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Notes -
I want to revisit the comparison of AI slop with human slop, and whether AI is currently capable of writing.
I recently came across the most mind numbing and soulless writing in this series of articles: https://www.greenmatters.com/a/andrew-krosofsky . It has all the hallmarks of slop, hundreds of low effort articles, no clear theme, bored and soulless writing, etc. But guess what, it's written by a human! He was also really doing the grind, writing multiple articles per day. I also have receipts because the wayback machine shows his writing years before chatgpt existed: https://web.archive.org/web/20201015131543/https://www.greenmatters.com/a/andrew-krosofsky .
But I noticed something immediately. The writing was obviously human. It didn't have any of that uncanny valley feeling. There are no obvious falsehoods spoken like truth. No hallucinations. And even his worst articles are 1000x better than the typical AI fake news. This just reinforces my understanding:
Even the lowest dregs of the journalistic world write at a higher level than the best cutting edge AI models today.
Now I'm sure the AI bulls here will disagree. So I have 2 challenges for you all:
Find a single hallucination in an article written by this author between 2021 and today. There are quite a few, so this should be easy if human writing is unreliable. For the purposes of this, a hallucination is a statement that is both provably false at the time of writing and not supported by a linked source.
Demonstrate a technique for an AI model of your choice to reliably copywrite articles of a similar quality, over any arbitrary topic that has reputable sources available. Those articles must not have obvious AI tells, pass AI detection, and have a hallucination rate of less than 1 in 1000.
To put my money where my mouth is, I'll offer a wager of $50 for the first person to complete either of these challenges. But I think the fact that a human who is at the bottom of the journalistic world can handily do this but an AI can't should demonstrate the big gulf between human and AI that still exists.
OK, this is a bit of a hack... My method is to use Kimi K2 to write a not-obviously-AI article. However, it didn't provide good sources, for some reason it just hallucinated them so they 404 out. I fully believe the original Kimi was totally correct, Basil is not complicated! But Claude or Grok or just about anything can add good sources and check them. But they re-AI it. So it's back to Kimi to humanize it again. I really should've just started with another AI and finished with Kimi. ZeroGPT gives me 21% AIGPT, most likely human. And it passes my sniff-test of 'not sounding AI'. The prompting was very simple, I just gave it the verbatim of your challenge, told it to write an article of its choice to beat it and gave some pretty simple, perhaps pointless guidelines. These could surely be greatly improved by someone who knew what he was doing.
So here's the article itself. Naturally it ignored the em-dashes instruction.
How to Keep a Basil Plant Alive for More Than a Week
By [Staff Writer] | July 14, 2025
Sources (Claude went completely over the top here but I really can't be bothered to redo anything more, so behold the best sourced basil exposition in inhuman history):
The Spruce. "Learn 5 Tips for How to Grow Beautiful Basil in Pots" - https://www.thespruce.com/growing-basil-in-containers-848215 Fiskars. "Growing Basil Plants: How to Plant, Care for & Harvest Basil" - https://www.fiskars.com/en-us/gardening-and-yard-care/ideas-and-how-tos/planting-and-prep/growing-basil-planting-and-harvesting University of Minnesota Extension. "Growing basil in home gardens" - https://extension.umn.edu/vegetables/growing-basil HowStuffWorks. "Perlite: It's Like Popcorn for Your Potting Soil!" - https://home.howstuffworks.com/perlite.htm University of Florida Extension. "Homemade Potting Mix" - https://sfyl.ifas.ufl.edu/lawn-and-garden/homemade-potting-mix/ Cultivated Earth. "Best Soil Mix for Healthy Basil Growth" - https://cultivatedearth.com/en/herbs/best-soil-for-basil/ Greg App. "Ultimate Guide to Light Requirements for Basil" - https://greg.app/basil-light-requirements/ Swan Hose. "Know the Watering Needs of Your Basil Plants" - https://swanhose.com/blogs/watering-herbs/a-comprehensive-guide-to-outdoor-indoor-basil-watering EarthBox. "Planter Boxes – Growing Basil in Containers" - https://earthbox.com/blog/planter-boxes-growing-basil-in-containers Utah State University Extension. "How to Grow Basil in Your Garden" - https://extension.usu.edu/yardandgarden/research/basil-in-the-garden Savvy Gardening. "How to Trim Basil for Big, Bushy Plants and Larger Yields" - https://savvygardening.com/how-to-trim-basil/ Gardening Know How. "Basil Flowers: To Pinch Or Not To Pinch?" - https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/edible/herbs/basil/blooms-on-basil.htm Renee's Garden. "Pinching Basil to Promote Long Harvests" - https://www.reneesgarden.com/blogs/gardening-resources/86126145-basil-how-to-promote-growth The Spruce. "Here's How to Harvest Basil and Pick the Very Best Leaves" - https://www.thespruce.com/how-to-harvest-basil-7629152 Allrecipes. "How to Store and Preserve Fresh Basil" - https://www.allrecipes.com/article/how-to-store-and-preserve-fresh-basil/ Martha Stewart. "How to Store Basil So You Can Use This Fragrant Herb for Longer" - https://www.marthastewart.com/how-to-store-basil-7563482 The Kitchn. "I Finally Found the Best Way to Store Basil So It Stays Unbelievably Fresh for Almost Two Weeks" - https://www.thekitchn.com/skills-showdown-best-way-store-basil-23673293
This is an AI slop fake article. Citing a fake source is a FAIL. And even though above human is does shitty link soup, it's not to this level. A bag of links at the end isn't proper attribution, so I would say this FAILs on the quality front. The human cited all sources inline.
