People keep sharing an image of a bird with a drop of water bursting on its head like a crown.
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@CiaraNi It's the same for software. The amount of AI vibe coded slop will make people question software crafted over many years
@soundsafari A good and depressing comparison - yes, I can see that happening too.
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@stekopf Look here: https://mastodon.online/@NatureMC/116454180399370710
BTW, fact-checking is part of my profession.
@NatureMC Thanks for great fact-checking - including for taking the time both to do it and share it.
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@CiaraNi My disappointment is immeasurable and my day is ruined. And yeah, I'm scared that it'll make me more skeptical of even the real things
@robinsyl Same here. It saddens me that we are being manipulated into becoming sceptical, that we can't even just assume a basic level of trust when we see a nice moment of joy shared online.
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@CiaraNi thanks for the information. I am fedup with this crap. This might lead to internets decay
@zulutoo Me too - I am so fed up with it too. And so sad to see good human photographs being hit in the backlash, being asked by good-faith people if their great images are AI.
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@CiaraNi
The one I saw here in Fedi the other day was going on about how "i didn't think it was real, but it's from this photographer on FB's wife so it's really real!"Which was not annoying to me than anything, as it seems people are inventing stories to defend it.
@xinit Oh that is even more infuriating - people making more stuff up to cover the stuff they already made up.
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@bosquebill @elaterite Next time you post a lovely photo of a dragonfly in the desert, put a wee bowler hat on it and I will jump in and yell "Oi! AI!"

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"AI / deep-fakes are just the next generation of disinformation" - I'm reluctant to say it's 'just' that, because this is happening on a whole other scale with ever more serious consequences. I am reluctant to see us normalise it as 'just the next step', like we're shrugging because 'whatcha gonna do, it's unstoppable'.
I didn't mean to imply that it's not serious, merely that it's not new: bigger, yes, but not an entirely new problem to get our heads around.
Humans face the same problems that keep getting more intense until we decide to do something about it.
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I didn't mean to imply that it's not serious, merely that it's not new: bigger, yes, but not an entirely new problem to get our heads around.
Humans face the same problems that keep getting more intense until we decide to do something about it.
@rq4c Let's hope we do decide to do something about it, something radical, something real.
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@NicelyManifest I think you're right, alas.
@CiaraNi Humans get blind sighted when spoilt. Too much streaming choice or online goodies and we stop caring about who provides. That transfers to the rest of life to a degree.
When very wealthy, everyone seems to be serving you so you likewise give up thanking and just take take take. And you stop having a clue about those who struggle every day.
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A few people have questioned whether I am right to say that the image of a drop of water bursting on a bird's head like a crown actually is AI-generated. They think I may be wrong. That it is not faked. That it is real.
If I'm wrong, if it really is an unmanipulated photo by a verified human photographer, please do let me know so that I can correct myself and my toot.
(All this uncertainty is part of the whole problem. We all spend so much human time & energy trying to act in good faith.)
The version I saw said it was from Facebook, with some specific names. Which I didn't bother to look up, but on doing it now, looks like bullshit. So, at some point along the way it picked up a caption intentionally designed to deceive.
And you're right — looks like AI, probably AI, but makes it really hard to believe anything. Worse, makes it easy to deny anything you don't want to see.
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The version I saw said it was from Facebook, with some specific names. Which I didn't bother to look up, but on doing it now, looks like bullshit. So, at some point along the way it picked up a caption intentionally designed to deceive.
And you're right — looks like AI, probably AI, but makes it really hard to believe anything. Worse, makes it easy to deny anything you don't want to see.
@mattdm It does seem deliberate, the choice to give it a pair of untraceable names as apparent sources. I was sure and am sure it is manipulated and fake. I just don't know how to 100% prove something is manipulated, which some people would like. A verifiable source of the original photo would prove it is real, but none has been forthcoming. You are right about the other major problem - making it easy to deny stuff you don't want to see. These are serious problems we have now.
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@CiaraNi Humans get blind sighted when spoilt. Too much streaming choice or online goodies and we stop caring about who provides. That transfers to the rest of life to a degree.
When very wealthy, everyone seems to be serving you so you likewise give up thanking and just take take take. And you stop having a clue about those who struggle every day.
@NicelyManifest Agreed. On all counts.
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People keep sharing an image of a bird with a drop of water bursting on its head like a crown. It's AI, but people share it in good faith, believing it’s an amazing photo by a human of a real bird in a real moment of time. Meanwhile, humans who have taken amazing photos of real birds captured in real moments of time, like a hummingbird in ballet with a butterfly, get questioned in good faith by people who are tired of being cheated by AI-deceit. The way AI has broken social trust is distressing.
@CiaraNi @Szescstopni "The way AI has broken social trust is distressing."
Thanks for posting this. The more I've been exposed to artificial images the more uneasy I've become - for me. I'd not quite made the leap to the bigger picture you paint here. (Sounds a bit punny, sorry).
(Got online in 1997 and within weeks honestly thought we were entering a golden age of easy information sharing, you know, facts at *everyone's* fingertips).
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@bosquebill @CiaraNi Indeed.
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@CiaraNi @Szescstopni "The way AI has broken social trust is distressing."
Thanks for posting this. The more I've been exposed to artificial images the more uneasy I've become - for me. I'd not quite made the leap to the bigger picture you paint here. (Sounds a bit punny, sorry).
(Got online in 1997 and within weeks honestly thought we were entering a golden age of easy information sharing, you know, facts at *everyone's* fingertips).
@bazbt3 @Szescstopni All of this resonates. I keep thinking back, especially to the early 2000s, and thinking how good and promising it all was then. If only we'd realised what was ahead.
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@bazbt3 @Szescstopni All of this resonates. I keep thinking back, especially to the early 2000s, and thinking how good and promising it all was then. If only we'd realised what was ahead.
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@bazbt3 @Szescstopni All of this resonates. I keep thinking back, especially to the early 2000s, and thinking how good and promising it all was then. If only we'd realised what was ahead.
@CiaraNi @Szescstopni I wonder if anyone ever looked at all the web portals, search engines and bulletin boards and thought misinformation would be *normal* in this future. This post-truth and fake news era…
And how bitter they might be that people like me didn't believe it.
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@Szescstopni @CiaraNi So, all the signs *were* there 30 years ago. Friends eh.
I'm so sorry though, I cant fight the urge to say "it's a small world" - which it was back then, at least in terms of reach.
And then Microsoft plopped Windows 95 on us and made it *relatively* easy to get online.
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I saw that bird with drop of water picture and knew instantly, as anyone who is familiar with birds and rain and nature would know, that it was machine generated. The drop is way too big and the bird would have flinched in that split second. Birds react fast!
Machine slop will probably have an insidious, long-term effect of decreasing people's appreciation of nature because everything will be thought to be fake. In fact, nature is replete with incredible beauty that you won't know about if you spend all day slop-scrolling
@Mikal @CiaraNi The other aspect that bugs me about it is that those who do point out that it's generated are usually met with an overly harsh response. I've seen threads get really heated. It goes beyond whether or not the photo is real; anyone who mentions that it's AI is immediately labeled as a toxic troll.
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People keep sharing an image of a bird with a drop of water bursting on its head like a crown. It's AI, but people share it in good faith, believing it’s an amazing photo by a human of a real bird in a real moment of time. Meanwhile, humans who have taken amazing photos of real birds captured in real moments of time, like a hummingbird in ballet with a butterfly, get questioned in good faith by people who are tired of being cheated by AI-deceit. The way AI has broken social trust is distressing.
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