I actually think advancements in AI are *potentially* very exciting, and could certainly do a lot to improve our lives.
However, if you really take a moment to look around at the current digital landscape, it becomes increasingly clear how this technology is *actually* being leveraged.
Just look at virtually any item being sold on Amazon; cheap, no-name knockoffs of niche items with 5k+ reviews? Really, you expect us to believe that? Hell, most retail stores don't even sell their own goods online anymore (Walmart, for example).
But really, a great example to look at is Reddit. Anyone remember when they introduced "fuzzing"?
Used to, any reddit post would show you the exact number of upvotes AND downvotes. You could even check to see who was upvoting or downvoting things.
Transparent? Absolutely.
Which means it would be virtually impossible for them to "sell" or "control" those votes.
So they introduced the concept of "fuzzing" the numbers. Oh sure, you would still see the percentage of upvotes to downvotes, but you're no longer privy to those exact numbers. Because if you were, they wouldn't be able to sell upvotes to companies, or bury posts or stories that they are their "sponsors" think they can get a handle on.
And naturally, you just look at the actual comments over there now. There are a lot of idiots on the interview, but you can start to track replies to content that were clearly AI generated. I suspect base-level comments are probably typed by a person, but you throw the weight of dozens or hundreds of comments "in agreement" behind it, and you suddenly start controlling peoples' perception of a given thing.
And really, it's only getting worse. More and more companies are leveraging AI to handle their customer support, and even moderate communities and forums.
The literal *thousands* of AI-generated "articles" being posted every day have already overwhelmed search engines like Google. Seriously, google fucking *anything* to do with a game; I guarantee, of the first 20 articles that pop up, no less than 15 of them are probably generated by AI. In some cases, literally all of them; your could be the only human to ever lay eyes on some of these articles.
The "answer" to this would ordinarily be "then just stick to trusted news sources". But let's be honest; how many of those really exist anymore? Who would even be able to *start* a credible news outlet of any kind? Who is holding *anyone* accountable for anything? Facebook ads are openly peddling links to obviously malicious sites; and yes, these are PAID ADS I'm talking about, not just some random idiot who got his account hacked.
Hell, speaking on Facebook, you guys notice how limited your options are when searching for things on Marketplace have become? Even ebay has become subject to this. They'll actively disregard your search parameters, even the literal text you put in the search bar; the goal isn't to get you to what you're searching for, but to get you to what they *think* you'll want to buy.
We're living in a digital hellscape, and it's only getting worse. With how easy it is to fake images, voices, and even videos now, coupled with this unmonitored reliance on AI-generative tools, we're quickly reaching a point where you'll lack access to credible information, or even basic communication with other human beings. You'll never know whether or not a product is good or bad, what major events actually happen, or even be able to simply communicate with other people about the things you like and dislike.
At this point, the only way I see being able to stave this off would be finding a site that completely abandons any sense of anonymoty, a require manually verifying each and every new user with something concrete (like your SSN). I can't imagine a world in which anyone would willingly sign up for something like that, but I can't really imagine a whole lot else you could do.
However, if you really take a moment to look around at the current digital landscape, it becomes increasingly clear how this technology is *actually* being leveraged.
Just look at virtually any item being sold on Amazon; cheap, no-name knockoffs of niche items with 5k+ reviews? Really, you expect us to believe that? Hell, most retail stores don't even sell their own goods online anymore (Walmart, for example).
But really, a great example to look at is Reddit. Anyone remember when they introduced "fuzzing"?
Used to, any reddit post would show you the exact number of upvotes AND downvotes. You could even check to see who was upvoting or downvoting things.
Transparent? Absolutely.
Which means it would be virtually impossible for them to "sell" or "control" those votes.
So they introduced the concept of "fuzzing" the numbers. Oh sure, you would still see the percentage of upvotes to downvotes, but you're no longer privy to those exact numbers. Because if you were, they wouldn't be able to sell upvotes to companies, or bury posts or stories that they are their "sponsors" think they can get a handle on.
And naturally, you just look at the actual comments over there now. There are a lot of idiots on the interview, but you can start to track replies to content that were clearly AI generated. I suspect base-level comments are probably typed by a person, but you throw the weight of dozens or hundreds of comments "in agreement" behind it, and you suddenly start controlling peoples' perception of a given thing.
And really, it's only getting worse. More and more companies are leveraging AI to handle their customer support, and even moderate communities and forums.
The literal *thousands* of AI-generated "articles" being posted every day have already overwhelmed search engines like Google. Seriously, google fucking *anything* to do with a game; I guarantee, of the first 20 articles that pop up, no less than 15 of them are probably generated by AI. In some cases, literally all of them; your could be the only human to ever lay eyes on some of these articles.
The "answer" to this would ordinarily be "then just stick to trusted news sources". But let's be honest; how many of those really exist anymore? Who would even be able to *start* a credible news outlet of any kind? Who is holding *anyone* accountable for anything? Facebook ads are openly peddling links to obviously malicious sites; and yes, these are PAID ADS I'm talking about, not just some random idiot who got his account hacked.
Hell, speaking on Facebook, you guys notice how limited your options are when searching for things on Marketplace have become? Even ebay has become subject to this. They'll actively disregard your search parameters, even the literal text you put in the search bar; the goal isn't to get you to what you're searching for, but to get you to what they *think* you'll want to buy.
We're living in a digital hellscape, and it's only getting worse. With how easy it is to fake images, voices, and even videos now, coupled with this unmonitored reliance on AI-generative tools, we're quickly reaching a point where you'll lack access to credible information, or even basic communication with other human beings. You'll never know whether or not a product is good or bad, what major events actually happen, or even be able to simply communicate with other people about the things you like and dislike.
At this point, the only way I see being able to stave this off would be finding a site that completely abandons any sense of anonymoty, a require manually verifying each and every new user with something concrete (like your SSN). I can't imagine a world in which anyone would willingly sign up for something like that, but I can't really imagine a whole lot else you could do.