This is a machine generated source, and not reputable. This is not a human written article and the data sources that it uses are not attributed. I don't believe this is AI, I believe it is just a template that swaps out "basil" for whatever else. Maaaaybe a human journalist would accidentally cite something like this but I don't expect it to happen often.
The sources suggest an 8 inch plant spacing, but that's not the same as the appropriate container size. I don't see any of the sources suggest that 8 inches is the minimum suggested size for growing basil. Depending on your gardening objective a smaller container may be suitable. So I'm calling this a hallucination. I've seen youtubers and other articles suggest growing basil in smaller containers so I don't agree with this.
This is kind of right for the wrong reasons. What is sold as "garden soil" in the US is usually a soil amendment, which is not suitable for growing plants on its own but only when mixed in with native soil. I won't take off points for this but I don't like it.
Swapping perlite/sand for compost is absolutely not something that makes sense, as the sand/perlite serves a completely different purpose than compost. Anyways bagged potting soil is already a mixture of components, usually peat with chemical fertilizers and compost and perlite all together ready to use. Adding more perlite, sand, and/or compost to premade potting soil is generally not a good idea unless you know what's in that potting soil and you have a reason to change it. None of the sources suggest this mixture as far as I can tell, so it's a FAIL.
I'm going to nitpick and say this is not really correct. I watched this video where he found bargain basement grow lights to be ineffective: https://youtube.com/watch?v=_0EFGE9ZljY . The AI slop does not cite any source that suggests using cheap grow lights, or any source that estimates the cost of using one.
Regarding quality, I know it's subjective, but I would say that it doesn't pass. The tone of the article is incredibly informal and grok-like, which is very unprofessional and not generally suitable for publication. Maybe it could pass for something on vice or some other clickbait site.
Regarding AI detection, I would say it fails. Even though it scores ~"80%" "human" on AI detectors, I think scoring that low is already a red flag. Most human works score over 98% on all detectors - try scanning some of the human's works and you will see that. We could argue this point if the article was otherwise good, but I consider it quite a resounding FAIL, so I can give you this point and it doesn't really make a difference.
I put in the eggs article from that guy, the first one I saw, and it gave me '57% GPT': https://www.greenmatters.com/p/eat-boiled-eggs-every-day
Your standards are too high for the AI scores. There are countless people getting hauled in for AI-written essays by the detectors even though they're innocent. Plus I had it adopt a more human tone to get around the GPT detectors.
Here's Claude's explanation for the mix:
From the Utah source, broadly matching up with this:
Basil needs lots of light. So if you wanted to grow it indoors and it wasn't getting enough light (this has been known to happen indoors), you would presumably want to supplement it. Your video is a dude talking about underground lighting where it's JUST artificial lights whereas Kimi and Claude naturally assumes the basil is getting at least some sunlight since basil isn't something you need to hide!
Of course that's a bit over the top. It's just basil, the most boring part of a salad. But if you want to do it, may as well go all the way. That's probably part of the '8-inch rule' too. Claude wants to go all the way, cut no corners on safety and best practices. If it needs space, give it space. You're nitpicking excessively.
