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India ruling party's IT cell used AI to show smile on arrested protesters' faces

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Re: India ruling party's IT cell used AI to show smile on arrested protesters' faces

#371
post #226
post #181

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The consequences I mean are those of the public: proving that the ruling party forged images isn't going to get people to change their votes. You can build the green checkmark, but you can't get people to care about it.

I see this as completely different issues. Whether AI exists or not this is and was a problem. I’m proposing technical solution because AI fakes are a technical problem. And yeah if people get used to green checkmark you can’t just pump fakes willy nilly, you actually have to put some effort, as before AI. I guess the problem I want to solve is having to live in a world where you have to assume absolutely everything…

First you have to solve the collect action problem of getting everyone to care about the green checkmark, then you have to solve the new technical problem of just making photographs of high-quality altered images.

Re: India ruling party's IT cell used AI to show smile on arrested protesters' faces

#372

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> as a meta point. I mean, it's a stretch. I could use that stretching metaphor as an excuse to talk about taffy for 4 paragraphs, but it doesn't contribute anything meaningful to the conversation. Scrounging up discussion about Web3 on an Indian government exposé is off-topic, and readers will flag it. It's equally substantial as those "this is good for Bitcoin" posts that get flagged under every article about a gov…

> Scrounging up discussion about Web3 on an Indian government exposé is off-topic It really isn't. Because it is one of the normally very rare use cases for web 3 stuff, and the topic is directly about a case where such a thing would be needed. > it has been hard to authenticate information online That's nice and all. But the claim was that people were previously dismissing opinions about AI that are now mainstream.…

> Because it is one of the normally very rare use cases for web 3 stuff

> a case where such a thing would be needed.

So... suggest a solution. What is your magical Blockchain panacea for this situation? To plug all digital cameras into an online ledger and hash every image? I'd love to hear a non-pipe-dream based idea for this.

> But the claim was that people were previously dismissing opinions about AI that are now mainstream.

This could be said about just about everything. I still dismiss the flying car, even though I was "proved wrong" in the 60s and 70s when some coked up engineers built one. I still dismiss cryptocurrency, even though many coins will outlive me. There is no world in my lifetime where cryptocurrency obsoletes the IMF. Betting against the powers that be is like playing chicken against a shotgun.

Re: India ruling party's IT cell used AI to show smile on arrested protesters' faces

#373
post #327

Delhi Police arrested the protesting Indian women wrestlers. Various social media handles of IT cell of ruling party shared morphed picture of protesters to show that they were smiling in the police van. https://twitter.com/SakshiMalik/status/1662729269532065792

[dead]

She is sarcastically saying, "Congratulations for this new country (India)."

Re: India ruling party's IT cell used AI to show smile on arrested protesters' faces

#374

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> the definition of Hindutva according to the Supreme Court Legal definitions aren’t relevant to Twitter accounts. What matters is what’s animating the author.

All the same, imo it's imperative people know what the actual definition is rather than misconstruing it for something else

> it's imperative people know what the actual definition

This reminds me of the hacker/cracker and crypto qua -currency/-tography debates. Or, more pointedly, the Daughters of the Confederacy.

Legal definitions aren’t “actual definitions.” Nobody likes a term they’ve adopted to be coöpted. But it happens, and it’s happened with hindutva in English.

Re: India ruling party's IT cell used AI to show smile on arrested protesters' faces

#375

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Scrounging up discussion about Web3 on an Indian government exposé is off-topic It really isn't. Because it is one of the normally very rare use cases for web 3 stuff, and the topic is directly about a case where such a thing would be needed. > it has been hard to authenticate information online That's nice and all. But the claim was that people were previously dismissing opinions about AI that are now mainstream.…

> Because it is one of the normally very rare use cases for web 3 stuff > a case where such a thing would be needed. So... suggest a solution. What is your magical Blockchain panacea for this situation? To plug all digital cameras into an online ledger and hash every image? I'd love to hear a non-pipe-dream based idea for this. > But the claim was that people were previously dismissing opinions about AI that are now…

> So... suggest a solution.

I am not sure if you read the rest of the comments and suggestions in this whole post, but multiple people did, over multiple discussion threads.

Feel free to go back and read them.

Also, it is still interesting and useful to suggest part of the solution, without writing dozens of pages on the exact specific details of it. Even just recommending crypto, is interesting enough, due to the fact that real usecases for crypto are so rare.

> This could be said about just about everything.

Ok, well in this case, related to AI, lots of people were wrong. And those people who were wrong, should figure out what mistake they made, to be so wrong, and why they were so quick to incorrectly dismiss these arguments.

