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AI-generated 'poverty porn' fake images being used by aid agencies

theguardian.com

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Re: AI-generated 'poverty porn' fake images being used by aid agencies

#181

Post by philipallstar »

Hilift wrote: post #84
philipallstar wrote: post #10

> “It saddens me that the fight for more ethical representation of people experiencing poverty now extends to the unreal,” she said. This is an odd way of saying "people aren't aware of poverty amongst white people".

Countries providing much of the foreign aid are sometimes in denial of poverty in their own country. The UK is projecting 22% in 2024/25 to 23% in 2029/30. Bangladeshi and Pakistani households are 53% and 47%. Families with three or more children 44%. https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/sn07...

Agreed - Appalachia in the US has very high poverty rates, and it's definitely not a part of the national conversation on poverty. For obvious reasons.

Re: AI-generated 'poverty porn' fake images being used by aid agencies

#182

Post by throwaway48476 »

nradov wrote: post #176
throwaway48476 wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The real answer is to rebuild the high trust society by relentlessly removing the low trust elements, the same way the high trust society was created to begin with.

That isn't a real answer. There is no effective way to remove the low-trust elements who physically operate in jurisdictions with no effective law enforcement. Like what are we going to do, fire cruise missiles at random Internet cafes in Nigeria and Cambodia?

There are alternatives such as cutting the internet cable or requiring insurance on all cross jurisdictional transactions.

Re: AI-generated 'poverty porn' fake images being used by aid agencies

#183

Post by saulpw »

nradov wrote: post #176
throwaway48476 wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The real answer is to rebuild the high trust society by relentlessly removing the low trust elements, the same way the high trust society was created to begin with.

That isn't a real answer. There is no effective way to remove the low-trust elements who physically operate in jurisdictions with no effective law enforcement. Like what are we going to do, fire cruise missiles at random Internet cafes in Nigeria and Cambodia?

We are heading for a period of a not-fully-connected internet. Already people are cutting off China and Russia from their sites because their bot traffic is either overwhelming or malignant.

Re: AI-generated 'poverty porn' fake images being used by aid agencies

#184

Post by jameshart »

nradov wrote: post #162
jameshart wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On the other hand you can at least expect that if someone causes an accident they will suffer consequences. Courts and insurance exist as mechanisms to transfer liability including for medical bills, and the criminal system (in many countries) can and does punish people for reckless driving. Sure, you still need to look after yourself in the moment - but there are incentives in place to discourage drivers from misbeh…

There are plenty of countries where driving laws aren't enforced. Using the Internet anywhere is sort of like driving in a corrupt developing country. This creates a certain amount of cognitive dissonance in people who have spent their whole lives in functional developed countries where obeying the law is the default behavior.

Right. The internet is more like driving in the kind of country where people give you advice like ‘if you come across roadworks and a guy dressed as a cop tries to wave you over, you need to hit reverse and pull a J-turn out of there or you will die’.

Re: AI-generated 'poverty porn' fake images being used by aid agencies

#185

Post by victorbjorklund »

A4ET8a8uTh0_v2 wrote: post #6

I was thinking about it, because wife was telling me story from work, where a woman was scammed with AI generated stuff and her colleague was a little too nonchalant about it ( 'it is on her to do her due diligence' ). And it made me annoyed. How can you possibly make due diligence when everyone around you is incentivized to lie? We do have a concept of fraud, but advertising seems to be able to move around its edges…

And the stuff is getting really really good. Like, sometimes I have really thought this is AI, but then it turns out it is real and many times I'm unsure. It's really a different world now. And a lot of these frauds are things that could happen in the past, but only if you were a really valuable target, meaning that someone would invest a lot of time and resources on tailoring something just for you. But these days it's getting so cheap that anybody is that target now.

Re: AI-generated 'poverty porn' fake images being used by aid agencies

#186

Post by lnsru »

tgv wrote: post #118
lnsru wrote: post #34

It’s really showing the real picture of all the aid agencies. They aim for your money. That’s the single purpose. Because they can’t provide photo documentation of they work on the site where apparently the aid happened. So sad. And many people fall for this scam.

What reason did you have to write that? The focus you put on "taking your money" in combination with "scam" suggest you think the aid is not real, or not merited.

I was growing up in a third world country back then and saw how this aid was provided. Endless corruption locally. On the giving side it looked of course nice.

I know a woman in Germany who brings aid in person to the ones in need. I donate laptops and parts occasionally. But it is not scalable. She observes every case in person.

