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Facebook Discovers Fake AI-Generated Profiles

nytimes.com

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Re: Facebook Discovers Fake AI-Generated Profiles

#81

Post by mathgenius »

nemild wrote: post #9
jedberg wrote: post #4

It's ironic that as we move into a world where anyone can be a "journalist" and anyone can have a voice, we need professional journalists more than ever. Now a journalist will not only need training in writing well, conveying a story with facts, and investigating, but they will also need to become experts in identifying fake source material. In a world where anyone can make a video or photo of anyone doing anything,…

One of the scariest quotes for me was Facebook's Little Red Book in 2012 (a book handed out to every employee) that had this quote: > "When everyone has a printing press [i.e., Facebook], the ones with the best ideas are the ones people listen to." In retrospect, it gives a ton of insight into the flawed beliefs within the company. https://twitter.com/nemild/status/1006533287378968576 https://www.businessinsider.com/…

In the 1850's it was widely believed that the invention of the telegraph would bring about world peace.

The problem is language itself. We trust it way too much to convey meaning, and truth. But it's just a delusion, or a mirage, in much the same way that the search for artificial intelligence is. In fact, I would say that language itself is the first AI invented.

Re: Facebook Discovers Fake AI-Generated Profiles

#82

Post by wruza »

Kim_Bruning wrote: post #44
MuffinFlavored wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Require manual profile validation for new Facebook accounts? Probably would get downvoted if I said SSN + a credit check. Phone number required + needs to be validated + can not be reused + can not be Twilio. Prove your address? Prove your ISP cable bill? I don't know. Everything I guess, people here are going to tell me it's an invasion of privacy and they don't trust Facebook to do it. But they'll let CreditKarma h…

By now, people have the gaming of Real Name policies and Verified Accounts down to a science. Indeed it's harder to use false accounts anymore, that much is true. However, it becomes much easier to Dox people. This allows you to put pressure on work+family+neighbors. Or alternately, if you're one of the more violent groups: you can outright go after your opponents in physical space.

This may be important and may be not. Numerous governments already do that: require everyone to disclose their [e-]life and punish for what they had to say. But if you do that in US or EU, will they turn into such oppressing states? Is total control a cause or an effect, or both?

Re: Facebook Discovers Fake AI-Generated Profiles

#83

Post by rhizome »

nemild wrote: post #10
dv_dt wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In part, imho, the distrust comes from the the standards of the highest tiers of professional journalists being on a low right now too.

I'm doubtful that most journalists actually want it to be that way. Those are just the economic and reader incentives in journalism today. There are some great stats about just how much the number of professional journalists has shrunk in the social media era.

>in the social media era.

In this context I think it should be termed "now that there are no classified ads."

Re: Facebook Discovers Fake AI-Generated Profiles

#84

Post by [deleted] »

jedberg wrote: post #4

It's ironic that as we move into a world where anyone can be a "journalist" and anyone can have a voice, we need professional journalists more than ever. Now a journalist will not only need training in writing well, conveying a story with facts, and investigating, but they will also need to become experts in identifying fake source material. In a world where anyone can make a video or photo of anyone doing anything,…

[deleted]

Re: Facebook Discovers Fake AI-Generated Profiles

#85

Post by perl4ever »

Cookingboy wrote: post #74
throwawaybbb wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ironic that all journalists got the Iraq war wrong without the need for fake news. We don't need real journalists, we need a way to pay for news that makes accurate reporting profitable.

The cynical side of me: accurate reporting isn’t profitable because there is very little demand for accurate reporting from the general public. People want to read/watch news they want to believe or agree with, and instinctively they shun away from facts that causes cognitive dissonance with them. What they want is to believe their preferred news sources are objective, but they will do everything they can to avoid do…

But does it make sense to frame this as a statement about human beings, rather than a statement about what is logically required by the evolutionary-style process of information multiplying? Regardless of where society's starting point was, when it's really easy to transmit information, the information that gets transmitted the most is the kind that doesn't demand analysis first.

Re: Facebook Discovers Fake AI-Generated Profiles

#86

Post by asveikau »

nemild wrote: post #9
jedberg wrote: post #4

It's ironic that as we move into a world where anyone can be a "journalist" and anyone can have a voice, we need professional journalists more than ever. Now a journalist will not only need training in writing well, conveying a story with facts, and investigating, but they will also need to become experts in identifying fake source material. In a world where anyone can make a video or photo of anyone doing anything,…

One of the scariest quotes for me was Facebook's Little Red Book in 2012 (a book handed out to every employee) that had this quote: > "When everyone has a printing press [i.e., Facebook], the ones with the best ideas are the ones people listen to." In retrospect, it gives a ton of insight into the flawed beliefs within the company. https://twitter.com/nemild/status/1006533287378968576 https://www.businessinsider.com/…

I think in part Zuckerberg thinks of his own personal success this way. In his mind, he did well because He was Him, and right all the time.

A more humble view might include that he was raised in relative privilege, a lot of doors were open to him, and there was a lot of good luck involved.

Re: Facebook Discovers Fake AI-Generated Profiles

#87

Post by mkolodny »

jedberg wrote: post #4

It's ironic that as we move into a world where anyone can be a "journalist" and anyone can have a voice, we need professional journalists more than ever. Now a journalist will not only need training in writing well, conveying a story with facts, and investigating, but they will also need to become experts in identifying fake source material. In a world where anyone can make a video or photo of anyone doing anything,…

Verifying sources has always been important. I recently learned about Stanislov Petrov - he helped prevent a nuclear war in 1983 by ignoring a false alarm reported by Russia's early warning system [0]. The system reported that the USA launched up to six missiles. Fortunately, Russia's stance was that nuclear retaliation requires multiple sources to confirm an attack. Stanislov went against his orders, and declared the attack a false alarm.

As was true before the internet, we need to make sure we have reliable sources to trust the news.

[0] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanislav_Petrov

Re: Facebook Discovers Fake AI-Generated Profiles

#88

Post by ceejayoz »

tschellenbach wrote: post #17

For many use cases it would be great to have a real/verified oauth service. Dutch government does something like that with digid. Imagine how much fraud could be prevented if there was something like that in the US.

Estonia's long been ahead of the game here.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Estonian_identity_card#Cryptog...

Re: Facebook Discovers Fake AI-Generated Profiles

#90

Post by btown »

davidajackson wrote: post #65
pushpop wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You’re assuming they didn’t see that. Given it’s now nearly 2020 and we’ve had years of reports of election meddling yet Facebook are only calming down on suggestive emoji - stating that they have no interest in policing “free speech” when it comes to political ads - I’m inclined to believe they’re not unaware their network is being games but rather don’t care because it’s still money in their pocket.

I don't think you're right @nemild, it's not a scary quote and it's also true. Sure, people can be duped temporarily but the best quality ideas last. Information is best distributed when it can be distributed freely. What alternative would you propose, censorship, regulation? Facebook solved a problem (connecting) but it also created one (fake content, bot farms). Either Facebook will fix it, or if they don't, new pr…

> Either Facebook will fix it, or if they don't, new products will pop up to solve the problem to try to provide more reliable content.

While this may be inevitable on a long timescale, the cost in human lives and dignity may be monstrous before this naturally occurs.

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