Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

What Happens When AI-Generated Lies Are More Compelling Than the Truth?

behavioralscientist.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

21–30 of 111 posts

Re: What Happens When AI-Generated Lies Are More Compelling Than the Truth?

#21

Post by supriyo-biswas »

EGreg wrote: post #15
HPsquared wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's the same idea as "lies spread faster than truth". Lies are often crafted to be especially juicy and salacious. Gossip has always been a problem; GenAI just extends this problem to other media.

What is it that makes some people on HN pop up to always respond to any issue with AI with a version of "it was always this way, the problem always existed, AI does nothing fundamentally new". When it's clear that huge leaps in scale, coordination, and output quality accessible to anyone, are exactly what produces "new" use cases. Not to mention that swarms of agents are a fundamentally new thing, that doesn't requir…

> when the iPhone came out, very few people said "well, this is nothing new, computers existed for a long time, this is just minituarizing it and unplugging it from the wall."

This website is, of course, notorious for its Dropbox comment, so regrettably the viewpoint you speak of is rather common.

Re: What Happens When AI-Generated Lies Are More Compelling Than the Truth?

#22

Post by 0xbadcafebee »

When something new is happening (or new information comes to light), and that thing has the potential to do harm, people come out of the woodwork to make doomsday predictions. Usually the doomsday predictions are wrong. A lot of these predictions involve technologies we all take for granted today.

Like the telephone. People were terrified when they first heard about it. How will I know who's really on the other end? Won't it ruin our lives, making it impossible to leave the house, because people will be calling at all hours? Will it electrocute me? Will it burn down my house? Will evil spirits be attracted to it, and seep out of the receiver? (that was a real concern)

It turns out we just adapt to technology and then forget we were ever concerned. Sometimes that's not a great thing... but it doesn't bring about doomsday.

Re: What Happens When AI-Generated Lies Are More Compelling Than the Truth?

#23

Post by piva00 »

rightbyte wrote: post #4
HPsquared wrote: post #2

There was a brief window where photography and videos became widespread so events could be documented and evidenced. Generative AI is drawing that period to an end, and we're returning to "who said / posted this" and having to trust the source rather than the image/message itself. It's a big regression.

Videos and photos have been faked for a long time. Nothing has changed in that regard but decreasing the effort required somewhat.

I get bored by myself repeating it but I always think it's worth to mention: the scale and degree matter, in almost all cases of an issue, if not we can reduce a lot of issues to "it has always happened before".

Localised fires are common in nature, a massive wildfire is just a fire, at a different scale and degree. Lunatics raving about conspiracies were very common in public squares, in front of metro stations, anywhere there was a large-ish flow of people, now they are very common in social media, reaching millions in an instant, different scale and degree.

Just sheer scale and degree makes an issue a completely other issue, decreasing the effort required to fake a video to the point where a naïve/layperson cannot distinguish it from a real one is a massive difference. Before you needed to be technically proficient with a number of tools, put a lot of work, and get a somewhat satisfying result to fake something, now you just throw a magical incantation of words and it spits out a video you can deceive someone, it's a completely different issue.

Re: What Happens When AI-Generated Lies Are More Compelling Than the Truth?

#24

Post by Iulioh »

A_D_E_P_T wrote: post #17
Vilian wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Would be very interesting to require generative AI companies to log their created images for that purpose, it isn't gonna eliminate self hosted alternative, but it can destroy any fake evidence faster

Logging them would be rather cost prohibitive, but images can be hashed + (invisibly) watermarked and video can be hashed frame by frame, in such a way that each frame authenticates the one before it. Surely there's a way to durably mark generated content.

It works untill someone takes a screenshoot of the image

Re: What Happens When AI-Generated Lies Are More Compelling Than the Truth?

#26

Post by thegreatpeter »

HPsquared wrote: post #2

There was a brief window where photography and videos became widespread so events could be documented and evidenced. Generative AI is drawing that period to an end, and we're returning to "who said / posted this" and having to trust the source rather than the image/message itself. It's a big regression.

This has been a problem with the media for years as well.

You’re forced to trust the source and “read between the lines” or you’re reading something politically motivated.

Nothing new. I hope folks start trusting the source more.

Re: What Happens When AI-Generated Lies Are More Compelling Than the Truth?

#27

Post by neepi »

HPsquared wrote: post #2

There was a brief window where photography and videos became widespread so events could be documented and evidenced. Generative AI is drawing that period to an end, and we're returning to "who said / posted this" and having to trust the source rather than the image/message itself. It's a big regression.

I await cryptographically signed photos coming out of cameras. Actually I’ve said that should be the case for the last 20 years.

You should be able to follow a chain of evidence towards an unprocessed raw image potentially.

Re: What Happens When AI-Generated Lies Are More Compelling Than the Truth?

#28

Post by [deleted] »

EGreg wrote: post #11
rightbyte wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Videos and photos have been faked for a long time. Nothing has changed in that regard but decreasing the effort required somewhat.

"Nothing has changed in that regard" really, nothing? Does anyone other than me notice this common tendency on HN: 1. Blockhain use case mentioned? Someone must say "blockchain doesn't solve any problems" no matter what, and always ignoring any actual substance of what's being done until pressed. 2. AI issue mentioned? Someone must say "nothing at all has changed, this problem has always existed" downplaying the vast…

[deleted]

Re: What Happens When AI-Generated Lies Are More Compelling Than the Truth?

#29

Post by A_D_E_P_T »

Iulioh wrote: post #24
A_D_E_P_T wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Logging them would be rather cost prohibitive, but images can be hashed + (invisibly) watermarked and video can be hashed frame by frame, in such a way that each frame authenticates the one before it. Surely there's a way to durably mark generated content.

It works untill someone takes a screenshoot of the image

The watermark would still be there.

You can take a photograph of the image with an old Polaroid and, if the resolution is high enough, the watermark would still be there.

Re: What Happens When AI-Generated Lies Are More Compelling Than the Truth?

#30

Post by thih9 »

neepi wrote: post #27
HPsquared wrote: post #2

There was a brief window where photography and videos became widespread so events could be documented and evidenced. Generative AI is drawing that period to an end, and we're returning to "who said / posted this" and having to trust the source rather than the image/message itself. It's a big regression.

I await cryptographically signed photos coming out of cameras. Actually I’ve said that should be the case for the last 20 years. You should be able to follow a chain of evidence towards an unprocessed raw image potentially.

There is ongoing work[1] and cameras that offer some support already[2].

[1]: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Content_Authenticity_Initiat...

[2]: https://leica-camera.com/en-int/photography/content-credenti...

Post reply on HN