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Scientists Invented a Disease to Test Whether A.I. Knew It Was Fake. Then, Chatbots Started Saying It Was Real
(www.smithsonianmag.com)
this post was submitted on 12 Jun 2026
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Technology
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I remember doing this kind of stuff back in the day against spoonfeeding. People on forums asked for help, so you provided code and snippets but it would never compile. The issues could easily be fixed by somebody with basic understanding.
so basically you were training people how to code
It was the common mentality back in the day. Everybody helped for free but spoonfeeding was a no-go. Many people would find a way to help without actually giving the solution. Keep in mind information was much harder to find so a lot of answers were also links to places where you could find the answer. Most of it boiled down to RTFM.
I’ve come to appreciate this approach in the cybersecurity world. CVE exploits and proof-of-concepts from experienced authors get included in tools like Metasploit. Individual authors will intentionally do something like put subtle syntax errors or “forget” necessary include statements so something won’t compile or link correctly. Just enough to deter script kiddies but not enough to phase a seasoned tester or experienced developer.