Larry Correia made a very valid point on his FB page here about the internet basically now being a tool to propagate lies and misinformation.
And AI will only accelerate that process.
Here is a snippet of his post:
The internet started out as a great tool and an incredible collection of knowledge. Then sleazy people realized that it was super easy to screw with “the truth” for their benefit and it was all down hill from there. Think about how much bad information and outright lies are out there on the internet right now, just on topics you are familiar with. Sources are either dishonest or manipulated constantly by bad actors. The politically motivated put their spin on everything.
We have entered the era of untruth and it is only going to get worse from here. This is the Gell-Men Amnesia effect from the newspapers, but orders of magnitude worse.
That’s all true enough. Then he goes on to point out something even more nefarious and also true that has already started to happen.
Think of the destructive potential. In the past if bad actors wanted to target somebody, they’d do a press release and coordinate some bloggers and loyal news media. This was usually pretty easy to spot and hamfisted enough for the astute to laugh at, but it still swayed the ignorant and the useful idiots.
Now they can turn loose a program and say I want to make it so that every single discussion about this target on the internet is overwhelmed with AI generated articles smearing the target, backed up by cites that don’t exist, citing events that never happened, quoting witnesses who aren’t real, written by reporters that don’t exist, and then I want the comments on social media about it to be overwhelmed by bots regurgitating that narrative and linking back to the fake sources.
It is, all quite true and correct.
The irony is that Larry, who by the way I really like, seems to be blind to the fact that this was always the case and he is as affected as many of the people he is trying to warn. Larry is a Mormon.
I like Larry, so this is not a personal swipe at him. Back when twitter had not yet kicked me off at the IP address level for pointing out some facts about homosexuality, we used to follow each other and he has always been a gracious person. He treats others as he wishes to be treated and has made a successful career in a field that is hard enough to do so without being nominally on the “right”, and practically almost impossible if you speak your mind to the extent Larry does.
(Ask me how I know?! Heh)
So as I said, it is not a swipe at him at all, but anyone who can believe the absolute snake oil Joseph Smith was peddling about gold plates only he could read with a tuba hat and special crystal, and such good plates being given to him by the Angel Moroni (I shit you not) is… well… probably not in an ideal place when it cokes to warning people about being fooled by fake news.
I love you Larry, truly I do, and your success makes me happy, and your point stands and is valid; still, something about motes and beams comes to mind.
Seeing Through a Glass Darkly
Larry Correia made a very valid point on his FB page here about the internet basically now being a tool to propagate lies and misinformation.
And AI will only accelerate that process.
Here is a snippet of his post:
The internet started out as a great tool and an incredible collection of knowledge. Then sleazy people realized that it was super easy to screw with “the truth” for their benefit and it was all down hill from there. Think about how much bad information and outright lies are out there on the internet right now, just on topics you are familiar with. Sources are either dishonest or manipulated constantly by bad actors. The politically motivated put their spin on everything.
We have entered the era of untruth and it is only going to get worse from here. This is the Gell-Men Amnesia effect from the newspapers, but orders of magnitude worse.
That’s all true enough. Then he goes on to point out something even more nefarious and also true that has already started to happen.
Think of the destructive potential. In the past if bad actors wanted to target somebody, they’d do a press release and coordinate some bloggers and loyal news media. This was usually pretty easy to spot and hamfisted enough for the astute to laugh at, but it still swayed the ignorant and the useful idiots.
Now they can turn loose a program and say I want to make it so that every single discussion about this target on the internet is overwhelmed with AI generated articles smearing the target, backed up by cites that don’t exist, citing events that never happened, quoting witnesses who aren’t real, written by reporters that don’t exist, and then I want the comments on social media about it to be overwhelmed by bots regurgitating that narrative and linking back to the fake sources.
It is, all quite true and correct.
The irony is that Larry, who by the way I really like, seems to be blind to the fact that this was always the case and he is as affected as many of the people he is trying to warn. Larry is a Mormon.
I like Larry, so this is not a personal swipe at him. Back when twitter had not yet kicked me off at the IP address level for pointing out some facts about homosexuality, we used to follow each other and he has always been a gracious person. He treats others as he wishes to be treated and has made a successful career in a field that is hard enough to do so without being nominally on the “right”, and practically almost impossible if you speak your mind to the extent Larry does.
(Ask me how I know?! Heh)
So as I said, it is not a swipe at him at all, but anyone who can believe the absolute snake oil Joseph Smith was peddling about gold plates only he could read with a tuba hat and special crystal, and such good plates being given to him by the Angel Moroni (I shit you not) is… well… probably not in an ideal place when it cokes to warning people about being fooled by fake news.
I love you Larry, truly I do, and your success makes me happy, and your point stands and is valid; still, something about motes and beams comes to mind.
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