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Facebook Discovers Fake AI-Generated Profiles

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151–160 of 219 posts

Re: Facebook Discovers Fake AI-Generated Profiles

#151
post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you’re referring to the Bible verse Leviticus 20:13, well, I’m sorry to say that the excerpt from “The God Delusion” or wherever you learned this simplistic piece of misinformation is, in fact, incorrect. Shocker. In fact, there is no account of capital punishment, in regards to this law (killing homosexual men), in Jewish history. As for Judaism, Rabbinic tradition understands the Torah's system of capital punish…

Did not know about it, so just checked +20 different versions/translations[1] of the said verse in the bible, and scripture could not have been sharper and clearer on several points; - men who had sex with another men - should be killed - they deserve it Would you point me to a source/insight maybe? Else I will believe, that this is too, as I have witnessed countless times personally, nothing but an apologetic approa…

Ask yourself (and your bible) "what did Jesus say"? And "what would Jesus do"?

I believe that Jesus did not speak at all about homosexuality. There is no indication that he attacked or held any anger towards homosexuals.

Conversely Jesus was strongly anti-capitalist! No money changing or animal selling in temples folks!

But fundamentally - when reading the bible your question must be "am I a Christian - or not?" what is the purpose of Jesus's ministry and passion if he did not bring a message and a purpose beyond and more significant than the messages revealed to prophets and his servants? If you are a Christian surely your preoccupation must be his word - and more importantly his meaning; interpreted in the context of his explicitly stated principles and lived actions.

Re: Facebook Discovers Fake AI-Generated Profiles

#152
post #142
post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I had the thought a day or so ago that a system could be created to tie images to their respective cameras with a private key stored inside of a chip that self-destructs when you attempt to read the key from outside of it, along with a trust hierarchy of certs from various camera manufacturers. A little like hardware auth tokens mixed with PKI. Does that sound like something that would be feasible to produce/practica…

Feasible? Sure, to the limits of what we can do with secure enclaves today. Desirable? Well, you've created a system that authenticates a camera as being at a place at a time. It's a good way to authenticate photos, but a bad way to stay anonymous. How do you feel about photographers and journalists becoming even larger targets for anyone who wants to keep a secret?

In the past the actual image authenticated that the camera was at a place at a time, and anonymity was preserved.

The issue is : does it authenticate that a particular camera that belongs to a particular person is/was at a place at a time and produced an image - because if so then if the device is found in a search the owner/user/keeper is in hot water.

So the camera must be anonymous - but it must be impossible for a lie about the place and time to be encoded into the image.

Re: Facebook Discovers Fake AI-Generated Profiles

#153
post #37
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,…

Professional journalists have abdicated that role, and can no longer said to be "reputable". Plausible deniability that they were working in good faith was irrevocably lost when they failed to adapt in response to the valid criticisms they were receiving on social media, not because "fake news" trolls took over. Twitter did indeed kill the newspaper star, just not in the way they think.

Some professional journalists.

And there were some valid criticisms.

This is a very common stance now - because one person said one thing, or a person said something once, or did something once then all people associated with that person (in the mind of the commentator) are a "thing".

The reasoning is "a rightwing person once said a racist thing, therefore anyone who is rightwing is definitely racist" it is clearly nonsense, and is extremely corrosive to debate.

Re: Facebook Discovers Fake AI-Generated Profiles

#154

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…

Even more meta, but one of the really big questions is: How to give people what they need instead of what they want?

I think it was pg who said "make something people want". If the plan is to get rich that is the way to go. If you want to improve the world, you should build something people need. Unfortunately, they often don't want it or don't want it enough to pay for it which makes the endeavor unsustainable.

Re: Facebook Discovers Fake AI-Generated Profiles

#155
Recently I played around with the newest iPhone filters. The pictures had weird shadows and distorted backgrounds.

Are distorted backgrounds really an indicator for fake profiles? Smartphones do all kind of weird stuff to "real" images.

Re: Facebook Discovers Fake AI-Generated Profiles

#157
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…

You’re downvoting and replying to me but your comment is directed at someone else.

Re: Facebook Discovers Fake AI-Generated Profiles

#158
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,…

In most countries journalists double as officers of propaganda ministry. You only have to look how certain topics are being reported to get an idea.

Re: Facebook Discovers Fake AI-Generated Profiles

#159
Why take them down? That's someone's free speech right? This is what we're told about false information and political ads with outright lies in them, aren't we? Why would this be any different?

Rather predictable that the "line" for taking something down suddenly appears when you're lying to Facebook. Lie to other users and it's fine... as long as you are a real commodity, ahem, I mean "person."

Cease to lie in a way that allows Facebook to make money (not much point serving ads to bots, is there?), and all of the sudden you're taken down. Funny that.

Re: Facebook Discovers Fake AI-Generated Profiles

#160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Did not know about it, so just checked +20 different versions/translations[1] of the said verse in the bible, and scripture could not have been sharper and clearer on several points; - men who had sex with another men - should be killed - they deserve it Would you point me to a source/insight maybe? Else I will believe, that this is too, as I have witnessed countless times personally, nothing but an apologetic approa…

Right... the argument that “that isn’t the original Hebrew” is moot. People read their versions of the Bible and most versions are explicit in their aversion to gays.

I think you have misinterpreted the parent comment. I'm pretty sure they're saying "if all these translations unanimously agreed that's what the original Hebrew said, then that really is what it said", but you seem to have interpreted it as "look at how many translations are wrong!".

Is that right, or did I misunderstand you? If that is what you're saying, do you have a reason to disagree with all of those translations? Can you offer your own for that passage?

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