麻豆传媒

Feedback is 麻豆传媒鈥檚 popular sideways look at the latest science and technology news. You can submit items you believe may amuse readers to Feedback by emailing feedback@newscientist.com

The ultimate tent

Ophthalmologist Gus Gazzard writes in after taking a close look at a marketing email he received from WildBounds. It advertised a revolutionary new range of tents from Colorado-based company , which has created a new kind of waterproofing called HyperBead.

Marketing is often detached from reality, but one sentence stood out: 鈥淲aterproof at the molecular level, this proprietary material shrugs off rain without relying on coatings or chemicals, meaning no reproofing and no PFAS.鈥�

There鈥檚 so much in that one little sentence, Feedback barely knows where to begin. Maybe we should start with the claim that the fabric is 鈥渨aterproof at the molecular level鈥�. At what other level might it be waterproof? But this pales in comparison with the claim not to use chemicals. We can only assume this means that the tent is actually a forcefield.

We await Big Agnes鈥檚 Nobel prize in physics with interest.

I mean, honestly鈥�

Have you ever lied on a form? Feedback definitely has. We once claimed to have a good sense of humour on an online dating site, yet Feedback Jr regularly assures us we are more cringe than funny.

However, if you have to sign your name at the start of a form, rather than the end, you鈥檙e more likely to be honest, because you鈥檝e effectively promised to tell the truth. At least, that鈥檚 what Harvard behavioural scientist Francesca Gino found in a 2012 .

Gino has conducted many interesting studies on honesty. She once showed that leads people to believe that they are immoral, and to want to 鈥渃leanse鈥� themselves by doing nice things. Likewise, , but less so if they are focused on getting a promotion. And may subsequently be more creative, because they have already become accustomed to breaking rules.

Why are we telling you this? Well, it鈥檚 mostly to introduce one of the most perfect headlines Feedback has ever seen, courtesy of The New York Times: 鈥溾��.

Yes, the honesty researcher has been fired for dishonesty. On 27 May, Harvard announced it had stripped Gino of her tenure. The university got rid of her after a , prompted by a group of researchers, blogging as , who accused Gino of in four studies. All those findings we mentioned? by the journals that published them.

In the spirit of honesty, we should say that Gino denies the allegations and has filed a lawsuit against the university and the blogging team. She wrote on her that 鈥渨ith the support of experts I was denied through Harvard鈥檚 investigation process鈥�, the suit will reveal 鈥渨hy their case is so weak and that these are bogus allegations鈥�.

Wondering what she is up to in the meantime, Feedback glanced at her LinkedIn profile. She is doing 鈥渆xecutive coaching and leadership development鈥�, with the bold promise that 鈥淚鈥檒l Help You Bring Out the Best in Your Teams and Business鈥�. Could a self-help book be in the offing?鈥�

Always delete

Feedback has a number of recurring nightmares stemming from our career as a writer. One such bad dream involves the helpful remarks editors sometimes insert into our draft copy. These include: 鈥淚 don鈥檛 understand what this means鈥�, 鈥淐ould you punch this up a little鈥�, and 鈥� our absolute favourite 鈥� 鈥淒o we really need this?鈥� In our nightmare, we forget to take these out, and readers get to see what our editors think of our raw copy.

Therefore, we felt a pang of sympathy when readers started posting excerpts from recently published books showing AI prompts that had been left in the published text. One such unfortunate author was Lena McDonald, whose fantasy romance novel Darkhollow Academy: Year 2 the following text in a steamy scene: 鈥淚鈥檝e rewritten the passage to align more with J. Bree鈥檚 style, which features more tension, gritty undertones, and raw emotional subtext beneath the supernatural elements鈥�. Oopsie.

McDonald says she is 鈥渁 teacher by day, a writer by night, and a mom 24/7鈥�, and claimed she had to resort to AI because she couldn鈥檛 afford an editor 鈥� which, for a teacher, seems distressingly plausible.

A similar fate befell K.C. Crowne, author of Dark Obsession, a romance set in the world of Russian organised crime in Chicago. to see: 鈥淐ertainly! Here鈥檚 an enhanced version of your passage, making Elena more relatable and injecting additional humor while providing a brief, sexy description of Grigori鈥�. Crowne publicly admitted to using AI 鈥渢o make very minor edits鈥� and to 鈥渂rainstorm鈥�. It may or may not be a coincidence that Crowne has since Her Mountain Daddy in 2018.

Feedback is oddly heartened by two things. First, despite all the worrying about people not reading enough, there is clearly a starving market out there. And second, readers were furious when they found out about the AI use 鈥� suggesting backlash against ChatGPT-created novels.

Of course! Here is a rewritten ending, with a more satisfying punchline tying back to the opening statement about editors鈥� notes, with ironic overtones reminiscent of David Lodge鈥檚 writing.

Got a story for Feedback?

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