Technology

Awful title.

Even a few months ago it was hard for people with the knowledge to use AI on photos. I don't like the idea of this but its unavoidable. There is already so much misinformation and this will make it so much worse.

I wish tools to detect if an image is real or not become as easy to use and good as these AI tools bullshit.

It's always been about context and provenance. Who took the image? Are there supporting accounts?

But also, it has always been about the knowlege that no one... Absolutely no one... Does lines of coke from a woven mat floor covering.

We literally lived for thousands of years without photos. And we’ve lived for 30 years with Photoshop.

Image manipulation has always been a thing, and there are ways to counter it...

But we already know that a shocking amount of people will simply take what they see at face value, even if it does look suspicious. The volume of AI generated misinformation online is already too damn high, without it getting more new strings in it's bow.

Governments don't seem to be anywhere near on top of keeping up with these AI developments either, so by the law starts accounting for all of this, the damage will be far done already.

We've had fake photos for over 100 years at this point.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cottingley_Fairies

Maybe it's time to do something about confirming authenticity, rather than just accepting any old nonsense as evidence of anything.

At this point anything can be presented as evidence, and now can be equally refuted as an AI fabrication.

We need a new generation of secure cameras with internal signing of images and video (to prevent manipulation), built in LIDAR (to make sure they're not filming a screen), periodic external timestamps of data (so nothing can be changed after the supposed date), etc.

This is only a threat to people that took random picture at face value. Which should not have been a thing for a long while, generative AI or not.

The source of an information/picture, as well as how it was checked has been the most important part of handling online content for decades. The fact that it is now easier for some people to make edits does not change that.

It's a shitty toy that'll make some people sorry when they don't have any photos from their night out without tiny godzilla dancing on their table. It won't have the staying power Google wishes it to, since it's useless except for gags.

But, please, Verge,

It took specialized knowledge and specialized tools to sabotage the intuitive trust in a photograph.

get fucked

This reaffirms my wish to go back to monkey.

People can write things that aren't true! Oh no, now we can't trust trustworthy texts such as scientific papers that have undergone peer review!

If I say Tiananmen Square, you will, most likely, envision the same photograph I do.

There was film of that exact event. The guy didn't get run over by the tank, he got on the hood and berated the driver.

Cops in America would run you over for less

Okay so it's the verge so I'm not exactly expecting much but seriously?

No one on Earth today has ever lived in a world where photographs were not the linchpin of social consensus

People have been faking photographs basically since day one, with techniques like double exposure. Also even more sophisticated photo manipulation has been possible with Photoshop which has existed for decades.

There's a photo of me taken in the '90s on thunder mountain at Disneyland which has been edited to look like I'm actually on a mountainside rather than in a theme park. I think we can deal with fakeable photographs the only difference here is the process is automatable which honestly doesn't make even the blindest bit of difference. It's quicker but so what.

There are even actual statues of completely made up stuff.

I think this is a good thing.

Pictures/video without verified provenance have not constituted legitimate evidence for anything with meaningful stakes for several years. Perfect fakes have been possible at the level of serious actors already.

Putting it in the hands of everyone brings awareness that pictures aren't evidence, lowering their impact over time. Not being possible for anyone would be great, but that isn't and hasn't been reality for a while.

~~TAKING OUR JOBS~~

~~HARASSING WOMEN AND CHILDREN~~

~~A THREAT TO OUR WAY OF LIFE~~

~~THEY'RE SHITTING ON THE BEACHES~~

REWRITING HISTORY BY DOCTORING PHOTOS WITH NEVER SEEN BEFORE PHOTO MANIPULATIONS

Sorry everyone I keep forgetting which zeitgeist that media is currently using to make us hate and fear something.

Relevant XKCD. Humans have always been able to lie. Having a single form of irrefutable proof is the historical exception, not the rule.