> And then there’s the cone. You can’t ignore the cone. The VLC icon — a traffic cone — is a tribute to the traffic cones collected by École Centrale’s Networking Students’ Association. Sounds weird, right? It’s like the developers decided to inject a little dose of the absurd, to remind us that this tool wasn’t created by suits in a boardroom, but by students with a penchant for traffic cones.
Kinda, yes. As LLM proponents are fond of pointing out, you can sorta break up the common style by asking for a different tone.
(Apologies for the following LLM sludge) For the heck of it, I prompted 4o mini like this:
"Write a paragraph explaining the background and reason for the VLC traffic cone, in an upbeat conversational tone"
It replied:
> The VLC traffic cone is an iconic symbol of the VLC media player, and its origins are as quirky as the software itself! Developed by the VideoLAN project in the late 1990s, VLC started as a student project in France aimed at creating a robust media player that could handle various formats. As the project grew, the team needed a logo that was both eye-catching and memorable, and they landed on the traffic cone! This choice reflects the project’s commitment to open-source principles and the idea of guiding users through the sometimes chaotic world of multimedia. Plus, who doesn’t love a bit of playful design? Now, every time you see that bright orange cone, it’s a reminder of VLC’s user-friendly mission and its journey from a student project to a beloved global media player!
I said, "Make it chirpier" and got:
> Absolutely! The VLC traffic cone is not just a logo; it’s a cheerful symbol of the VLC media player’s journey! Born out of the VideoLAN project in the late '90s, this colorful cone sprang to life when a group of enthusiastic students in France decided they wanted to create a versatile media player that could handle any format under the sun. To make it memorable, they chose the traffic cone, and how fun is that? It perfectly captures the spirit of guiding users through the multimedia landscape with a dash of personality! Now, every time you see that bright orange cone pop up, it’s a little wink from VLC, reminding you that navigating your media should be as fun as it is easy. Go VLC!
Which really does feel pretty in-line with the original quote you gave.
The challenge, then, isn't can you get an LLM to write something like that, but can you, as a presumed human, write something like that, that isn't like that. Now that we're scrutinizing that bit of text, I don't think there's a way to write it without it looking like it's LLM generated.
It really annoys me how these tools use so many exclamation marks. Also how they use those "Go...!" at end of paragraphs or end the results with a "personal question" like "What are you favourite [things I asked about]?" as if I had time to chat to something that can't reason.
Reads like ChatGPT to you?