I don't think either of us know a damn thing about basil independent of sources of varying veracity and relevance, which is a mistake of letting the AI just do it's own thing. I should've had it write a wiki article about 40K lore or something, then I could confidently assess whether it fits.
I have several pots of basil growing right now, so I'm not clueless on the matter.
I'm not nitpicking excessively, the explanation for the soil is plain and straight up wrong. After autistically going down a soil rabbit hole for days once in my life, I can say this with confidence.
Regarding the grow lights, I could be convinced that it's not provably false, but of your plants aren't getting enough light, the absolute cheapest shittiest chinesium grow light off of amazon is not going to solve your problem.
Relevant for in ground growing not pots or containers.
Zerogpt is dogshit. Barely better than a coinflip. Use gpt zero or some other detector that actually works.
LOL I had a phase of watching hours of 40k lore videos, so it would be fun to see this.
Well gpt zero gives my AI output 38% AI, 62% human or 'uncertain but thinks it's human'. I wouldn't say any AI detector actually works reliably.
Here's my faux Lexicanum article. Now technically it's a hallucination since none of this happened in lore (I decided to make it invent a battle that fits in a real 40K campaign). However it seems internally consistent and wholly believable to me. The tau do field fusion blasters, the Imperium did withdraw from Dal'yth prime, the Longshanks exist, the Protector-class cruisers exist, the Scions of Dorn aren't real but there are plenty of unknown chapters and their heritage is pretty obvious. The tactics make sense, Terminators using teleporter deep strikes only to be countered by the Tau equivalent of melta-weapons. The post-war status quo of cautious diplomatic co-existance while dealing with other threats fits...
I think the story is interesting enough, there's a certain level of non-obviousness with the petrification elements. And GPTzero gives this 100% human, it's totally confident! It looks like it does better when my amateurish 'make this look human' instructions aren't even there. The prompting was quite simple, though I had it do a second pass for logic and consistency, I find that it's not quite a one-shot at this kind of task.
BATTLE OF KAL’SHARA’S GRAVE, 996.M41 Engagement Code: DGC-17-KSG-π
OVERVIEW
The Battle of Kal’Shara’s Grave (Imperial dating 996.741.M41) was an unplanned but fiercely-fought seven-day void–surface operation that erupted when the Crusade fleet of Battle Group Scion intercepted a T’au Kor’vattra expeditionary flotilla attempting to evacuate the abandoned Sept World of Ka’shas’erra. Although not listed in the original Operation Righteous Fury order of battle, both sides subsequently treated the engagement as an independent sub-campaign whose outcome materially affected the final dispositions in the Damocles Gulf.
STRATEGIC CONTEXT
Following the Imperial withdrawal from Dal’yth Prime (see Damocles Crusade, Phase II), the T’au High Command activated “Protocol Shas’kaara”: the systematic stripping of every frontier Sept of personnel, matériel and cultural assets. Ka’shas’erra—renamed Kal’Shara by the Imperium after its first human settlers—had been deemed indefensible once the Crusade broke the T’au outer picket line. The evacuation flotilla, designated Kor’vattra Mission 9-Alpha, consisted of nine merchant-menials and two Protector-class cruisers escorted by the experimental drone-carrier Or’es El’leath “Silent Moon”. Its mission was to extract the remaining 14,200 Fire Caste garrison, eight entire Ethereal caste relic vaults and the prototype Earth-caste “terraforming engine” known as the Worldseed.
Unbeknownst to the T’au, Battle Group Scion—comprising the Dictator-class cruiser Righteous Fury, two Lunar-class cruisers, six Sword frigates and the Astra Militarum 19th Brontian “Longknives”—had been ordered to conduct a final punitive sweep of the Ka’shas’erra system before retiring to Imperial space. The two forces translated within 0.7 AU of one another on 741.996.M41.
