruptive fashion are not going to care one way or another if there's a policy, a guideline, a Wikimedia Foundation T&C clause, or an edict from Jimbo Wales prohibiting them from using LLMs. _{Duly signed,} ⛵ WaltClipper -(talk) 14:48, 28 August 2023 (UTC)

Earlier this year I nominated a few LLM-generated articles for AfD or speedy deletion and there was quite a bit of confusion among experienced editors and admins over how to handle them. There still isn’t a lot of awareness of just how bad LLM content can be, especially the “vaguely plausible bullshit”, fabricated references and the fact that rewriting or copyediting isn’t a viable option. Even if we’re not actually making any new rules, it would be really helpful to have a page explaining how and why our existing policies apply so that we can address the issue in a consistent manner. –dlthewave ☎ 15:13, 28 August 2023 (UTC)

Yeah, I remember this: nobody wanted to expand G3 to cover fake references because they weren't obvious enough. It didn't make any sense to me, but who knows. jp×g 05:51, 1 September 2023 (UTC)

Because CSDs must be obvious. Fake references that are sufficiently obvious are already covered by G3 and/or other CSD criteria, ones that are not sufficiently are unsuitable for speedy deletion. Other policies apply in the exact same way to human and LLM-generated content - if it's so bad it can't be fixed it should be deleted, if it can be fixed it should be fixed. Thryduulf (talk) 11:36, 1 September 2023 (UTC)

Well, what I mean is this: Aluminum is harder than tungsten[1][2][3][4].

• Hoersfelder, J., et al. "Comparative Analysis of Tungsten and Aluminum Alloys for Aerospace Applications." Journal of Materials Science Advances, 2022, 45(7), 1234-1245.
• Chen, L. , et al. "Nanostructural Characterization of Tungsten-Aluminum Composite Materials." Annals of Materials Research Letters, 2023, 34(9), 789-798.
• Brown, M. R., et al. "Hardness Evaluation of Tungsten-Aluminum Alloys for High-Temperature Applications." Journal of Advanced Materials Engineering, 2021, 56(3), 567-576.
• Wang, S., et al. "Mechanical Properties and Microstructural Analysis of Tungsten and Aluminum-Based Composites." International Journal for Materials Science and Engineering, 2022, 40(8), 1123-1131.

These are "non-obvious" in that they are formatted like real citations, but "obvious" in that literally all of them are completely made up (i.e. the journals do not even exist, let alone the articles). It seems like common sense that, if you know this, it then becomes extremely obvious that it's a hoax. There's no way to fix fictitious references to fictitious journals, so I would say this is G3, but consensus disagreed. jp×g 01:24, 2 September 2023 (UTC)

CSD is, by design, explicitly only for "the most obvious cases", which means that in practice if someone disagrees in good faith that a given page meets the criterion then it does not. This is a Good Thing, because speedy deletion avoids all the usual checks against errors (made in good and bad faith). Generally if a reviewer can't verify a rationale from reading the article and/or with at most 1-2 clicks of provided links then it is not obvious enough for speedy deletion. Thryduulf (talk) 18:24, 2 September 2023 (UTC)

Considering that the outcome of this discussion is going to result in this essay being tagged as a "failed policy/guideline nomination", would it be better to suspend the outcome of the above RfC indefinitely until the wording of the page is changed in such a manner that might eventually yield a consensus to promote? Or am I thinking too bureaucratically here? It's evident that the effort to nominate this for WP:PAG was felt to be a bit rushed. _{Duly signed,} ⛵ WaltClipper -(talk) 23:27, 10 September 2023 (UTC)

There is no requirement to add “failed proposal”, see WT:BRD. Considering the amount of votes asking explicitly to convert the page to an essay, the fate of the page should be clarified after this RFC closes. Mach61 (talk) 00:51, 11 September 2023 (UTC)

Rethinking the nutshell

This page in a nutshell: Use of large language models (LLMs) must be rigorously scrutinized, and only editors with substantial prior experience in the intended task are trusted to use them constructively. Repeated LLM misuse is a form of disruptive editing.

We’re seeing a lot of !votes from editors who think the draft would allow LLM-created articles, which couldn’t be further from the truth. I think we need to change the nutshell and intro to make it very clear that LLM content generation is prohibited and editing is only allowed under certain circumstances. Of course we shouldn’t make any big changes mid-RfC, but a rewrite of the nutshell shouldn’t be a problem. –dlthewave ☎ 14:39, 28 August 2023 (UTC)

If you're rethinking the nutshell, you're essentially rethinking the essay, I would think. It sounds like a consensus needs to be reached through a separate discussion about what the page means before we even discuss an RfC, let alone its outcome. _{Duly signed,} ⛵ WaltClipper -(talk) 14:51, 28 August 2023 (UTC)

Not exactly. The nutshell is descriptive, not prescriptive; it was written to summarize an earlier version of the draft and was never updated to reflect the current body after changes were made. –dlthewave ☎ 15:27, 28 August 2023 (UTC)

