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Facebook Is Being Overrun with Stolen, AI-Gen Images That People Think Are Real

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Re: Facebook Is Being Overrun with Stolen, AI-Gen Images That People Think Are Real

#282
post #273

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> You seem to think that anybody can control the shadow libraries and flood them with AI-generated books. That's not how any of the current libraries work, so I don't know where you got that idea from. Have you used a shadow library and seen how they function, or are you merely deducting from superior knowledge? About two minutes of googling and testing shows that Library Genesis has an anonymous upload function. I r…

There are real people running the shadow libraries, they probably can't be "hacked" as easily as you think. Sure, you might sneak one spam book or two inside, but that won't have any impact. This is the process of LibGen uploads: > After successful uploading you need to fill the bibliographic data and submit the form, otherwise the file won't be actually added. The file will be accepted to the collection (and become…

> There are real people running the shadow libraries, they probably can't be "hacked" as easily as you think.

There are real people running Reddit too (for instance), including mods. That's not an insurmountable barrier.

The shadow libraries have a particular vulnerability to spam, because AI-generated junk can overwhelm their capacity to moderate, but the natural response to the problem (block uploads) could ultimately kill the site. I imagine the main reason they can keep on top of things now is because there's not much interest in subverting their platform, but if it somehow becomes one of the "last good things" on the internet, I think that will change.

Re: Facebook Is Being Overrun with Stolen, AI-Gen Images That People Think Are Real

#283

I wonder if we will get to a point where the web is so saturated with this junk that the web itself starts to lose its luster. If AI can dream up a million impressive wood carvings, it seems like the real carving I saw in person is the only one that is actually interesting.

From Plato to Sontag there have been people trying to remind us all that the representation is not the real thing.

Perhaps AI will finally deliver the message.

But then... What if AI dreams the carvings and then drives the CNC? Would that be interesting? Or is there something special about the human being?

Re: Facebook Is Being Overrun with Stolen, AI-Gen Images That People Think Are Real

#284
post #282

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are real people running the shadow libraries, they probably can't be "hacked" as easily as you think. Sure, you might sneak one spam book or two inside, but that won't have any impact. This is the process of LibGen uploads: > After successful uploading you need to fill the bibliographic data and submit the form, otherwise the file won't be actually added. The file will be accepted to the collection (and become…

> There are real people running the shadow libraries, they probably can't be "hacked" as easily as you think. There are real people running Reddit too (for instance), including mods. That's not an insurmountable barrier. The shadow libraries have a particular vulnerability to spam, because AI-generated junk can overwhelm their capacity to moderate, but the natural response to the problem (block uploads) could ultimat…

I guess we'll see who is right. You're basically describing a DDoS attack, but those have been common for a long time now, and there are effective defence measures.

Re: Facebook Is Being Overrun with Stolen, AI-Gen Images That People Think Are Real

#285
post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The solution is paying for content, but it's been shown over and over again that the vast majority of people won't pay for most of the content they consume.

I'm not so sure, people pay for Netflix and Spotify and other content services. Maybe most of the content on YouTube is not worth paying for? There are YouTube channels i watch, but it's just a fun distraction. If they went away I'm not sure I would care that much. The educational stuff is handy, but that is all out there in different forms on the web anyway.

YouTube has a lot of content that is the highest quality of any platform. It also has a ton of crap content, because they simply have an enormous amount of content. It's like a supermarket in that sense. You could refuse to go there and buy the highest quality beef because you don't like that they also sell soft drinks and processed candy bars in the front.

Re: Facebook Is Being Overrun with Stolen, AI-Gen Images That People Think Are Real

#286
post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The solution is paying for content, but it's been shown over and over again that the vast majority of people won't pay for most of the content they consume.

I'm not so sure, people pay for Netflix and Spotify and other content services. Maybe most of the content on YouTube is not worth paying for? There are YouTube channels i watch, but it's just a fun distraction. If they went away I'm not sure I would care that much. The educational stuff is handy, but that is all out there in different forms on the web anyway.