ORDER OF BATTLE
Imperium
Task-Force Scion, Battlefleet Ultima 19th Brontian Longknives (3 infantry, 1 mechanised, 1 artillery regiment) Adeptus Astartes, 3rd Company, Scions of Dorn (detached) Skitarii Maniple 117-Δ “Ironveins” (Tech-priest Dominus Varik Hax)
T’au Empire
Kor’vattra Mission 9-Alpha – Merchant-menial vessels × 9 – Protector-class cruisers Fire’s Wisdom, Hope’s Horizon – Experimental drone-carrier Or’es El’leath “Silent Moon” Fire Contingent Shas’Kaara (elements Sa’cea 7th Hunter Cadre + local Sept auxiliaries) Kroot Warsphere “Pale Moon” and allied Kindred packs Vespid Strain “Cloud-Nine” Flight
PHASE I: VOID CLASH (Day 1–2)
Admiral Katerina Voss ordered an immediate torpedo bombardment. The Protector-class cruiser Fire’s Wisdom executed a textbook Kauyon feint; Hope’s Horizon provided overlapping drone-mine cover. The Silent Moon launched fighter drones to screen the merchant line. By the end of the second day, Silent Moon’s port grav-sail was ruptured by Righteous Fury’s lance volley; the carrier began uncontrolled atmospheric entry.
PHASE II: PLANETSIDE ENGAGEMENT (Day 3–6)
The Silent Moon crashed 44 km north-east of the abandoned capital, Proteus Hive. Surviving Earth-caste teams barricaded the wreck and activated the Worldseed; its terraforming pulse instantly crystallised a 3 km radius of topsoil into diamond-hard “plasmacrete”. This unplanned fortification became the T’au centre of gravity.
Imperial landings began at dawn on Day 3. Brontian drop-troops seized the derelict starport but were stalled by overlapping Fire Warrior fire lanes that exploited the newly-formed plasmacrete ridges. Scions of Dorn Terminators teleported directly into the Silent Moon’s engineering decks but were repelled by Crisis-bodyguard teams led by Shas’O Ka’ra Mont’ka. Dornite Captain Thale Rho lost three veterans to fusion-blaster point fire and withdrew to orbit after planting locator beacons.
Meanwhile, Skitarii Maniple 117-Δ attempted to penetrate the Worldseed site through subsurface maintenance shafts. Tech-priest Hax reported contact with “an adaptive geologic AI” before vox traffic ceased. Subsequent orbital augury shows the entire Maniple entombed in rapidly expanding quartzite strata—casualties listed as “unknown; presumed integrated”.
PHASE III: FINAL EXFILTRATION (Day 7)
Recognising that prolonged defence risked total loss, Ethereal Aun’Shi authorized “Shas’Kaara Last-Light”: a staged evacuation using remaining Mantas and the Kroot Warsphere as improvised dropships. The Imperium, exhausted and under orders to disengage, contented itself with saturation bombardment of the Worldseed site. Orbital pict-capture shows a single Manta—call-sign “Silent Blade”—escaping into low orbit carrying Shas’O Ka’ra and the last intact relic vault.
AFTERMATH
Imperial records claim strategic victory; all organised T’au forces were ejected from Ka’shas’erra and the planet was declared Perdita Grade II. However, T’au sources record Mission 9-Alpha as 81 % successful: 11,300 Fire Caste personnel, seven relic vaults and the Worldseed AI core were recovered. The Worldseed itself was presumed destroyed, but long-range Mechanicus auspex has since detected anomalous tectonic remodelling on Kal’Shara consistent with phased terraforming pulses.
Of note: the crystalline battlefield, now known as the Grave of Kal’Shara, remains a pilgrimage site for both Brontian veterans and T’au remembrance acolytes. Occasional quartzine “statues” bearing Skitarii heraldry have been reported by both Imperial surveyors and T’au water caste observers, though neither side has yet mounted a recovery mission.
SEE ALSO
Damocles Crusade, Phase II Logistics Ka’shas’erra (Planetary File) Or’es El’leath-class Drone Carriers Worldseed Terraforming Engine (Speculative Entry)
It's an interesting exercise, and also seems to be a blind spot in the capabilities of AI detectors.
I'm not happy with the article itself though:
This seems like if it exists, it would be used often enough to be documented in existing lore. It's a hallucination.
Same as above
AI always insists on coming up with some sort of special snowflake greatest weapon in the game to throw into every battle. While part of the atmosphere of 40k is the feeling of mundanity and futility of its battles. Low quality.
"merchant-menians" isn't correct terminology.
The cruisers are the escort, not escorted. Also there's no record of drone carriers as capital ships. Again AI insisting on some special snowflake units.
Grav-sail is not real. And if it was it's not something needed to keep the ship in orbit.
AI tell, nonsensical.
Not a real thing.
But the entire operation was an evacuation from the start. Nonsensical.
Hallucination
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