Information That Does Not Exist

in STEMGeeks2 years ago

Might sound conspiratorial but I had a thought in my head the other day that I wonder if a lot of the things on Twitter and other big media companies is just filled with thousands or millions of bots talking about these talking points and shit keeping the same message. We know there’s insane amounts of bots on there, what’s to say that they don’t have them all programmed to keep the conversation going in a particular direction? @cmplxty

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I have had the same thought for a long time as well and I am "pretty sure" that this is happening with increasing reach, across an increasing number of platforms. For example, I play Words with Friends and while I only play with one person I actually know (we have been playing together for a decade or so now), I do play "quick play" competitions with strangers relatively often also. However, a couple years ago, I have noticed a couple "glitches", where I recognize the profile pic of the player, but the name has changed, as well as times where the name has been replaced by a Zynga (developers) profile number.

Are they glitches?

Me being a little bit of a conspiracy thinker of a kind, suspects that what is actually happening is that in order to boost player number transactions that are used to inform marketers as to the worth of advertising on the platform, the developers are adding bots into play. After playing for so long, I feel like I even recognize the patterns of the bots, as they seem to be programmed to take longer to play a word, waiting to the last couple seconds before time runs out. Why would they do this? Well, Time on Site ToS is one of the metrics that advertisers use to predict reachability and impact, so it makes sense to boost the numbers.

These are four of my friends:

None of them exist.

A few years ago, an Nvidia code called StyleGAN GAN = generative adversarial networks) was used to create an awesome page that most must know by now, https://thispersondoesnotexist.com/ - where a an AI-generated person is created on every refresh.

These cats don't exist either:

Now, combining this with what @cmplxty was mentioning, and a relatively realistic character profile can be made that an AI can then direct to influence potential readers, or players as the case may be. On top of this, a lot of the news these days is also AI generated and it is also leveraging social media platforms to flesh-out its content and support different views.

Using groups of AI-controlled profiles, pictures and supporting AI-generated content, it is possible to not only inject support transactions like likes and follows into the system, but also build entire catalogues of material over time that can be used to support the AI character itself, giving credibility and increasing influence over the audience and fooling many into interacting with them, giving more credence to the account and, more transactions.

With so much of the public discourse being social media powered, it is highly probable that AI bots are generating a huge amount of the online content and directing the direction of the conversation. And is it any wonder that so much of the content is largely the same?

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Can you really call yourself a blogger if you aren't writing the content? It is like saying,

"I am great in bed, because I pay a gigolo to do the job."

If "normal people" are using these kinds of AI content creators, just imagine when there are trillions of dollars on the line through advertising revenue on these mass-media platforms - do you think they are not using them, do you think their "integrity" wouldn't allow it?

I suspect that they are very, very common and for the most part, the average person will not be able to pick real from fake, because even if they were able to given the time, the sheer volume and speed of content delivery means that they will not be able to "fact check" each piece, which means they will use their intuition to decide what is real or not. And, since intuition is trained by experience, it is also going to be influenced by the conditioning of practice, meaning that people are accustomed to seeing this content and assuming it is real - so when familiar content is presented, the heuristic is to trust it.

There really is nothing to stop these kinds of accounts from "co-existing" (irony) with real accounts and becoming so ubiquitous, that it is impossible to tell one from another if using purely human faculties. Not only this, the policing of bots is done by the platforms themselves, which means they are able to identify external operators and use them to train their internal AIs to become more natural too.

There has been growing concern over the usage of deep fakes to essentially superimpose faces and voices over existing content to change the narrative and the better it gets, the less we can trust what we see and hear. They have been bringing actors back from the dead for a while now, but the software is advancing at such a speed, that it can be applied to anyone, within moments. Can we trust the reports on a war? That eye-witness account of a robbery? The person shilling medical advice?

Who is held accountable for incorrect information, when the source doesn't exist?

Like it or not, you have to admit, we have created a very strange world for ourselves and one that is increasingly becoming less trustable. Seeing isn't believing anymore and as our experiences and interactions become increasingly non-physical, the less informative our experience becomes. We are constantly bombarded by messaging across all kinds of topics that influence what we believe and therefore, the decisions we make, but we have no way of knowing how much of the truth, ever existed at all.

We are now finding out what happens when Non-Playing Characters, start to play.

What is non-existence if what doesn't exist, affects the physical world?

Taraz
[ Gen1: Hive ]

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The non-playER characters (unless non-playing characters are some thing I didn't know existed XD) always play, just now it seems we need to count AI as player whereas previously only humans were counted as player XD

Hm now I wonder how an AI would go in a roleplaying game, and if we would get mad at each other.

(unless non-playing characters are some thing I didn't know existed XD)

I might have invented it ;D

just now it seems we need to count AI as player whereas previously only humans were counted as player XD

Yes, this is my point and, they might seem more human than some of the humans these days :)

and if we would get mad at each other.

All your base are belong to us.

I was going to comment but do I really know if this post is proof of brain or proof of silicon.?

I am squeezing - they feel real.

Sorry man ended up being a day from hell lol haven’t gotten onto hive until now! Happy to say though that since my recent misgivings about work, it’s gotten a lot better now that I’ve gotten some good work under my belt. Feeling like a productive worker again!