Youtube has a wealth of highly valuable content that is very niche. I'd love for someone to figure out how to pay the creators of that content via a paid platform like netflix or spotify, many have tried, and no one has succeeded yet.

I'd like to be wrong, but so far the ad model is the best business model for such content.

Re: Facebook Is Being Overrun with Stolen, AI-Gen Images That People Think Are Real

#287

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Seems like the content market is due for a correction, then. If people are sick of toxic ads, and toxic ads pay for content, but nobody else wants to pay for the content, the content can just die and we'll figure something else out I'm sure.

I think you're on the right track. Unfortunately, the toxic "free" model with ads has trained everybody to expect all content for free. This is completely unsustainable; there will be a correction of some sort, and it's my opinion that we've already entered that stage. It's going to be painful, but I'm hopeful that the end state is that people consider ad-laden "free" content to be not worth their time. I'm already t…

Why do you believe that youtube and facebook aren't sustainable? They seem sustainable to me.

Re: Facebook Is Being Overrun with Stolen, AI-Gen Images That People Think Are Real

#288
post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is the literal plan of disinformation campaigns. The few who actually believe the BS is merely a bonus. The real goal is to get people to give up on finding the truth. At that point, they become easy to manipulate (because there is no outside standard of facts to work around).

It has never been realistic for people to find the truth, perhaps save those who are focused on a very narrow subject of truth and are dedicating their lives to the study. We have always relied on a collection of people with the aforementioned focus with some system of accreditation to tell us what is true. While far from perfect, I'm not sure a deluge of generated AI nonsense outside of the vetted channels, compleme…

In the past, being able to discern truth from lies would be the difference between life and death for most individuals. Still today, there are professions and activities, where you will be killed or seriously injured if you don't understand the difference between truth and lies. That is in contrast to a lot of academia, politics, online message boards and other purely inter-personal stuff, where truth is what the majority or the most active group decides it is, because it doesn't matter so much.

Separating truth from lies is something every one of us as a human have to do, and that we can't outsource with complete confidence to anybody else. Credentials are one of the last factors that should be weighed when determining truth vs lies.

Re: Facebook Is Being Overrun with Stolen, AI-Gen Images That People Think Are Real

#289
post #242

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> to understand any of the above to a useful level. The standard model for electrical current is not true, but it is still useful in the vast, vast, vast majority of cases. True and useful are very different things. The conflation here is erroneous. The average person is never going to understand what is true in any meaningful way, and even those who focus on certain truths are going to be focused on very specific tr…

>>The average person is never going to understand what is true in any meaningful way, Agree, but this means we are talking about two different topics. I'm talking at a functional level of truth; a base level of truths commonly understood in a society such that it can maintain cohesion. You're talking about deeply understood truths, like the 2+-hour discussion of quantum effects on the question of "why is the sky blue…

> what about when people actually have a good model, and a disinformation stream replaces that with a bad model, or causes them to just say 'nothing is true'?

Do they actually have a good model? Or a flawed model with good intentions?

Global warming stands out as a prime example where many accepted the general idea in theory back when it was a novel concept, but under a flawed model, and when the flawed model didn't stand up to practical use the conversations began... There was an attempt to rebrand the idea as climate change to try and reset the clock, so to speak, but in many ways that only confused the issue further.

Re: Facebook Is Being Overrun with Stolen, AI-Gen Images That People Think Are Real

#290
post #283

I wonder if we will get to a point where the web is so saturated with this junk that the web itself starts to lose its luster. If AI can dream up a million impressive wood carvings, it seems like the real carving I saw in person is the only one that is actually interesting.

From Plato to Sontag there have been people trying to remind us all that the representation is not the real thing. Perhaps AI will finally deliver the message. But then... What if AI dreams the carvings and then drives the CNC? Would that be interesting? Or is there something special about the human being?

There is something special about the human being
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