Ai silliness is taking over the internet

[p.giannakis]

I don't know if I should laugh or cry with it but all my YouTube feeds is full of this.

This is really some special M3 being serviced.



The bit where the Ai bot scratches the camera's hotshoe to advance the film is my favourite....

 

[Mos6502]

Youtube seems to be the epicenter of bad AI. I've been particularly mad at the people who make "history" videos, then show off fake image after fake image after fake image! It seems the point of AI is to completely detach society from reality. Some talk of a post-facts world, but here we are already entering a post-reality world.

 

[Rob-F]

Well, surely that is no M3. AI has something to do with this?

 

[Darthfeeble]

One hopes this too will pass.

 

[p.giannakis]

AI has something to do with this?

That's not a real life video. Someone typed "make a short Leica camera repair video" or something and Ai made this reel..

 

[Out to Lunch]

 

[p.giannakis]

I have a very strong suspicion that the guy speaking on this video is also Ai.
On the parts of the video that shows him for more than 2 seconds, he blinks rather irregular.

 

[BillBingham2]

One hopes this too will pass.

Sadly I think we are just at the beginning.

 

[Dogman]

I was fooled on Flickr recently by a "well done" AI image or two. There are several users there who do weird and funny obvious stuff with AI that I enjoy but those who post AI images and pass them off as real photos hack me off. I've heard the AI song for long enough. Thanks for helping me fix dust and stuff in Lightroom but, other than that, I'm sick of you, AI. I wish you and all your little ais would go away.


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[lynnb]

I can’t wait for the tutorials on how to remove dust from film prior to exposure 🤣

 

[Dogman]

I'm amused by the reminder in Google that AI can give wrong answers. Like I hadn't noticed. But I'm mystified that rather than provide various informational websites, Google uses a frequently error prone tool. Sadly, general laziness inflicts us.



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[Coldkennels]

But I'm mystified that rather than provide various informational websites, Google uses a frequently error prone tool.

The various folks behind the AI bubble have to "prove" that people are using their GenAI slop-factories to justify the fabricated (and over-inflated) value of their investment. That's why they're all corrupting and polluting their main business with this nonsense - every person who's still using Google, whether they want to get the AI summary or not, is another +1 on their "MAU" (monthly active user") number. Meanwhile, other companies are so desperate to cash in on the trend they're rebranding anything that even remotely uses machine learning as "AI", despite the fact it's not even close to the same thing.

In the short term, swap to DuckDuckGo - they also have AI nonsense, but at least they allow you to turn it off completely! - and take solace in the fact that, like NFTs, this nonsense will pass. The bubble is going to burst, and it's not going to be pretty.

 

[peterm1]

I am a history buff and have long watched Youtube as there were some excellent documentaries on the subject, especially WW2 for example. Well to be honest there are still some good documentaries available, but they are getting crowded out by the AI crap that has taken over in the past perhaps 12 months (maybe less). Lots of "history" in the form of "first person" stories that are clearly rubbish. Fairy stories really never any analysis, recourse to actual history - sometimes just a shallow basis in truth but even then it is embellished out of all proportion and sounds like a script for a 3rd rate Hollywood or may be Indie film made for an undiscerning early teen audience looking for a hero/villain take on the world. I try blocking the channels publishing this rubbish but while they go away for a period they always come back a few weeks later. It is exasperating.

 

[Ororaro]

Sadly I think we are just at the beginning.

The Beginning 0.000000000001%

 

[boojum]

AI is less than perfect now because it is new. Think what cameras and automobiles were like when new. Or if you are geezer enough, remember the Internet before Andreeson first came forward with a GUI, Mosaic the first web browser, for the internet and changed everything. It used to be a quagmire of Usenet articles. AI is yet a baby. Babies squall and fuss, they poop in their diapers and spit out their food. And they grow up. Technology generations today are short. AI is way ahead of what we see. We are getting the crumbs that fall off the table.

 

[peterm1]

AI is less than perfect now because it is new. Think what cameras and automobiles were like when new. Or if you are geezer enough, remember the Internet before Andreeson first came forward with a GUI, Mosaic the first web browser, for the internet and changed everything. It used to be a quagmire of Usenet articles. AI is yet a baby. Babies squall and fuss, they poop in their diapers and spit out their food. And they grow up. Technology generations today are short. AI is way ahead of what we see. We are getting the crumbs that fall off the table.

In the case of the stuff I am complaining about, Boojum I don't really blame Ai. I blame the greedy b@stards posting endless repetitive click bait in the hope of earning $ rewards from YouTube. You can see their game - the formula is always the same - lowest common denominator (think teenager movies of the 1970's and 80's - all with the same themes, similar heroes, similar villains, similar dialogue, similar denouement etc, just the names changed and some details of the situation. But basically its the same crap, different day churned out by endlessly. AI is the machine which churns it out but people with a hunger for money are who are behind it. They also use (pseudo) different channels to try fool people - though you would need to be pretty dumb to be fooled for long. In reality these channels all just have slightly different names - everything else is the same. It's clear that in fact even from the names of these channels that it's all much the same people behind this endless river of diarrhea and drivel.

