Live data from Hacker News

1-Bit Bonsai Image 4B Image Generation for Local Devices

prismml.com

121–130 of 214 posts

Re: 1-Bit Bonsai Image 4B Image Generation for Local Devices

#121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am pretty excited. The factuality of important events has been distorted for most of history. Moving to a low information trust society is something that I think will be positive.

Curious about this take, how do you mean? I understand the point of distorted facts, but what I’m not sure how things are improved by basically having no trust in any facts?

I’m not the original poster, but I think they are saying if we are more skeptical about what we read, we are less likely to absorb propaganda as fact.

Re: 1-Bit Bonsai Image 4B Image Generation for Local Devices

#122

Twenty years ago, I don't think any of us were excited about a future internet where we couldn't trust whether what we were seeing or reading was genuine. I hope one day we'll be able to look back on this era as an aberration, like that scene in Mad Men where the Drapers fling their picnic rubbish onto the grass and drive away.

Aberration? That seems like an extreme overreaction.

I don't know what else you'd call the widespread and enthusiastic adoption of a technology that is designed to exploit people's trust in the veracity of images by mimicking reality as seamlessly as possible. I think it's both aberrant and abhorrent for the tech industry to be actively developing something that's permanently polluting our information environment.

Here's a local story published after I made my comment, about tour operators using AI images to misrepresent destinations in the area: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-06-01/ai-videos-spark-conce...

Increasing the availability of fake image generators directly enables more harms like these.

Re: 1-Bit Bonsai Image 4B Image Generation for Local Devices

#123

Twenty years ago, I don't think any of us were excited about a future internet where we couldn't trust whether what we were seeing or reading was genuine. I hope one day we'll be able to look back on this era as an aberration, like that scene in Mad Men where the Drapers fling their picnic rubbish onto the grass and drive away.

You don't remember the discussion around Narrative Science (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narrative_Science) then. They were a university spin-out that could write plausible-sounding baseball news articles (and later finance) from the stats. Their software enabled local news websites to publish articles about every game, which was seen as a boon to sports fans and a key driver for web traffic. There was a lot of criticism about how it wasn't 'real' though.

Slate published this about it in 2012: https://slate.com/technology/2012/03/narrative-science-robot...

For as long as we've had computers people have tried to make them sound human. It's not a new thing that people are concerned about knowing if they're talking to (or reading) a robot imitating a person.

Re: 1-Bit Bonsai Image 4B Image Generation for Local Devices

#124

Twenty years ago, I don't think any of us were excited about a future internet where we couldn't trust whether what we were seeing or reading was genuine. I hope one day we'll be able to look back on this era as an aberration, like that scene in Mad Men where the Drapers fling their picnic rubbish onto the grass and drive away.

There's always existed misinformation in text and in images. It's been possible to manipulate photographs for as long as photography has been around. It's becoming easier for sure, but it's not really a qualitative change. Trusting anything you saw on the internet twenty years ago would have been as ridiculous as it is today.

Re: 1-Bit Bonsai Image 4B Image Generation for Local Devices

#125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Curious about this take, how do you mean? I understand the point of distorted facts, but what I’m not sure how things are improved by basically having no trust in any facts?

I’m not the original poster, but I think they are saying if we are more skeptical about what we read, we are less likely to absorb propaganda as fact.

[deleted]

Re: 1-Bit Bonsai Image 4B Image Generation for Local Devices

#126

Twenty years ago, I don't think any of us were excited about a future internet where we couldn't trust whether what we were seeing or reading was genuine. I hope one day we'll be able to look back on this era as an aberration, like that scene in Mad Men where the Drapers fling their picnic rubbish onto the grass and drive away.

You don't remember the discussion around Narrative Science ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narrative_Science ) then. They were a university spin-out that could write plausible-sounding baseball news articles (and later finance) from the stats. Their software enabled local news websites to publish articles about every game, which was seen as a boon to sports fans and a key driver for web traffic. There was a lot of cr…

I didn't say there wasn't bot-generated content in the past. I said we weren't excited about a future where it was de rigeur.

Re: 1-Bit Bonsai Image 4B Image Generation for Local Devices

#127

Twenty years ago, I don't think any of us were excited about a future internet where we couldn't trust whether what we were seeing or reading was genuine. I hope one day we'll be able to look back on this era as an aberration, like that scene in Mad Men where the Drapers fling their picnic rubbish onto the grass and drive away.

What could make it stop?

well we could [HN terms of service violation]

Re: 1-Bit Bonsai Image 4B Image Generation for Local Devices

#130

Twenty years ago, I don't think any of us were excited about a future internet where we couldn't trust whether what we were seeing or reading was genuine. I hope one day we'll be able to look back on this era as an aberration, like that scene in Mad Men where the Drapers fling their picnic rubbish onto the grass and drive away.

I am pretty excited. The factuality of important events has been distorted for most of history. Moving to a low information trust society is something that I think will be positive.

I don’t see it leading anywhere but a flat earth. When no one can be trusted whoever can tell you want to hear will be who people listen to and snake oil salesmen will reign supreme. Even if he was CIA, Cronkite’s world was closer to the truth than Alex Jones’.
Post reply on HN