An Interesting Week for AI
Generative AI deepfakes, Neuralink in action, augmented reality overlaid on a construction site, and Biped robots in the wilderness...
This Substack has previously asked the question - Could AI be used to cover up Genocide? We have also explored the concept of having a digital twin created in the metaverse. We mused over ethical considerations in resurrecting or keeping someone’s ‘digital likeness alive’ after real-death, as well as scams involving your voice being copied and mimicked to defraud your loved ones.
Several of these concepts grow closer to actualisation, blurring the lines between what is real and what is fake. The following clips are ripped from a fascinating Twitter thread…
Deepfakes are becoming indistinguishable from reality:
https://twitter.com/heybarsee/status/1773001883046572340
This video is the clone version of Lex Fridman cloned with argil. AI model:
https://twitter.com/heyBarsee/status/1773001888968872185
The video was generated by AI which is trained and licensed on a fiver freelancer:
https://twitter.com/heyBarsee/status/1773001893519806762
A man paralyzed from the neck down is playing Mario Kart using a Neuralink brain implant:
https://twitter.com/heyBarsee/status/1773001945650708648
Visualizing a construction site using spatial-assisted vision:
AI is coming for Hollywood. OpenAI has started giving access to filmmakers and producers. 'Air head' is one of the first short films made using Sora:
https://twitter.com/heyBarsee/status/1773001959521362420
Testing LimX Dynamics' autonomous biped robot in the wild:
https://twitter.com/heyBarsee/status/1773001987824533986
When I enquired about the ‘authenticity’ of these videos that my friend sent me, he replied:
The AI videos are definitely real.
Think about how mind-bending that sentence is in itself - the meaning of the word ‘real’ is sort of inverted - although I understand the reply to mean these videos are verified as genuine generative AI constructs.
Bizarre test of our lexicon and our understanding of reality. It’s only going to get stranger from here on out folks.
A few observations
The deepfakery poses all sorts of challenges. It will of course give incriminated politicians excuses to label anything that amounts to ‘malinformation’ (true information which is damaging to the individual or government) - as a deepfake. Found to be on the Epstein client list? Deepfake. Not on the Esptein client list but the deep state forces want you to be on the list, with video “evidence” - done.
Meet a nice girl on a dating app, exchanged a few messages, even video calls, all going well…but you can’t shake that feeling, the niggling uncertainty…
“Sorry Stacey, you seem really sweet, but I have to ask…are you an AI bot?”
“OMG, how could you even think that, we are done.”
The AI voice mimicking scam will become mind-bending once video is added in, in real-time, streaming. Even if you and your family have not agreed upon a “key-phrase” and instead agreed to ask each other open-ended questions in the event of a frantic call for money and pleads for emergency help from your relative - what if an AI model has scraped the entirety of your social media profile, as well as listening in to your phone and spying on you for so long, that it knows a lot about your childhood memories too etc.
Will we reach the point where we need to carry around a public key and a private key, to match with our relative’s key in real-time to two-factor-authenticate them??
Imagine Grandma getting a panicked facetime call from little Timmy, who says he’s being pursued by a gang and has gone into hiding - he just needs some cash wired over whilst he lays low - he clearly looks distressed.
Or will crypto-based innovations such as multi-sig be used, to strengthen the resolve of family members being fooled into thinking a deepfake is their distressed family member - by requiring two or more people to sign a transaction before funds are released?
As for Meta (Facebook) - people should seriously consider how all their data can and will be used against them, to replicate their digital twin, maybe for some random advertising, maybe for identity theft, possibly to be resurrected as a chatbot after death. Will Meta soon have a form buried in security settings, amounting to a death waiver?
I, the undersigned, hereby do not consent to Meta using my digital likeness in life or after death, for any generative AI based constructs, memorialising of my account, nor for purposes of advertising, training or any other means whatsoever.
The Neuralink demonstration will clearly appeal to people whose lives have been devastated by paralysis, or degenerative brain disease. Everyone will be free to choose whether or not to embrace the brain implant. What is concerning, is how quickly there could be mass adoption, for people with no debilitating conditions - just as an enhancement, an augmentation. Such is the insipid agenda of Transhumanism.
The Bi-ped robot looks a lot like the (predictively programmed) killer dog-like Robots in Black Mirror…
I’m sure it’s nothing to worry about. Sync your Bi-ped robot to your phone or tablet perhaps? Or interface with it using Neuralink? Fun and games.
Nicholas Creed is a Bangkok based writer. All content is free for all readers, with nothing locked in archive that requires a paid subscription. Any support is greatly appreciated.
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Humanity will regret the day that AI was conceived. Yeah, I follow a couple of Instagram accounts that make "AI models" of hot guys. I'd love to hire one to design the lead characters of my novel. But humanity's moral codes haven't evolved in tandem with its technological competence, and it's already obvious that people are going to use AI to screw with each other. AI, neura-links, and the rest of that crap is going to be the death of a lot of people. Frank Herbert made computers forbidden in his Dune world, and that decision is becoming more prescient by the day.
AI has been in use in Hollywood since it was called computer animation.