Re: India ruling party's IT cell used AI to show smile on arrested protesters' faces

#376
post #80
post #22

As an NRI, I continue to be disappointed by the country I called home for most of my life. Between the politics and the pollution in Delhi, I fear I can never really return home. The last time I was home, I was struggling every day to breathe because Delhi has crazy air in the winter. While high school friends were telling me about how they don’t believe in equal rights, justifying any means to achieving a Hindu coun…

It is a conundrum, because the same NRIs oppose bills that would solve India's problems. The ban on crop burning (main cause of Delhi's pollution) was central to the farm bill. But protesting farmers (widely supported in the west) opposed it, and the bill died despite having democratic approval (both national opinion and sufficient votes) > dared to vote a great scientist to president We do not vote for Presidents in…

> The ban on crop burning (main cause of Delhi's pollution) was central to the farm bill. But protesting farmers (widely supported in the west) opposed it, and the bill died despite having democratic approval (both national opinion and sufficient votes)

Then why is Delhi's air quality consistently poor, unhealthy, severe and hazardous even when there is no crop burning? https://www.aqi.in/us/dashboard/india/delhi/new-delhi

Of course we need to do something about crop burning, but is it the "main" reason? Nope.

Re: India ruling party's IT cell used AI to show smile on arrested protesters' faces

#377

Earlier quoted context omitted.

100%. And the thing I've personally found quite shocking is how the past 5-10 years or so have shown that even when the truth does come out, there are enough "mirrors" as you put it so that people can question anything and believe whatever they want to believe, facts be damned. A couple weeks ago when the Patriot Front had a white supremacist rally and march in front of the Washington Monument (now of the "red bike g…

It was difficult for me to tell if they actually believed that fairy tale, or of they felt that it didn't really matter because they knew if they shouted "fake news" loud enough they could get enough like minded people to upvote it. It's a tactic to call everything a false flag, even your own ops. It requires virtually zero time, effort, or education to get everyone on your side doing it. Liberals fall for this trick…

> Liberals fall for this trick frequently because they are obsessed with being seen to have to correct answer, so they invest for more effort in debunking than the liars did in making their claim.

Excuse me while my eyes roll into the back of my head.

Whether "liberal" or "conservative", some of us still care that facts matter. And honestly I would never have worried so much about calling out so much bullshit in the past until I saw so many of my fellow (voting) citizens actually believe this BS and take it to dangerous extremes. For example, when QAnon first came out, I just smiled a bit and laughed - "This doesn't even reach the level of bad fan fiction" I thought. Yet, lo and behold, significant swaths of the US population believe this, and I find that frightening.

Re: India ruling party's IT cell used AI to show smile on arrested protesters' faces

#378

The news is accurate, but not particularly newsworthy. This was posted by an unofficial, loosely defined group of accounts called the "IT cell" - not very different from MAGA folks or far-left account clusters. The linked news source (alt news) is an opposition news source/blog.

Mohammed Zubair and Pratik Sinha are Indian journalists and the co-founders of Alt News, an Indian non-profit fact-checking website. They were nominated for the 2022 Nobel Peace Prize. They have fact checked the claims from all political parties. [1]

>> Zubair was arrested and incarcerated by the Delhi Police for a month. His detention raised further concerns about the state of India's press freedom under Narendra Modi's premiership and was widely criticized by journalistic bodies, human rights organizations and the political opposition who allege that the arrest was an act of revenge against his role in Alt News' work of combating disinformation.[1]

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mohammed_Zubair_(journalist)

Re: India ruling party's IT cell used AI to show smile on arrested protesters' faces

#379

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is "Congress party also bad!" still a primary defence of Mr. Modi who is in power for about 10 years now? I think NRIs are praising Modi because he is helping with the fall of Rupee as compared to other currencies so NRIs get maximum return when they send home USD. Will you be able to share some examples of "at least doing some work in various areas"? 1. I see BJP government as expert in data manipulator and creating…

Ok I will bite. I travel to India once or twice a year for both pleasure and business. I can only tell you what I feel and see. I see incredible infrastructure changes even though India still has long way to go compared to other developed or even developing nations. Tons of airports being built and improved. Many highways being built and even completed in last few years. "changed the calculation method to measure the…

Indian highway engineers still can't figure out how to design exists and have consistent road markings/safety signs. Let them come up with a standard or enforce the already existing one first.

Very rare to see slip lanes even in normal roads of Tier 1 cities.

Just laying down asphalt isn't building highways.

Re: India ruling party's IT cell used AI to show smile on arrested protesters' faces

#380

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It was difficult for me to tell if they actually believed that fairy tale, or of they felt that it didn't really matter because they knew if they shouted "fake news" loud enough they could get enough like minded people to upvote it. It's a tactic to call everything a false flag, even your own ops. It requires virtually zero time, effort, or education to get everyone on your side doing it. Liberals fall for this trick…

> Liberals fall for this trick frequently because they are obsessed with being seen to have to correct answer, so they invest for more effort in debunking than the liars did in making their claim. Excuse me while my eyes roll into the back of my head. Whether "liberal" or "conservative", some of us still care that facts matter. And honestly I would never have worried so much about calling out so much bullshit in the…

Sorry for not expressing my point more clearly. It's not that nobody should ever engage in debunking, but that deliberately bullshit statements are often introduced on social media to steal the time of well-meaning debunkers.

I realized Qanon was going to be a problem from when it first appeared, but that's because I've spent about 20 years paying close attention to mis- and disinformation and political influence groups. What I'm pointing out here is that the time costs of lying vs debunking favor liars, especially when aggregated across communities.

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