Appledog
Green Belt
In recent months, even just weeks... a subtle but unmistakable shift has occurred on this and other forums. I think I first noticed it on facebook groups. There was an increase in clearly AI generated content being passed off as real. Next I noticed longtime forum members, bloggers, etc began to exhibit unexpected changes in tone, vocabulary, and stance. Such transformations were too consistent, too sanitized, and too conveniently in tune with public knowledge to be purely coincidental.
More telling than the content shifts were the unmistakable fingerprints of machine-generated prose. AI chatbots, particularly those trained on large language models, have a signature style: the overuse of parallel structures, numbered or bulleted lists, and a preference for neutral, overly balanced statements. Here's a big one, the way they incorporate Chinese ä¸ć–‡ (ZhĹŤngwĂ©n) words, often picking a term that is not really a martial arts term ćśŻčŻ (shĂąyÇ”) and translating it as if it needed to be translated as a technical term.
This represents a deep moral failing, in fact the most common one--reaching for the far but avoiding the near. It is a form of laziness and dishonesty that these people wish to participate in conversations they clearly could otherwise not. It is a betrayal of wu de, the martial virtue of sincerity, humility, and loyalty to lineage. When one appropriates knowledge from an AI and passes it off as personal insight, they step outside the tradition of learning from a recognized master. This severing from lineage introduces grave danger. AI hallucinations, shallow interpretations, and cross-disciplinary confusion may lead to false teachings, devoid of context or embodied understanding. No chatbot can taste the sting of correction from a sifu or feel the lived rhythm of a form in one’s bones. The result of this lie is not just misrepresentation of the art—it is the dilution and eventual dissolution of the art.
This is not a trend that can be stopped. But it can, and must, be resisted. A return to the traditional values of wu de—especially loyalty to one’s sifu and respect for the lineage—is the only sure defense. Any teaching or commentary that cannot be traced to the name of a recognized master should be treated with caution. We are not here to impress or collect accolades; we are here to preserve the art. The knowledge is not lost—but if we allow it to be trampled by the churn of AI-generated speculation, it may soon be drowned beneath a tide of well-formatted nonsense. The gate must be kept, not for pride, but for the survival of meaning.
This will be my final post to this forum or to any other I am currently on. I feel that the winds have changed and that the mandate has been lost. The real learning will now take place in person. There is perhaps one thing that can help solve this, and that would be a trust system where people can 'trust' users and have a 'trust' score. Although even that can be abused. Stay safe and always remember your goals.
"Do not cry for me, for I am already dead." -Barney Gumble
More telling than the content shifts were the unmistakable fingerprints of machine-generated prose. AI chatbots, particularly those trained on large language models, have a signature style: the overuse of parallel structures, numbered or bulleted lists, and a preference for neutral, overly balanced statements. Here's a big one, the way they incorporate Chinese ä¸ć–‡ (ZhĹŤngwĂ©n) words, often picking a term that is not really a martial arts term ćśŻčŻ (shĂąyÇ”) and translating it as if it needed to be translated as a technical term.
- 术 means "technique" or "skill"
- čŻ means "language" or "word"
This represents a deep moral failing, in fact the most common one--reaching for the far but avoiding the near. It is a form of laziness and dishonesty that these people wish to participate in conversations they clearly could otherwise not. It is a betrayal of wu de, the martial virtue of sincerity, humility, and loyalty to lineage. When one appropriates knowledge from an AI and passes it off as personal insight, they step outside the tradition of learning from a recognized master. This severing from lineage introduces grave danger. AI hallucinations, shallow interpretations, and cross-disciplinary confusion may lead to false teachings, devoid of context or embodied understanding. No chatbot can taste the sting of correction from a sifu or feel the lived rhythm of a form in one’s bones. The result of this lie is not just misrepresentation of the art—it is the dilution and eventual dissolution of the art.
This is not a trend that can be stopped. But it can, and must, be resisted. A return to the traditional values of wu de—especially loyalty to one’s sifu and respect for the lineage—is the only sure defense. Any teaching or commentary that cannot be traced to the name of a recognized master should be treated with caution. We are not here to impress or collect accolades; we are here to preserve the art. The knowledge is not lost—but if we allow it to be trampled by the churn of AI-generated speculation, it may soon be drowned beneath a tide of well-formatted nonsense. The gate must be kept, not for pride, but for the survival of meaning.
This will be my final post to this forum or to any other I am currently on. I feel that the winds have changed and that the mandate has been lost. The real learning will now take place in person. There is perhaps one thing that can help solve this, and that would be a trust system where people can 'trust' users and have a 'trust' score. Although even that can be abused. Stay safe and always remember your goals.
"Do not cry for me, for I am already dead." -Barney Gumble
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