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Friday Fun Thread for February 17, 2023

Be advised: this thread is not for serious in-depth discussion of weighty topics (we have a link for that), this thread is not for anything Culture War related. This thread is for Fun. You got jokes? Share 'em. You got silly questions? Ask 'em.

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A great rewrite of that conversation from MGS2, voiced by and all about generative AIs. How do you combat disinformation when anyone can generate infinite amounts of it? https://youtube.com/watch?v=-gGLvg0n-uY

that conversation from MGS2

Now in musical form

https://open.spotify.com/track/1XEWiBVD2MxHv1fxhg5639

How do you combat disinformation when anyone can generate infinite amounts of it?

Nothing is stopping me from making up bullshit and typing it out right now. The truth uhh.. finds a way.

Language models will make the waters a lot muddier for sure, instead of a troll farm you can just have 1 PC doing all the work, but that just means more mud to swim through, the act of swimming through mud isn't particularly all that hard.

Nothing is stopping me from making up bullshit and typing it out right now.

Time and effort. “More mud” is a understatement

You ignore 99% of the internet now anyways. A subreddit full of bots and /r/politics is identical to me, I ignore both. Yes societal inpacts are up in the air, individually I dont think its much of a hurdle.

Nothing is stopping me from making up bullshit and typing it out right now. The truth uhh.. finds a way.

(wheezing helplessly)

How do you combat disinformation when anyone can generate infinite amounts of it?

By doing what we've been doing for thousands of years: collapse back to the time-tested heuristic of "what's in my class interest to believe, and what isn't" and what one's closer neighbors have gained through their networks. Technology (Signal and Whatsapp, if you trust that) already exists to verify users aren't artificial anyway.

It doesn't matter what is and isn't misinformation; the past 2 weeks of lockdowns should have made that clear enough considering how frequently the official sources actively lied about all manner of things. What ended up happening in the end is that it was in the class interest of the PMC to work from home when possible while banning all other businesses from operating, then encouraging riots to burn, loot, and murder the kulaks that remained.

They didn't need AI to get people to believe those things. It happened anyway, and 20% of the total wealth in the Western world was consumed by the fires stoked by the respective governments within 100 weeks. Sure, AI might make that easier, and the public might very well push for a solution like that given that you now know who exactly in your circle of friends will turn Nazi when the chips are down- but I don't think it's actually that much of a force multiplier.

20% of the total wealth in the Western world

Where does this number come from?