Analogue. Manual. Real.
I spent the day with Smallsteps, heading into the city to get the present she wanted to get for her mother's birthday next week, doing some activities, going to the park and then finally for Daddy and Daughter coffee before coming home. It was nice and when we did get home, the house was relatively clean and we shared a good meal of tortilla wraps, and watermelon and mango for dessert. It is great that after so many years of not being able to eat the same things at the table, we are able to enjoy a meal together.
Keeping it real.
And on the subject of real, there is a story going around at the moment about a newspaper that printed a story using quotes from an AI chatbot. It is simulating the responses of Michael Schumacher, the ex-F1 driver who ended up in a coma after a ski accident a decade ago. I haven't read the interview and while it sounds pretty tasteless, I wonder if in the current content environment, is it?
“My life has completely changed since [the accident]. That was a horrible time for my wife, my children and the whole family,”
At the end of the article, it was revealed that the responses were AI-generated, but it hasn't stopped people being outraged at the invasion of privacy and Anne Hoffmann, the editor of Die Aktuelle, has been sacked for the story.
A magazine has been labelled ‘disgraceful’ by fans online after using an artificial intelligence programme to produce fake quotes from Michael Schumacher – before depicting the response as an “exclusive interview” on their front cover.
Well.... technically....
It was an exclusive interview with Michael Schumacher, wasn't it?
This gets weird perhaps, but if an AI is simulating a person with a name, can it be said that it isn't a person with that name? After all, if a man can call themselves and be legally a woman, why can't an AI persona be just as fluid?
Told you... weird.
But, then there is also a double standard involved here, right?
Victims of deepfake porn have little to no redress because deepfake porn isn't illegal. Once deepfake imagery hits the internet, it's nearly always there to stay.
Isn't that an invasion of privacy?
A friend of mine was recently telling me how one of their Facebook friends was sending a video of themselves masturbating enthusiastically in front of a camera - except it wasn't them. It was a deepfake video and the person was being blackmailed.
What recourse does the guy have?
None.
Now, obviously there is a difference between the two in terms of the Schumacher story, as it could be said that they are misrepresenting what is inside the magazine, but isn't that what clickbait does? This is just taking it to another level, a level that is becoming increasingly accepted as part of modern culture.
Look at the arguments that people have on Hive for using AI-generated images and text, defending the use because they prompted the AI to create. Under that explanation, in the case of the article, it is exclusive content and Die Aktuelle is free to use it as they please in their newspaper, as they clearly stated at the end of the article, that the quotes didn't actually come from Schumacher himself.
This world is getting weird, eh?
I feel that we are making this world unnecessarily complex with the constant fragmenting of groups, as well as the redefinition of definitions, making them meaningless. We keep citing "changing culture" as the justification as to why it has to be accepted, as if we have no control over culture ourselves. Culture is made by us, it is our behaviors that create it, but what we aren't recognizing is that we are heavily influenced by the way things are depicted in the media, which drives culture too and, its only incentive as a business model is to maximize profits.
Something to remember.
The media is a business, just like any corporation, and they are incentivized to increase bottom lines to maximize shareholder wealth. And, if we as people are willing to accept something like AI-generated content as original work, we have to accept that they are going to be leveraging it to sell content to us. We are the consumers that drive supply with what we demand, and where we click drives the mechanisms that drive more of it.
The world is a representation of us, and it is getting weirder.
I am glad that for now at least, Smallsteps leads a real life.
Analogue. Manual. Real.
It won't last.
Taraz
[ Gen1: Hive ]
AI generated post is completely plagiarism and can/should not be accepted on HIVE.
I agree. It is ridiculous how many people argue for them.
I think in near future AI and our voice would be doing most of the content writing work. And that means we are going to be seeing a lot of machine generated articles and finding real out of them would be hard. I suppose there are tons of such changes coming out which would make writing a hobby for us because many big houses would not be paying for something that can be done by bots.
With a decent web of trust, it won't be too hard perhaps, because there will be many points of verification possible that can apply a confidence score to a piece of work. "Trust" is going to be the word of the future.
Wasn't this a conspiracy theory 5 years ago though? And now, we're living in it. It is indeed getting weird and with these new scams surfacing of deepfake voice distress calls and so on, it's bound to get worse. I'm annoyed that so many people can't see what's happening.
It's literally become the only things that you can actually trust are the tangible ones right in front of you that you can touch - everything else is up for debate it seems. This moratorium they're calling for isn't going to help either, it's now an AI arms race essentially.
As for smallsteps, I think she will look back and appreciate having had a real childhood. It's going to become more and more scarce in the future.
Funny, isn't it? A lot of "conspiracy theories2 end up being daily life.
Tell me about it!
Yes it is and what we see on the surface, is not the best there is available.
I am hoping it gives her some kind of advantage to make a good life for herself.
We're turning into a different life now, I agree with you that now wired thing happens and we are making this world,
In this era blackmail to someone ain't a difficult task 😐 i hope we'll never face such situations in future
We have so many strange things we have to consider these days :D
I was in the park yesterday too. Coming out of the park, I noticed an advertising poster. The guy was holding a bottle of drink in his hand, there were a few more details. At the bottom was an inscription in small print - "created with the help of AI." The future is already here, I thought.
And the future is looking very "uncanny valley" - across every spectrum. People don't realize how horrible it can become I suspect.
