Fairy Tern AI Slop

[David Riddell]

I'm thinking of going to New Caledonia next year and was looking for information on the birds I might see, so did a search for material on the New Caledonian fairy tern, which came up with this site:
https://www.aviandiscovery.com/bird-ide ... eis-exsul/
It wasn't all that informative, with some very generic statements ("Nesting is a crucial part of the New Caledonian Fairy Tern’s lifecycle"), and a couple that were rather dubious (e.g. "The genus name Sternula derives from the Latin word 'sternere,' meaning 'to spread out,' alluding to the terns’ ability to glide gracefully over water" - as far as I can make out it derives from Sterna, which in turn is from an old word for tern), but it wasn't terrible.
Then I clicked on the link to the next bird on the site, the Australian fairy tern, which was similar in content - it got the origin of the name right, but also suggested the following as some of its distinctive features:

• Black bill – A distinctive feature of this species.
  ...
  Webbed feet – Adapted for their life in marine environments.

But things got really weird when I noticed at the bottom of the page a link to the next bird on the site, Sternula nereis horni. What's this, I thought, a fourth fairy tern subspecies? Following the link, I found that this bird is "The Charming New Zealand Fairy Tern" (the site also has a page for Sternula nereis davisae, who apparently have "short, stubby bills, which are a striking bright orange-red color, allowing them to forage more effectively in sandy habitats" and also legs which are both "short" and "long and slender"). Sternula nereis horni, we are told, "is a subspecies of the least tern ... Look for a small, slender tern with a short, stubby bill ... The name Sternula is derived from the Latin word 'sternum,' meaning “to make or carry' ... The specific epithet horni honors Sir Walter Buller, a prominent New Zealand ornithologist ... Their striking, bright yellow bill is slightly hooked ... Sternula nereis horni is primarily found along the North Island’s east coast, particularly around estuarine habitats such as Manawatu Estuary and Raglan Harbour."
Presumably the entire site has been cobbled together using AI, and I have to wonder what the future may hold for those seeking information on birdlife if this kind of thing should spread. At least we still have NZ Birds Online...

[Neil Fitzgerald]

The web as we've known it is in a death spiral. Not only is the sea of AI slop rapidly rising, but it's also killing off it's 'training material' as it goes. One has to wonder why a creative human would want to openly share their writing, photos or other art when it will just be food for a bot so someone can make their own knock-off version with a few prompts.
As I dug more into the massive spikes in traffic that took birdingnz down repeatedly a while ago, I discovered that it was AI bots, including Meta (aka Facebook), obviously scraping for training data. Turns out all sorts of forums like this are getting hammered because they are great sources of human curated content, and these new bots are so voracious they ignore all the old rules. Some are giving up and shutting shop.
Human curated quality content like NZBirdsonline may become even more valuable as the rest of the web rots, but how will people find it? It seems a significant proportion of people already struggle to discriminate between real and social media rubbish.

[Jake]

I saw a casual review of a printed/published book on wild ducks in captivity; the purchaser was disappointed that it was clearly AI. I guess it's something we'll all have to be aware of especially when buying books on niche subjects