alt.hn

7/2/2026 at 6:48:58 PM

Klara and the Sun Essay Contest – $1k Prize – AI Use Allowed

by fkozlowski

7/2/2026 at 7:04:27 PM

it would be cool if it was judged by humans, blinded to whether the submissions were 0% ai, some ai, 100% ai, etc.

but it is judged by ai, which makes it much less cool in my opinion.

to demonstrate the absurdity, the second best submission right now has a note "Literally the Fable essay, but with one letter changed", ranking 10 pts higher than the Fable one.

by john_strinlai

7/2/2026 at 7:08:45 PM

I'm trying to figure out why I should have any interest at all in participating in this? I mean, other than the $1000, but there's really no clear criteria as to what would win that $1000 since AI is judging it.

by UncleOxidant

7/2/2026 at 7:07:15 PM

It is actually judged by a human at the end FYI.

"The top 5 submissions will be finalists, judged by hand."

by fkozlowski

7/2/2026 at 7:10:32 PM

Kind of like submitting resumes these days. AI winnows them down and the remaining few get passed to humans.

by UncleOxidant

7/2/2026 at 7:30:28 PM

And who knows what ‘gems’ might have been skipped by the machine.

by sph

7/2/2026 at 7:11:01 PM

it still loses its luster, for me, knowing that the top 5 are ai-selected

by john_strinlai

7/2/2026 at 7:15:37 PM

> In today's world, what's the best way to get to a top-tier analytic essay? I'm curious to see.

AI generated content graded by AI for what goal exactly? I don't understand this contest at all.

by polalavik

7/2/2026 at 7:23:17 PM

It’s personal ad, basically. The author is trying to get a job as an evaluator somewhere and is hoping that putting 1000$ on the line will get them enough publicity to land them an interview/get a job somewhere.

by stephantul

7/2/2026 at 7:07:17 PM

Is it even legal to publish excerpts of books like this? Or does this fall under some kind of exemption/fair use clause?

by stephantul

7/2/2026 at 7:26:21 PM

Publishing an excerpt of a book for the purpose of critical commentary is very much fair use.

by bawolff

7/2/2026 at 7:49:44 PM

Ok, thanks!

by stephantul

7/2/2026 at 7:09:15 PM

This is a beautiful and haunting book.

by iamanllm

7/2/2026 at 7:33:12 PM

Klara and the Sun is such a great book. Kazuo Ishiguro captured the intersection of technology and society in a way which can appeal to both to humanists and technologists. It was especially interesting to read his interpretation of partial sentience, learning and understanding the world from the lens of the artificial friends.

by poly2it