Doublespeed Hack Reveals What Its AI-Generated Accounts Are Promoting (404media.co)
- Reference: 0180413359
- News link: https://tech.slashdot.org/story/25/12/17/236241/doublespeed-hack-reveals-what-its-ai-generated-accounts-are-promoting
- Source link: https://www.404media.co/hack-reveals-the-a16z-backed-phone-farm-flooding-tiktok-with-ai-influencers/
> Doublespeed, a startup backed by Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) that uses a phone farm to manage at least hundreds of AI-generated social media accounts and promote products has been hacked. The hack [1]reveals what products the AI-generated accounts are promoting , often without the required disclosure that these are advertisements, and allowed the hacker to take control of more than 1,000 smartphones that power the company. The hacker, who asked for anonymity because he feared retaliation from the company, said he reported the vulnerability to Doublespeed on October 31. At the time of writing, the hacker said he still has access to the company's backend, including the phone farm itself.
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> "I could see the phones in use, which manager (the PCs controlling the phones) they had, which TikTok accounts they were assigned, proxies in use (and their passwords), and pending tasks. As well as the link to control devices for each manager," the hacker told me. "I could have used their phones for compute resources, or maybe spam. Even if they're just phones, there are around 1100 of them, with proxy access, for free. I think I could have used the linked accounts by puppeting the phones or adding tasks, but haven't tried."
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> As I reported in October, Doublespeed raised $1 million from a16z as part of its " [2]Speedrun " accelerator program, "a fastpaced, 12-week startup program that guides founders through every critical stage of their growth." Doublespeed uses generative AI to flood social media with accounts and posts to promote certain products on behalf of its clients. Social media companies attempt to detect and remove this type of astroturfing for violating their inauthentic behavior policies, which is why Doublespeed uses a bank of phones to emulate the behavior of real users. So-called "click farms" or "phone farms" often use [3]hundreds of mobile phones to fake online engagement of reviews for the same reason. [...] I've seen TikTok accounts operated by Doublespeed promote language learning apps, dating apps, a Bible app, supplements, and a massager.
[1] https://www.404media.co/hack-reveals-the-a16z-backed-phone-farm-flooding-tiktok-with-ai-influencers/
[2] https://speedrun.a16z.com/
[3] https://www.cnn.com/style/vietnam-farms-jack-latham-beggars-honey?ref=404media.co
Such wondrous technical advancement! (Score:5, Insightful)
A startup backed by big Silicon Valley VC employs AI and other tools to...astroturf, and attempt to obfuscate that they're astroturfing.
I am sure there's a lot of money to be made there. But it's disappointing that this is what people are using their talents and capital to accomplish. The Nobel Prize in chemistry for 2024 was awarded for using machine learning to make huge advancements in protein folding, with obvious applications that will improve people's lives. Doublespeed is using it to pretend to be humans, in order to manipulate real humans, in order to hock useless shit online.
[slowclap] bravo, bravo [/slowclap]
Re: Such wondrous technical advancement! (Score:2)
Why do real ads use actors?
Re: (Score:1)
So the executives don't have to settle for sexually harassing the same 3 boring executive assistants day in and day out.
Re: (Score:2)
Probably the same reason Zoolander asked: [1]"So why male models?" [youtube.com]
[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ecW16rLCgiI
Re: Such wondrous technical advancement! (Score:1)
I agree 100%. This is disgusting. People who have already made billions of dollars trying to squeeze the last bit out by destroying what little value is left in the internet.
Fucking go off and play with your yachts and shit and leave us alone.
Re: (Score:2)
IMO, the simplest, most politically feasible (and perhaps enforceable) regulation for AI is to make it illegal for AI bots to pretend to be real humans. This shit is fraud, plain and simple. Why should that be legal, just because it's online and "protected" by the idiotic section 230? Of course, social media companies should require that all posts require passing a CAPTCHA as well...
How is this not against carrier terms of service? (Score:1)
Yeah, I know, it's all about the Benjamins. But JFC, the FBI just busted a huge SIM farming operation, claimed it was the Chinese trying to bring down the cell infrastructure, and here we have a US company doing pretty much the same thing "legitimately" (while the other hand tries to implement STIR/SHAKEN to *prevent* this sort of thing)
Re: (Score:2)
Andreessen and Schlomo direct the FBI via their pal Kashyap which farming operation to bust and which to ignore.
Re: (Score:2)
The scam farms are doing more than just violating terms of service. And since they are doing illegal activities do tend to move around.
STIR/SHAKEN don't really apply here because this is about having a separate Android device to login into apps like TikTok and Instagram as compared to the scam farms sending bad SMS messages and phone calls where it would apply.
article is blocked / paywalled/ something (Score:2)
anyone got the text and pics ? . Like sure I'm gonna sign up to read this . LOL
Re: (Score:1)
> anyone got the text and pics ? . Like sure I'm gonna sign up to read this . LOL
Someone has posted it on r/technology
"A Bible App" (Score:2)
What a great lesson for it's users, huh?
How could this work? (Score:1)
Didn't slashdot teach me the fact that math proves AI can't pass the Turing test?
Re: (Score:2)
Correct. And a choose-your-own-adventure novel also doesn't pass the Turing test.
Re: How could this work? (Score:2)
So why was this hack even necessary? How can the company not immediately fail on its own?
Re: (Score:2)
Strawman argument. The company can fail after the funding runs out.
Re: (Score:2)
Unfortunately many consumers can't pass the Turing test
Re: (Score:2)
The Turing test (which involves having a 1 to 1 conversation with an AI agent) has fuck all to do with astroturf posts, dummy.