The AI caption tool I used went from decent to useless in 6 months

I run a small side business listing vintage tools on eBay, nothing major. About six months ago I started using an AI caption generator to write descriptions. At first it was great, saved me maybe 20 minutes a listing. It knew the difference between a Stanley No. 4 plane and a No. 5. It would mention patina and rust correctly. Fast forward to about three weeks ago, and it's a mess. Now it calls a crescent wrench a 'multi-purpose adjustment device' and describes a chisel as 'perfect for culinary endeavors.' I think they updated the model to sound more professional and it lost all the trade knowledge. Has anyone else watched a tool or service get worse after a big update like this?

2 comments

2 Comments

amyh1210h ago

... wait, 'culinary endeavors'? For a chisel? That is just bizarre. I can't believe it lost the difference between a plane and a plane, those are such basic tools in the vintage world. It sounds like they swapped out the training data for some fancy general text and threw away all the good stuff that actually worked.

young.thomas2h ago

Heard from a buddy who still works at one of those AI labs that they're pushing these models to handle way too many topics at once now. They basically feed them every random cooking blog and travel guide alongside the tool manuals, and the model just gets confused. Makes total sense that it'd mix up a chisel with a spatula when it's drowning in recipes. Really sucks because the older versions were actually decent for vintage tool stuff, now they sound like a clueless intern who skimmed a Home Depot catalog once. I bet if you asked it about a handsaw it'd tell you how to fillet a fish.