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Comment by float4 | Hacker News Reader

> Unfortunately the AI completely faceplants, placing an enormous pause right in the middle of the phrase "all places wild". It actually changes the meaning of the text, making it sound more like "...the beauty he saw in all places. Wild!"

I disagree for 2 reasons:

1. There's a perfectly fine reason to put a pause between "places" and "wild": to put emphasis on "wild". Bill doesn't see beauty in all places, but specifically in all wild places.

2. Interpreting the narration as "[...] all places. Wild!" is farfetched because the narrator pronounces "wild" very calmly and softly.

I agree the pause is a bit too long, but I was expecting way worse when I read your comment about how "the AI completely faceplants".

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I disagree with both reasons.

1. A long pause between "places" and "wild", to me, signals their dis-association, that "wild" does not link with "places". However, the lack of punctuation in the written text implies the phrase "all places wild", the "all wild places" you refer to. I'm with the GP here, the AI didn't convey the meaning I'd expect from the text.

2. Also, the preceding text seems to discuss a certain "ineffability", a spiritual/magic in the world that seems diffuse, broad and subtle. With that context, pronouncing "wild" calmly and softly ties it to the earlier ineffability rather than the more discrete "places". Again, this reinforces the "...places. Wild!" interpretation. I am very impressed the AI used two or more modes of expression (time, tone) to express a feeling... but I disagree that's what the text held.

Maybe the AI's smarter than me.

> A long pause between "places" and "wild", to me, signals their dis-association, that "wild" does not link with "places"

But that long pause is still way shorter than the pauses at actual periods! Look at the waveform[0]: the ovals are the periods, the rectangle is the pause between "places" and "wild". I guess due to the length of the pauses at the actual periods, my brain automatically discards the possibility of "all places. Wild!" and then the best interpretation clearly is "all places wild" for me.

But hey, the fact that at least two people interpreted it differently says something. Maybe this was more of a faceplant than I initially realized.

[0] https://imgur.com/a/j9CtZFZ

Empirical evidence of a pause and its length is not indicative of how the typical listener will interpret it.

Maybe this is just me, but I find it really unnatural to pause in the middle of a short phrase like "all things wild". I'd emphasize "wild" by putting stress on it, not by pausing.

But this excerpt is the end of a paragraph that begins with "Bill loved and found solace in nature." and describes taking walks and looking at the moon. This doesn't support emphasizing "wild" because the author has already established that information; the important part of the sentence is "deep spiritual yearning", or maybe "easiest to express", since the author then goes on to discuss how, after he died, Bill expressed himself from beyond the grave in other ways.

I could kind of understand the AI not quite getting the emphasis right, since that's a judgement call that requires a lot of context from the rest of the book. But breaking up "all places wild" like the sample does suggests that it doesn't understand the basic grammar of the sentence.

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