Conflict is still raging in the Middle East with many of us being spectators. In this class, we already discussed how A.I. is already being weaponized, but for those who don’t have influence over what happens with the military, there have been A.I.-generated images and videos subjected to the Iran attacks on Israel. The issue that this Wired article* by Vittoria Elliott highlights is that these images and videos went viral amassing tens of millions of views across just shy of 30 posts leading who knows how many people to fall for fake news.
Quiz: are the photos above A.I.-generated?
Part of the blame can be traced back to X (nee Twitter) and its content moderation after Elon Musk took over. And at the center of everything, there is a recurring pattern about money. As far as we know, X changed the rule with its blue checkmark from earning it through status and recognition to following a subscription model where people can pay $8 to don the check on their profile. And to no surprise, some of these A.I. media posts came from “bought-verified” accounts. While X is making money from these accounts, it is unclear as to whether these accounts monetized their content. Regardless, being verified increases the chances of having this content appear throughout users’ algorithms. In terms of content, I don’t think X will be stopping misinformation from spreading as long as they continue to financially thrive on human gullibility.
For more information, see this article from ISD for an official statement on the issue: https://www.isdglobal.org/digital_dispatches/misleading-and-manipulated-content-goes-viral-on-x-twitter-in-middle-east-conflict-iran-israel-strikes/
If Musk hasn’t dipped his toes in enough areas, the world got a little closer to Star Wars but not in the way we thought. No flying cars, no space travel, but a hideous Cybertruck and advancements on Musk’s Neuralink. On one end, one of Neuralink’s subjects is now able to move a mouse and play chess using this implant. But now, this brain implant coined Blindsight, is setting sights toward an artificial vision for the blind called “visual prosthesis”.
While not totally 100% doom news, if this scientific endeavor succeeds, it wouldn’t be a surprise if the military would start incorporating this into their technology to commit unimaginable things. Worst case scenario, the Neuralink becomes an expensive trend that makes Order 66 more of a reality.
*https://www.wired.com/story/iran-israel-attack-viral-fake-content
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