r/sharepoint • u/bcameron1231 MVP • 18d ago
A Warning - An uptick in AI use
Hi All,
I'm sure some of you have experienced this in the last few months and more recently, we're seeing a significant uptick in AI/GPT usage on the sub. A quick reminder that AI use is discouraged in this subreddit and against the rules of the sub.
I certainly understand it's prevalence in our world at the moment, but it is something that is actively monitored within this sub and unfortunately due to it's increase usage, we'll be taking a harder stance on it.
Apologies if that may be upsetting to some folks here, but this community has always been a place for like-minded professionals to engage and communicate with each other, and I would like for it to continue that way. We're not doing any one any favors by copy and pasting a wall of text for everyone to read, and in many cases so far, sharing inaccurate and hallucinated content.
If you find that you have a post or comment that has been removed and marked as as an AI response incorrectly, please reach out and we can discuss!
As always, thanks for being the best sub on Reddit.
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u/whatdoido8383 18d ago
Thank you for trying to stay ahead of this. I'm pretty turned off of reddit lately due to the rampant AI and bot posts.
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u/5Lax 18d ago
To clarify, AI generated posts are discouraged?
Because much of my day to day work in SharePoint is using AI to develop SPFx apps that work in the Microsoft ecosystem and this sub has been very helpful for build my base knowledge in that area. So it would be helpful to hear about how people are using AI in SharePoint, but I agree, I don’t want to read AI generated posts generally.
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u/bcameron1231 MVP 18d ago
Yes. AI Generated posts and replies are discouraged and against sub rules.
Discussions about AI and how we're using AI with SharePoint are totally fine.
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u/high_arcanist 18d ago
Agree with this. AI is great for technical tasks, very much not great for communication. Great job mod team
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u/MadBrown 18d ago
A well-nuanced response. Not all AI use is bad, but in some contexts it is awful.
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u/toddklindt MVP 18d ago
I love AI as much as the next person, but I absolutely don't want to see any bots here, and I'm probably not much of a fan of a human using AI to generate their post for them.
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u/MadBrown 18d ago
Same. AI has changed the way I work for the better. But I have zero tolerance for bot posts.
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u/Grouchy-Western-5757 18d ago
While I 100% agree with the stance, I have to point out the irony with the opposite direction Microsoft is taking shoving Copilot everywhere into Sharepoint
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u/real_agent_99 18d ago
Of course they are. They're trying to make money on it. All motives are not equivalent.
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u/JoySkullyRH 18d ago
It’s not just here - you can’t even get a good training video anymore without the person using AI to build everything. It’s frustrating as a user.
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u/chillzatl 18d ago
Why does this even matter? Why is every other sub on Reddit turning “AI content” into some kind of holy war? If I’m stuck on a SharePoint issue and I ask my AI to turn some notes and a screenshot of an error into a clean question I can drop in front of experts that know the tech, why is that a problem? It saves me time and it usually comes out more succinct than what I would do in a rush. That’s the whole point of the tool!
I can’t wrap my head around a community that exists because of technology and that lives near the cutting edge of it (By way of being a key part of Microsoft's constantly evolving ecosystem) acts like AI is the one technology that’s verboten.
And the idea that anyone can reliably tell? C'mon... pure comedy. low effort AI posts , sure, but someone that cared or just wanted to test you could easily put a couple extra minutes into that content and I assure you, you'd have no idea. With the latest models you rarely even have to do that, especially when you've worked with them enough that they know how to kind of sound like you anyway.
In short, I just don't get the point.
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u/Szabeq Dev 18d ago edited 18d ago
Can we be fooled? Sure! But that’s not the point. The point is we’re a community, and communities operate on mutual respect. If you want me to spend time answering your question, I expect you to spend time doing your best to ask it. If you ask Copilot to write the question, and I ask it to write an answer, then we’re just a protein proxy between two Copilot chats and that community becomes pointless.
And don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying “don’t use Copilot”. But if you prompt it to take your notes and write a Reddit question then paste it here expecting somebody will take time writing an answer, then I find it disrespectful.
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u/bcameron1231 MVP 18d ago
I don't view this as some kind of holy war, nor do I think this is about AI being good or bad. It's about the quality of the discussions we have here.
We're seeing a lot more AI-generated content (and a lot more bots), and the biggest problem so far, aside from the massive wall of text we're now forcing people to read, is the accuracy of the content. I spend a lot of time each week having to clean up AI hallucinated content in this sub, which means many hours of others having to also sift through all of it as well.
I will push back about the ability to reliably tell AI generated content. While models are quite good, I've been doing this mod stuff a long time. The communication has changed. The sentence structure is different, specific words and phrases are commonplace in AI content. In the end, I'll give people the benefit of the doubt. If a post is removed because of AI, everyone has the opportunity to reach out and let me know it was flagged incorrectly.
Using AI to clean up your own thoughts is one thing. Copy/Pasting AI-generated content that others have to unravel is another. This rule isn't here to wage some war against AI, but to continue to embrace the human-to-human aspect of this community. I realize not everyone will not agree with this.
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u/Grouchy-Western-5757 18d ago
Hard disagree, put 5 paragraphs in front of me with only 1 of them being 100% AI and the rest human written. I will pick it out every single time.
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u/mobenben 18d ago
What about users who speak a different language and use AI to translate? Are those banned as well?
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u/bcameron1231 MVP 18d ago
Reddit has built-in translation tools and I tell folks to just write it in the language they are most comfortable with. I've had many successful conversations with people while we were writing in two different languages.
In any case, the difference to me is whether AI is generating new content that isn't yours. A translation, to me, it just converting your words into another language and I don't see a problem with that.
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u/mobenben 18d ago
English is my secondlanguage but I don't need a translator. I write directly in English but its not as good as a native speaker. AI has been great at filling the gap for me. But I don't ask it to generate new stuff. Its more like reword this. Is that banned?
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u/Sheeebooo 18d ago
I am not a native English speaker and sometimes i use Ai to rewrite/rephrase what i want to say or express. It does way better job than i can. Is it an issue?
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u/bcameron1231 MVP 18d ago
A reminder - The sub is heavily controlled by you. While we do have Automod rules, we also have thresholds in-place that will remove content or posts based on X (I wont' say how many) amount of reports. If you see content that you believe to be AI generated or goes against the sub rules, please use the report button responsibly.