At least do what I do - look for the "tells" up front, as poker players say, then tell Youtube "Do not recommend this channel" without even clicking on the specific video and if that channel turns up again repeat the instruction and keep repeating it. If you accidentally click to open such a video, recognize it for what it is and terminate watching immediately. The longer you watch drivel the more they get rewarded and the more gets served to you because that is how the internet works. In other words, starve the b@stards of their Youtube money.

This kind of tendency by contributors of twaddle is similar, if you think about it, to the old days of early email when it was first becoming available widely, when spam, spam, spam, spam flooded everyone's inboxes. This is the same sort of tendency (courtesy of Youtube formulas which keep serving stuff it thinks you will respond to because you clicked on it before and the ability to create new drivel at basically no cost and in no time - courtesy of AI). This is what leads to what has been called the "shitification" of the internet - turning delivery channels into lowest common denominator caca (as the Italians say).

 

[boojum]

In the case of the stuff I am complaining about, Boojum I don't really blame Ai. I blame the greedy b@stards posting endless repetitive click bait in the hope of earning $ rewards from YouTube. You can see their game - the formula is always the same - lowest common denominator (think teenager movies of the 1970's and 80's - all with the same themes, similar heroes, similar villains, similar dialogue, similar denouement etc, just the names changed and some details of the situation. But basically its the same crap, different day churned out by endlessly. AI is the machine which churns it out but people with a hinger for money are who is behind it. They also use (pseudo) different channels to fool people - though you would need to be pretty dumb to be fooled for long. In reality these channels all just have slightly different names everything else is the same. Its clear that in fact even from the names of these channels that it's all much the same people behind this endless river of diarrhea and drivel.

At least do what I do - look for the "tells" up front, as poker players say, then tell Youtube "Do not recommend this channel" without even clicking on the specific video and if that channel turns up again repeat the instruction and keep repeating it. If you accidentally click on such a video, recognize it for what it is and terminate watching immediately. The longer you watch drivel the more they get rewarded and the more gets served to you because that is how the internet works. In other words, starve the b@stards of their Youtube money.

This kind of tendency by contributors of twaddle is similar, if you think about it, to the old days of early email when it was first becoming available widely, when spam flooded everyone's inboxes. This is the same sort of tendency (courtesy of Youtube formulas which keep serving stuff it thinks you will respond to and the ability to create new drivel at basically no cost and in no time - courtesy of AI) is what leads to what has been called the "shitification" of the internet - turning delivery channels into lowest common denominator caca (as the Italians say).

Yes. But you could make the same argument about the internet, computers, newspapers and on and on and on. Almost anything can and will be perverted by some. Take musical instruments as an example. What some people do with them is awful. But others, like Yo Yo Ma's Prelude to Suite 1 of Bach's Suite for Unaccompanied Cello remind us that the same tools can enchant and approach divine communication. Your point is well-taken and valid but, thankfully it is not the whole story.

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[p.giannakis]

In the case of the stuff I am complaining about, Boojum I don't really blame Ai. I blame the greedy b@stards posting endless repetitive click bait in the hope of earning $ rewards from YouTube.

That is what made me start this thread. There is so much rubbish on my YouTube app - they figured out I like photography and cameras and I am spammed with reels like the one I posted. I can't just casually scroll down and find something interesting to watch - I need to input a specific search to find something i need.

The other thing is that I stopped trusting what is shown. 90% of what is shown on my social media feeds, I dismiss it as fake/Ai. Even though it might be real.

 

[p.giannakis]

Almost anything can and will be perverted by some.

I think the difference is at the scale that this is happening now. You really need to search hard to find some positive exceptions (my view).

 

[Mos6502]

AI is less than perfect now because it is new. Think what cameras and automobiles were like when new. Or if you are geezer enough, remember the Internet before Andreeson first came forward with a GUI, Mosaic the first web browser, for the internet and changed everything. It used to be a quagmire of Usenet articles. AI is yet a baby. Babies squall and fuss, they poop in their diapers and spit out their food. And they grow up. Technology generations today are short. AI is way ahead of what we see. We are getting the crumbs that fall off the table.

The issues with AI have little to nothing to do with the state of the art, but rather what it is intended to do, and who it is doing it for.
Cameras, automobiles, the internet, these all (even with their drawbacks) have practical uses which benefit most of the people in society. AI on the other hand, not so much. AI is particularly suited for turning valuable resources into bullsh!t. So if you like bullsh!t and you have billions to burn, it may be worth something to you. For the rest of us, it's worse than useless. In a couple decades we'll look back on AI the same way we now look at things like lead paint or asbestos.

In a completely unrelated tangent, has anybody been keeping tabs on the NFT market? I kept getting told what an absolute fool I was for not believing in the technology. How I was "not gonna make it" if I didn't jump on the bandwagon. This was the future for art and artists, for collectors and collectibles. I was told not investing in it would be like poo-pooing the lightbulb, the automobile, or the world wide web.

I took a look at the Foundation website a few days ago (Foundation, for those who don't know, is a NFT marketplace that courted hundreds of high profile artists -for example Aphex Twin- for the purpose of raising the profile of NFTs) and noticed that the CEO of the company only purchased one NFT last year. Many of the highest profile, or most valuable NFTs have never traded hands since their initial auctions, and many have been on offer, with no takers for years now. The CEO, by the way, has announced some new project that has nothing to do with NFTs. Fortunately, I do not have hundreds of thousands of dollars tied up in jpegs, unlike those who called me a luddite for not seeing the future.