In any case, someone has to replace the person. I do not know what kind of intelligence it will be, but such is the unfolding of the Universe - from simple to complex.
Yes, humans will be replaced, but I suspect it will be some time after we nuke ourselves first.
A lovely child and I have always said that you guys are great parents. I wonder what life would be like when she is in her 20s and 30s. Thankfully I will not be around anymore to have to fend off against all of the fake stuff, as AI is just the beginning.
I have a feeling that I might not want to be around either. I might be though, so I best prepare myself for it.
At 20, I will be 90 and I don't even want to think about 30.
Best for you to prepare for it, as I have a feeling that you will be around.
You don't want to be a centenarian jumping around the place?
Sorry for the late reply, as only completed my hospital biopsy tests today. Just as well that I scheduled yesterday and today's posts.
As far as the centenarian issue, no, I hate the idea of jumping around with an adult nappy on at some time in the future :)
Analogue, manual, real. I am glad she is living a real life.
It is funny how the world is now and scary what it is going to be. There is a war brewing and we are having fun sipping from a pipe. It won't be funny when it erupts because everyone will take out of it.
Humans make life unnecessarily hard to live in and they don't give a damn about it. It is just hard to understand how some people think. I don't even have the strength to find out.
I think sometimes, it is just because we want to feel important. People think a simple life is a bad life, when they spend their time consuming the view of the billionaires and stars.
Bad life? What is termed bad itself? Smh. They do need a cane. The simple life is worth living.
This is an issue – control over other people by means of technology – which was anticipated long ago, at the very beginnings of computer science in the late 1940s, by the American scientist Norbert Wiener, one of the two fathers, along with Claude Shannon, of information theory. In a book published in 1950, “The Human Use of Human Beings. Cybernetics and Society”, Wiener told us that he saw the real danger not in the autonomous functioning of very powerful machines capable of gaining control over humanity, but rather that these machines could be used by a human being or a block of human beings to increase their control over the rest of the human race, or that political leaders could attempt to control their populations not by means of the machines themselves, but by means of political techniques as narrow and indifferent to human possibilities as if they had in fact been mechanically conceived.
However, what someone as lucid as Wiener failed to imagine was that this control of the behaviour and thought of broad masses of human beings by means of computers would not be acquired first and foremost by states, but by private corporations, by companies – which we know as Big Tech – guided exclusively by the objective of maximising profit, monetisation.
The social media dilemma is related to the issue of responsibility. AI is, by definition, “unreal”. In other words, it is not a natural phenomenon, but an artifice or creation of human beings. Therefore, we ourselves are responsible not only for its use, but also for its creation and design.
And so, if social networks are designed as they are today – if they are, one might say, perverse by design – this is something that is due to human choices. Things would not necessarily have to be this way. They could have been designed and could still be designed – thinks Tristan Harris, who after leaving Google promotes a humane use of technology from the foundation he created and chairs, the Center for Human Technology – in a way that is not contrary to human values and interests but respectful of the humanity of its users, that does not manipulate or instrumentalise them in the service of the greed and profit motives of a few.
Remember that at the time, economics itself didn't see the globalization of business in the same way as now, which is a big reason why Keynesian economics is failing. It thought states would have control over money flow.
Yes. But, we work on incentive and we are conditioned to believe one thing over another, setting up for mass trends of behavior.
Ever wonder how they will monetize to keep themselves funded?
It has to be scary, the fact that Smallsteps leading a real life won't last. I mean I'm already scared for what the future holds for all of us as is. At least she has you and your very clear mind, that's a big edge.
I feel like this whole thing is freedom taken too far. "It's a free world" obviously has consequences. Evidently dire consequences. None of it makes sense. Who knew it'll be this ridiculous and incredible? Again, it could also be man's insatiable need to evolve and discover and change and invent and for some, the need to just fix things even if they aren't broken.
It's all so tiring and as much as I hope they snap out of it, I don't see that happening. It could get worse so I'll just brace for impact. We all should.
Freedom was never meant to shelter you from its consequences, but rather to protect you from the prohibition of its execution. Without the freedom (ability) to make the wrong choice, you will never learn what the right choice is, or rather, WHY. We are creatures built by our experiences.
Well said.
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Regarding the supposed "double standards" where it comes to the Schumacher case VS deepfakes, I think it all boils down to power/influence. His family has the connections and the resources to get the apologies they want and thus it is so. I'd imagine if the faked AI interview is with some other random comatose unknown not named Schumacher, there wouldn't have been any serious consequences at all.
Well, I believe that a lot of us are no more our real selves. The internet has snatched reality from us. Now, it is not possible to survive without the net.
Who is making life hard? It is all of us. We are making life unnecessarily hard for ourselves which is not nice. Some people even believe that they are comfortable but they are far away from comfort...
Getting to know and understand what is really real and what is fake is getting harder. A lot of fake-news, distorted images, access to things that compromise stability (like porn) and so on. I think that the best metaphor for our life is "finding a balance": inner and outer
analog life is the best life for sure, but those authentic opportunities are dwindling everyday as media sees to shape its own reality for us!
This summer, I plan on spending more time, just being. Doing something manual, that doesn't take much thought.
Sounds like some good time gardening to me!
You pose interesting questions here. AI and all the other things that we're seeing in the world and on the news blur the lines of what's real, or rather, expose the general unreality in which we've been living. As a whole, our approach to the concept of reality will have to transform in coming years to accommodate these changes. We'll see where that leads.