I spent the day with Smallsteps, heading into the city to get the present she wanted to get for her mother's birthday next week, doing some activities, going to the park and then finally for Daddy and Daughter coffee before coming home. It was nice and when we did get home, the house was relatively clean and we shared a good meal of tortilla wraps, and watermelon and mango for dessert. It is great that after so many years of not being able to eat the same things at the table, we are able to enjoy a meal together.
Keeping it real.
And on the subject of real, there is a story going around at the moment about a newspaper that printed a story using quotes from an AI chatbot. It is simulating the responses of Michael Schumacher, the ex-F1 driver who ended up in a coma after a ski accident a decade ago. I haven't read the interview and while it sounds pretty tasteless, I wonder if in the current content environment, is it?
“My life has completely changed since [the accident]. That was a horrible time for my wife, my children and the whole family,”
At the end of the article, it was revealed that the responses were AI-generated, but it hasn't stopped people being outraged at the invasion of privacy and Anne Hoffmann, the editor of Die Aktuelle, has been sacked for the story.
A magazine has been labelled ‘disgraceful’ by fans online after using an artificial intelligence programme to produce fake quotes from Michael Schumacher – before depicting the response as an “exclusive interview” on their front cover.
Well.... technically....
It was an exclusive interview with Michael Schumacher, wasn't it?
This gets weird perhaps, but if an AI is simulating a person with a name, can it be said that it isn't a person with that name? After all, if a man can call themselves and be legally a woman, why can't an AI persona be just as fluid?
Told you... weird.
But, then there is also a double standard involved here, right?
Victims of deepfake porn have little to no redress because deepfake porn isn't illegal. Once deepfake imagery hits the internet, it's nearly always there to stay.
Isn't that an invasion of privacy?
A friend of mine was recently telling me how one of their Facebook friends was sending a video of themselves masturbating enthusiastically in front of a camera - except it wasn't them. It was a deepfake video and the person was being blackmailed.
What recourse does the guy have?
None.
Now, obviously there is a difference between the two in terms of the Schumacher story, as it could be said that they are misrepresenting what is inside the magazine, but isn't that what clickbait does? This is just taking it to another level, a level that is becoming increasingly accepted as part of modern culture.
Look at the arguments that people have on Hive for using AI-generated images and text, defending the use because they prompted the AI to create. Under that explanation, in the case of the article, it is exclusive content and Die Aktuelle is free to use it as they please in their newspaper, as they clearly stated at the end of the article, that the quotes didn't actually come from Schumacher himself.
This world is getting weird, eh?
I feel that we are making this world unnecessarily complex with the constant fragmenting of groups, as well as the redefinition of definitions, making them meaningless. We keep citing "changing culture" as the justification as to why it has to be accepted, as if we have no control over culture ourselves. Culture is made by us, it is our behaviors that create it, but what we aren't recognizing is that we are heavily influenced by the way things are depicted in the media, which drives culture too and, its only incentive as a business model is to maximize profits.
Something to remember.
The media is a business, just like any corporation, and they are incentivized to increase bottom lines to maximize shareholder wealth. And, if we as people are willing to accept something like AI-generated content as original work, we have to accept that they are going to be leveraging it to sell content to us. We are the consumers that drive supply with what we demand, and where we click drives the mechanisms that drive more of it.
The world is a representation of us, and it is getting weirder.
I am glad that for now at least, Smallsteps leads a real life.
Analogue. Manual. Real.
It won't last.
Taraz
[ Gen1: Hive ]