That’s crazy I’m not shocked that there’s random people image generating software out there. Maybe I’ll go on there and grab one as my profile picture here hahaha just to mess with people!

It’s crazy but not surprising that people are using algorithms to write posts. That’s a clear example of just being lazy and wanting the potential money relates to blogging and advertising on the larger platforms without really doing anything to do it. I certainly hope that it doesn’t become a popular thing on here.. I would heartily down vote that one lol

Sorry man ended up being a day from hell lol haven’t gotten onto hive until now!

I know those days (weeks, months, years) - no worries :)

Maybe I’ll go on there and grab one as my profile picture here hahaha just to mess with people!

They make catfishing so easy!

I certainly hope that it doesn’t become a popular thing on here.. I would heartily down vote that one lol

Back in early Steem days, one of the highest paid accounts was a bot - it finally got caught, but it was taking thousands upon thousands.

Your thinking is very scary.

Someone once thought I was a bit.

In fact, there are times I think accounts like yours and @taskmaster4450 are bots but when I see the posts they lol so real than the replies too.

I must say, you are very very observant.

I wouldn't have noticed the profile change in words with friends.

But a lot of things online should actually not be taken hook, line and sinker.

Anyways, I envy your thought process

There is so much deception online, that even if you notice one or two, you miss 20 or 30 others! It is crazy. Every click on mainstream social media has a team of behavioral economists behind it, predicting what you will do.

Oh! and now just wait until the use of the Metaverse and the "Cancel Culture" sophistry to spread and expand further around the world. Not to mention by when the people have free and easy access to OpenAI GPT3 technologies and everyone can also use sophisticated deepfake software to play with it in their own PCs as if it were Windows Paint or Adobe Photoshop to create the next iteration of the "Potemkin Internet".

In effect, we will have created a strange world for ourselves that will move further and further away from what scientists and neurologists might be capable to finally decipher and define what reality, consciousness and the truth actually are. Hahahaha

In the end, we all die alone. Funnily enough - we will live that way too.

Alone we came, alone we go! :)

There once was a plattform, think it started in Munich called "die Lokalisten"
You only could join by a invitation from a real life friend. And than you saw .. ah that Person was invited by ... and meeting a new online person you saw all the real people between both. I loved it because you Couldnt fake!
But than they got greedy. Easy open access. Lot advertising. And finally sold for a lot of money to a big Company endet up as a - in my eyes - unfriendly bunch of liars and fake daters.

It was a great concept with a "proof of existance" wich had lot of positive impact on peoples behavior

When Google started Gmail, it was invite only - it was a very easy way to get a lot of people in, because it makes it look "scarce" - once there are enough though, there is no point. The critical mass is reached, people can get an invite from anywhere anyway.

We are easily hacked.

I always felt that my friend @tarazkp was as handsome as a koala!😁
Perhaps bots can't create fancy sentence expressions like me.
So, I'm not a bot!

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Perhaps they can! There are some very good bots out there - some bad ones too - which do you think will get closest?

Perhaps they can! There are some very good bots out there - some bad ones too - which do you think will get closest?

Dear @tarazkp, I think the position and value of the bot will be determined by the religion and ethical consciousness and ability of the person who created it!

Because of the original sin committed by the first Adam, all human beings were cursed to die.
So, the second Adam came and taught mankind the secret of eternal life. After all, it is said in the Bible that the Creator decides the fate of creation.

Perhaps @tarazkp will walk the same fateful path as his father!

I known some friends by seeing their pages and we started to share news together , I developed good relations and feelings of noble friendship, although most of them maybe are fake. Sometimes virtual friends leave an imprint and good lesson that we benefit a lot from it.
Do you find that friendship and feelings just a trick while you feel it inside of you?

Most feelings are false, aren't they? How do you know that you are feeling the right way, based on what caused the feeling? What if you heard wrongly, were mistaken in what you saw? You still feel something.

It's life experiences that show the right situations and feeling. It is not important to know and care about others appearance, but the precious thing is sincerity.

Like it or not, you have to admit, we have created a very strange world for ourselves and one that is increasingly becoming less trustable.

We live in a world that is full of disguise where we can really tell who is genuine in playing a rightful role.

For the most part online, it is impossible to tell what is real and isn't - unless you meet them in person :)

Someone has told me that those bots and the animals of which could be on HIVE, too. The X man or Y woman can cook, play an instrument and draw painting at the same time.

There are some here I think.

About cats - I'm not sure, we have one living near the store. The same as in the right photo

is it a real cat, or AI generated?

AI is surly but slowly talking over the world.

Might have already done so - we just don't know it yet.

That is exactly what a bot would say.

You got me....

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I all honesty I have become neutral to most of what I read in social media discourse. Nobody knows anything and what ever they or bots type is just to reinforce poler devides . We live in an age where nuisance is lost. Blip blup blip. Syntax error.!

This is the funny thing these days - people read the news as if they know what is going on - but when that same news writes about something familiar and they pick the mistakes - they don't apply it equally to everything that is written. They turn the page and trust the next story again.

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