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This is actually a good thing. I know people who don't have the greatest grasp on English and would never try to read books with difficult (or older English) language. An easier to read version of classics could open up a new world for them.
Now I guess believing the AI will do it well is another conversation altogether.
This becomes problematic if young people who might be wise in one of their futures start reading this shit instead of real books. This is already happening due to social media.
That aspect is my concern. A 2020 Gallup study suggested that over half of United States residents lacked English proficiency. While I suppose a tool like this might encourage some to read who might not otherwise, I worry students will use it as a crutch, not pushing themselves to develop their vocabularies and comprehension skills.
Anecdotally, I work in a field that typically requires an advanced education. The proportion of my coworkers that consistently demonstrates basic reading comprehension issues likewise concerns me.
Edit: that this post was three down from this one gave me a good laugh: https://lemmy.world/post/17068182
If they read more simple material, they would still improve their reading comprehension. Maybe even more efficiently, if it's still challenging but not overwhelming
You improve reading comprehension (like any skill) by challenging yourself. The AI text would only be a challenge for a brand new English learner.
You can ask the AI for any reading level you want and it will do it
Reading things written in old English probably isn't going to improve your literacy, because it's not really the same language. If anything you're going to make it worse when people try using older spellings, grammar conventions, or words that are no longer used. If you actually want to understand and use modern English, maybe start with modern English. If you really wanted to help people read and write, reform spellings and grammar to be more easily understood or pull a Korea and make a whole new much simpler writing system.
Are you talking about some other book? Because the text in the image is extremely normal modern English.
I am more talking about all those people forcing kids to read shakespeare some of which are in this comment section. I've seen people here advocating reading old texts to improve English comprehension.
Yes, people reading books would be terrible
Isn't this already a thing? Like re-writing older vernacular English works in modern English?
But also, Gatsby is hardly old English. The sentence pre "simplifying" is just longer. There's still some people who would enjoy or benefit from that, I suppose. But AI is going to absolutely mangle the tone and the essence of the book in doing so. It's not just a matter of reducing word count, or at that point your book will increasingly become a summary of itself.
It's a higher grade reading level. It's not just longer, but also harder to understand for teenagers who don't have the same vocabulary as adults
Yeah no I can see how that could be the case. In the example though, I'm not sure what vocabulary is from a higher grade reading level. The word "vulnerable"?
Turning over in my head is an expression that's also part of vocabulary, there's no physical turning, it's a form of speech