How about the following as a nutshell: Do not use large language models (LLMs) to write original content or generate references. LLMs can be used for certain tasks (like copyediting, summarization, and paraphrasing) if the editor has substantial prior experience in the intended task and rigorously scrutinizes the results before publishing them. Phlsph7 (talk) 07:30, 29 August 2023 (UTC)

I like that, it's a lot better. —Alalch E. 08:45, 29 August 2023 (UTC)

That's definitely a lot better, though I still think having to disclose the version number a bit silly. ~ Argenti Aertheri^(Chat?) 09:35, 29 August 2023 (UTC)

I implemented the suggestion. I also made the version disclosure optional. Some LLM providers may not provide this information and even for the ones that do, many regular users may not know how to acquire this information. Phlsph7 (talk) 10:47, 29 August 2023 (UTC)

Thank you! Much better. –dlthewave ☎ 15:42, 29 August 2023 (UTC)

• Not sure where I need to put this (move if desirable) but deciding to reject the policy/guideline/whatever is still a decision, and in my opinion, a worse one than having a policy we don't all perfectly agree on. LLM-generated content is already being used on Wikipedia and that isn't acceptable for numerous reasons, so we need to move now on having a policy and tweak it later. Stifle (talk) 08:56, 31 August 2023 (UTC)

  PS most if not all LLM-generated content would be liable to deletion as a probable copyvio given that most LLM sources suck up a lot of stuff that's not CC-BY-SA compatible. Stifle (talk) 08:58, 31 August 2023 (UTC)

  This is not true. jp×g 09:12, 1 September 2023 (UTC)

  What part? Stifle (talk) 14:35, 5 September 2023 (UTC)

  You have created a false dilemma by stating that the only way to control LLM-generated content on Wikipedia is to have a policy implemented, however imperfect it is. It's evident that Wikipedia's policies and guidelines are already being used in order to strike down garbage or phony content. Creating a policy that does not reflect widespread consensus, on the other hand, would lead to even greater conflict between users trying to interpret something they may or may not agree with. _{Duly signed,} ⛵ WaltClipper -(talk) 16:06, 2 September 2023 (UTC)

What’s to be done?

This RFC is going to be a massive pain for whoever closes it, because while there’s an overwhelming consensus that the page shouldn’t be promoted, and a rougher consensus there should be something done with the WP:LLM page rather than just marking it as failed and archiving, it’s not clear what people want. Normally, this would just lead to a “no consensus on what to do next, status quo remains” close, but seeing as how editors have failed to get this page to a satisfactory level for most after eight months of work, I doubt anyone would be happy with anything less than a complete rework. Thoughts? Mach61 (talk) 23:25, 11 September 2023 (UTC)

(No insult intended to anyone who worked here) Mach61 (talk) 23:26, 11 September 2023 (UTC)

I think the biggest mistake was making one big page that attempts to cover everything. A better approach would be to write the actual policy/guideline as a general principle instead of a set of specific rules: Something like “LLMs may not be used to write original content in article or talk space. They may be only be used for editing tasks such as copyediting, summarizing and paraphrasing.” This could be a standalone policy or added to an existing policy page. Most of the content on this page could be retained as an explanatory supplement. –dlthewave ☎ 01:35, 12 September 2023 (UTC)

There seem to be several ways forward. A few suggestions so far were:

• make it an essay
• make it an explanatory supplement
• modify an existing policy by adding a few sentences
• make certain changes to the draft or make a new draft and propose it as a policy/guideline, for example, by
  • making it more strict
  • making it less strict
  • making it much shorter

Some of these options can be combined. For example, one could make it into an essay while at the same time adding a few sentences to an existing policy. One difficulty with any step in the direction of a policy/guideline is that the different opinions on the subject are very far apart from each other. This makes it very difficult to arrive at the high level of consensus needed for these types of changes. Phlsph7 (talk) 08:11, 12 September 2023 (UTC)

I think that we should perhaps come up with some simple one-sentence summaries, and hold an RFC on those. Once we have agreement on what the overall thrust of our guidelines should be, we can continue from there. Also, just starting as an essay (which doesn't require consensus) might be a good idea; many essays end up with the force of guidelines or even policy due to broad acceptance, and my feeling is that unless someone writes a competing essay with an alternative formulation, that is what would happen here. So turning this into an essay (and tweaking the wording a bit to make it clear it's not authoritative, as well as, when possible, more clearly citing and describe the implications of existing policy rather than trying to set it own) might be a good idea - anyone who has objections to this would then be goaded into writing down their alternatives in a concrete format, and we'll eventually end up with clear practices about LLMs; a year or two down the line we can then come back, figure out which essays have actually become supported practice, and consider either promoting them or using them as a guide for updating guideline / policy pages. This isn't ideal but the consensus isn't here and the people who say that our existing policies are at least holding at the moment are not wrong even if it makes it hard to answer LLM-specific questions. I'd rather have a guideline now but the process of essay -> common practice -> guideline or policy is well-established and is another way to eventually reach a consensus; if it's useful and functional as an essay people will use it until it's clear that it ought to be promoted, and if not someone will probably write an alternative (or we'll realize we don't need one.) --Aquillion (talk) 15:38, 13 September 2023 (UTC)