AI-Powered Social Media Manipulation App Promises to 'Shape Reality' (404media.co)
- Reference: 0175271807
- News link: https://tech.slashdot.org/story/24/10/17/1425254/ai-powered-social-media-manipulation-app-promises-to-shape-reality
- Source link: https://www.404media.co/ai-powered-social-media-manipulation-app-promises-to-shape-reality-4/
> Impact, an app that describes itself as "AI-powered infrastructure for shaping and managing narratives in the modern world," is testing a [1]way to organize and activate supporters on social media in order to promote certain political messages. The app aims to summon groups of supporters who will flood social media with AI-written talking points designed to game social media algorithms. In video demos and an overview document provided to people interested in using a prototype of the app that have been viewed by 404 Media, Impact shows how it can send push notifications to groups of supporters directing them at a specific social media post and provide them with AI-generated text they can copy and paste in order to flood the replies with counter arguments.
[1] https://www.404media.co/ai-powered-social-media-manipulation-app-promises-to-shape-reality-4/
Sounds like how it already works (Score:2)
Maybe now it's getting to the legal productization stage then
Re: (Score:2)
They have automated the process now, so you can shotgun out a thousand false narratives, each crafted to avoid filters and to optimize spreading algorithms, instead of actual humans having to write each one.
This is how it's always been. (Score:2)
The man on the pulpit says, and the flock follows like sheep.
The man on the radio says, and the flock nods their head and parrots what he says.
The talking heads on tv say, and the flock nods and parrots what he says
Same with the internet ever since the Endless September
And now it's worse. Every idiot is assured a megaphone with global reach.
Something has to give, before the machines pit us against each other via social media manipulation.
Re: (Score:2)
It may have always been like this, but now everyone has a megaphone. It's a cacophony. Which would actually be ok. The problem comes with the "Internet bubbles". People have no idea how thoroughly they are buried in a mass of people they agree with. They cannot conceive that anyone thinks differently, because the "algorithms" only show them stuff they like, that they click on, and comment on and forward to all their friends in the same bubble.
It takes an active effort to confuse the algorithms. Just as an
AI Barbarians at the DIgital Gates (Score:2)
This is highly harmful for operation of society, beyond expected harms of social media. Such manipulation should be considered election interference, tortious interference, and unregistered foreign agent interference all in once. In other words, nuke it from the orbit.
When people worry about AI.. (Score:2)
...becoming the Terminator, I say that they have watched too much sci-fi. AI is fine when used responsibly.
Ideas like this are the true threat, where people use AI tools to do evil.
We need strong defenses.
we'll hopefully grow through this (Score:2)
The first step would be to recognize that NOTHING YOU SEE OR READ SHAPES REALITY.
Reality is a thing.
It really does, objectively, exist. Definitions apply to it for us to think about them. Without our definitions, without even us, reality persists.
(I shudder that I feel like people are going to dispute that)
One thing, added to another thing, equals two things. This is irrefutable no matter how many semantic games someone wants to play around it.
It doesn't matter on your origin, your viewpoint, your polit
NYT/WashPo/BBC have some competition. (Score:1)
They wont be happy someone is attempting to push in on their business model.
That's more old school that you think (Score:1)
Those that invented and worked on this thing, or that think it's a good idea, should be condemned to watch The Running Man in loop for at least ten times. And then read the original material back-to-back for a couple of times, for good measure.
Gray goo (Score:2)
This sounds like " [1]gray goo [wikipedia.org]" applied to information...
[1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gray_goo
Automating the manual process of today... (Score:1, Interesting)
... you can just look at Big Data's treatment of the ongoing Genocide in Palestine, or anything on Iran, China, Russia, or go back and see how the Facebook editorial team 'Editorially Trending' (ie fake trending) articles against Trump to see that AI will help massively automate the misinformation and manipulation activity that is being done by hand and programmatically today.
AI won't bring anything new to misinformation peddling, it'll just do it quicker and with less human effort.
Information wants to be... (Score:2)
Information wants to be free.
Information on AI wants to be tied up, gang-raped, then discarded unceremoniously in the nearest roadside ditch.
In a just world, the person having the thought that this should be an available resource for anyone to use in the world outside of a sci-fi dystopian novel should be removed from society. This is not the type of tool a properly functioning society should allow or accept in any way other than as an amusement, which it would be if we had an educated population. This is g
$0.50/hr Timbuktu troll-farm workers (Score:1)
"Sh$t, we're being automated away!"
what in the what? (Score:5, Insightful)
Is this what evil looks like?
Re: (Score:1)
Pretty much, yeah. On the other hand, it will be the end of Social Media, so that's nice.
Re: what in the what? (Score:3)
> the ones who were gullible enough seem to wake up more and more as we get closer to election date.
Quickly! More drugs!
Re: (Score:2)
> On the other hand, it will be the end of Social Media, so that's nice.
This is unwarranted optimism. The kinds of heavy social media users that this targets tend to be clout-chasing above anything else, without any regard to the personal dignity. They are unlikely to care if the likes are synthetic, just like an addict would not care if the high is from a synthetic opioid.
Re: (Score:2)
Sometimes you see something and there's no doubt that the person behind it knew they were doing the wrong thing and didn't care.
This is one of those things. The kind of thing that makes me regress into my old conservative opinions that involve beating the people involved until they adjust their opinions or die.
Re: (Score:2)
its stuff like this that makes me depressed for the future.
Re: (Score:2)
They're having to build this tool because progress has been made, they used to be able to just get opposing viewpoints removed or shadowbanned. But now they're having to flood it with misinformation. Probably in response to Zuckerberg saying they shouldn't have been so willing to remove posts at the governments requests. And of course Elon kicked out all the liberals who's sole job it was to censor the opposite political views. So they're having to go to a plan B to manipulate and distort the truth on an ag
Re: (Score:2)
> Is this what evil looks like?
I know it sent some chills down my spine. I mean, propaganda is one thing. Using AI to mobilize "activists" that are just supposed to regurgitate whatever the AI spits out is next-level propaganda, and it wouldn't have worked before the 40 years dumbing down of the populace that Reagan started and Bush Junior put a few extra finishing touches on. Granted, they've ramped up the destruction of true education since then, and there are hordes of people just desperately hoping to participate in the online flood
Re: (Score:2)
I would think so, yes.