Re: AI-generated 'poverty porn' fake images being used by aid agencies

#187

Post by nradov »

Frieren wrote: post #171
Aurornis wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> her colleague was a little too nonchalant about it ( 'it is on her to do her due diligence' ). I’m always fascinated by victim blaming culture, which has been pervasive long before generative AI. You see it most frequently in cases where the victim is thought to be a safe target: Someone wealthier, an office rival, a corporation. On HN it appears in every thread about someone being scammed, but it was most obvious…

> On HN it appears in every thread about someone being scammed, but it was most obvious in the recent threads where JPMorgan was defrauded by a startup they acquired. Seemingly 1/3 of the comments were from people commenting that JPMorgan was actually at fault for allowing themselves to be scammed. I find that awful. JPMorgan should be held accountable, like many similar firms, for all the money that they themselves…

Blame directed towards the Supreme Court is misplaced. While some decisions have always seemed partisan, the real fault lies with Congress. The higher courts only come into play when the law is ambiguous or contradictory because Congress did a bad job. At that point any legal decision becomes something of a toss up, and even if the Supreme Court issues the "right" decision today they might reverse themselves tomorrow. Unless voters hold Congress accountable then nothing will improve.

For example, maybe a future President will nominate Supreme Court justices who will overturn the notorious Citizens United v. FEC decision. But ultimately the only stable solution will be to follow the defined process and amend the Constitution rather than trying to patch around it. Yes, that will be difficult but nothing else can really work.

Re: AI-generated 'poverty porn' fake images being used by aid agencies

#188

Post by nradov »

throwaway48476 wrote: post #182
nradov wrote: post #176

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That isn't a real answer. There is no effective way to remove the low-trust elements who physically operate in jurisdictions with no effective law enforcement. Like what are we going to do, fire cruise missiles at random Internet cafes in Nigeria and Cambodia?

There are alternatives such as cutting the internet cable or requiring insurance on all cross jurisdictional transactions.

Those are not alternatives. VPNs and botnets already exist. We have minimal practical ability to control Internet traffic or transactions between most foreign countries. All it takes is a single compromised device in the USA for the scam traffic to get through.

Re: AI-generated 'poverty porn' fake images being used by aid agencies

#189

Post by BobaFloutist »

SkyeCA wrote: post #28
A4ET8a8uTh0_v2 wrote: post #6

I was thinking about it, because wife was telling me story from work, where a woman was scammed with AI generated stuff and her colleague was a little too nonchalant about it ( 'it is on her to do her due diligence' ). And it made me annoyed. How can you possibly make due diligence when everyone around you is incentivized to lie? We do have a concept of fraud, but advertising seems to be able to move around its edges…

> How can you possibly make due diligence when everyone around you is incentivized to lie? You can't and the correct response is a total lack of trust by default because that's the easiest way to protect yourself. They really are out to get you(r money).

That's no way to live. The optimal amount to get scammed is >0, because to 100% avoid it you have to cheapen and weaken your life to an unreasonable extent.

It's like how the only 100% secure system is offline, off, unplugged, wiped, and slagged. Or how the only way to be 100% safe from communicable disease is to be the last living human.

And that's what makes our tolerance for grift and scams so obnoxious. It's one thing when dishonest people lie and cheat and steal, it's another entirely when our institutions and leaders forgive, excuse, enable, and even embrace it.

Re: AI-generated 'poverty porn' fake images being used by aid agencies

#190

Post by A4ET8a8uTh0_v2 »

fluoridation wrote: post #178
A4ET8a8uTh0_v2 wrote: post #160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You are living in the past. I do not mean it in pejorative sense. People are wholesale dumping their entire lives into various llms. Various advertising profiles know much more than you cutting off someone in traffic. More than that, they can infer a lot more. And if they don't, they will be replaced by companies that do..

>People are wholesale dumping their entire lives into various llms. Not to be dismissive, but that's on them. You can control what you tell the bartender. You can't control what people whisper about you behind your back. >Various advertising profiles know much more than you cutting off someone in traffic. They "know" different things. Also, oh no! You mean to tell me advertisers are tracking me to optimize which ads…

It is.. not a bad argument, but again, a little dated.

Except you are not telling this to a bartender. Sometimes you don't even tell it at all. Can you control what your bank parses this way? Can you control what your insurance throws there? Can you control what data brokers have on you ( and plop there )? I may have given you a wrong impression that individual plop means 1 to 1 impact. It does not.

And that is before I get to the part that a bartender was unlikely to spread your personal stuff in any meaningful way.

Chuckles. See above. If you think there is no 'fusion' going on, I don't think we should continue this conversation further.

Man.. I use ubo and noscript, but you have to not want to know to live under the impression that there is no concerted effort to, ideally, remove user's ability to run what they choose to run.

You either move or not be a bad actor to have that kind of reputation.

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