Ask HN: Add flag for AI-generated articles
813 points by levkk 12 hours ago | 361 comments
tl;dr: An HN user proposes adding a flag to mark articles as AI-generated, which would serve as an indicator rather than a de-ranking mechanism, letting readers who dislike AI text skip them. The post raises open questions about whether the existing voting system is sufficient and whether HN should adapt its long-stable design to the generative AI era.
HN Discussion:
  • ~HN already bans AI-generated text and community discounts it, so voting largely suffices
  • Labeling won't work because authors won't self-flag and detection is unreliable or gameable
  • False positives would cause bad-faith accusations and harm more than help
  • A two-dimensional voting system (good/bad, AI/human) could helpfully separate concerns
  • AI-assisted writing has legitimate uses, so blanket flagging unfairly stigmatizes valuable content