A thread for updates on the various ways the internet is destroying everything and the undying hellsites of social media. Let's all laugh at the abyss.
Pretty sure I did that in Mass Effect with Kasumi.
Prederick wrote:hi... my.. name... is... Werner Brandes...
My voice is my passport!
*Legion* wrote:Prederick wrote:hi... my.. name... is... Werner Brandes...
My voice is my passport!
Holds up, BTW. Great movie.
Holds up, BTW. Great movie.
The best hacker movie and the best heist movie all in one.
The Athene AI Show is a Twitch channel that streams 24-hours a day and features AI “parodies” of real people. Athene is a Belgian streamer, real name Bachir Boumaaza, and he now has a channel that is cycling through different AI versions of real people “talking” to each other. When I checked it this morning, he, as an AI, was interviewing Ricky Gervais. The AIs are able to pull out questions from the live chat and “answer” them. The whole thing is a lot more coherent than I expected it to be, though, it’s still clearly all being done by an AI.
Also, we're making very dumb remakes of movies.
But beyond just thinking all of these are very funny, I think it’s interesting that we aren’t talking about these short clips, which feature AI-generative dialogue meant to sound like real people, the same panicked as we do with things like DALL-E 2.
People, right now, are making their own movies with existing actors. Sure, they are publishing them on Twitter and TikTok in bit-sized chunks, but it’s happening. This isn’t Disney de-aging an actor or bringing a dead one back to life, this is literally just random people making the cast of A Few Good Men read funny tweets. This should be a very big deal I think and it just feels like we’re not stopping to appreciate how huge this is?
the "there is no war in Ukraine" feels like a sea change for conspiracy theories. It's clearly built off the back of COVID conspiracies, the denial of basic pandemic facts created a platform for greater departures from reality.
Yes this particular conspiracy is admirably insane but also this "reality didn't happen" dismissal of any inconvenient event is about to become extremely common as AI and deepfakes get ubiquitous enough to throw doubt on all documentary evidence.
I continue to be amazed by conspiracies that can be verified or disproved by seeing for oneself. People who won't go distrust proof provided by people who have. This is flat-earther leveled up.
It's all much easier to believe if you've never traveled more than 50 miles from your hometown.
I mentioned this before, but seriously, since The Talented Mr. Musk's takeover, bots are worse than they've EVER been before on the bird app. They're everywhere, hocking all sports of bullsh*t, from boobs to firearms. And even if, in the latter case, it's the feds, the site is still just awash in this stuff now.
EDIT:
It is very, very funny who they're targeting with this though.
Live AI voice filters.
We are genuinely so totally unprepared for the havoc this stuff is going to wreak.
@IWriteOK wrote:the "there is no war in Ukraine" feels like a sea change for conspiracy theories. It's clearly built off the back of COVID conspiracies, the denial of basic pandemic facts created a platform for greater departures from reality.
@hamiltonnolan wrote:Yes this particular conspiracy is admirably insane but also this "reality didn't happen" dismissal of any inconvenient event is about to become extremely common as AI and deepfakes get ubiquitous enough to throw doubt on all documentary evidence.
I guess IWriteOK has never seen Avatar.
Was laid off from Twitter today.
imagine embarrassing yourself like this and for what
TikTok users say 'bold glamour' filter is 'terrifyingly realistic'
The new “bold glamour” TikTok filter, which seamlessly applies makeup and sculpting effects to users’ faces, is impressive — but many viewers feel unsettled by how “terrifyingly realistic” the subtle facial enhancements look.
The filter, which has been used millions of times in recent days, has been compared to other editing apps associated with creating an unrealistic beauty standard among young women. Critics argue that the effect can have a negative impact on a person’s self-esteem and body image.
In addition to adding light makeup to a person’s face, the filter tweaks their bone structure, smooths their skin and enlarges their lips.
“When I first saw it, it was shocking how incredibly real it looked, compared to other filters,” said Lindsay Borow, 28, who tried the filter in a TikTok video.
Oh man, wait till the critics find the teenage filter that is currently rocking GenX’s world
Elon broke Twitter again. No images are working today
AP's reporting that external links aren't working for a lot of folks today.
Someone also tried to report a tweet for hate and got this cryptic error message back that strongly implied that reporting tweets is something that now requires you to pay eight bucks to Elon every month.
That's entirely in-line with an article published by BBC earlier today that basically said all the layoffs and changing priorities at Twitter has resulted in the company being no longer able to protect users from "trolling, state-coordinated disinformation and child sexual exploitation."
A Twitter engineer was quoted as saying "For someone on the inside, it's like a building where all the pieces are on fire. When you look at it from the outside the façade looks fine, but I can see that nothing is working. All the plumbing is broken, all the faucets, everything."
So… How long until Elon starts saying it was all part of a 4d chess plan to take down Twitter from the inside? I’m putting my money on 2025.
In related news, I think the fact that he's clearly an awful bully and a sh*tty boss is part of his appeal, much like Trump.
Seems to fit here rather than the pictures thread.
In related news, I think the fact that he's clearly an awful bully and a sh*tty boss is part of his appeal, much like Trump.
So there's more story behind that Twitter exchange.
@iamharaldur is actually Haraldur Þorleifsson.
Þorleifsson is a tech entrepreneur who lives in Iceland. He created a company called Ueno which was sold to Twitter in early 2021. Rather than take a bunch of Twitter stock as payment for Ueno Þorleifsson wanted to be paid in normal wages. He wanted this because the capital gain taxes he'd pay on the stock were *lower* than how much he'd be taxed if the compensation was just normal wages (22% vs 46%).
As a result Þorleifsson paid more than $4.1 million in taxes in 2021, making him one of the top tax payers in Iceland.
He was absolutely OK with this because he grew up in a working class home and credited the Icelandic social system with making him so successful. Oh, did I mention Þorleifsson also has muscular dystrophy so Iceland's taxpayer-funded universal healthcare was also central to his subsequent success?
So Þorleifsson decided to comment on one of Musk's responses to his initial tweets:
He could have stopped at recommending Elon go see his kids and he'd still have won the Internet for the day.
Heh, that is another one sentence wonder for what is wrong with the world today:
The richest person in the world doesn't have any time for his kids.
That was brutal.
Edit: this Icelander heroically structured the sale of his company to Twitter as salary to deliberately pay more income tax in Iceland than he would otherwise pay in capital gains tax. Talk about wholesome vs unwholesome!
Heh, that is another one sentence wonder for what is wrong with the world today:
The richest person in the world doesn't have any time for his kids.
In fairness, neither did Genghis Khan. Who uh managed to proliferate his genes in a disproportionate number of humanity. Wait, Elon has how many kids now...
This may be the greatest rope-a-dope in employment relations history.
- Am I fired Mr Musk?
- Yes you are definitely fired, you lazy good-for-nothing.
- OK then. That is your right. I hope you will pay the terms of my contract.
*Lawyer smashes the door down and whispers frantically in Elon's ear
- I'm so sorry. I was wrong. Would you please consider staying?
He genuinely, truly, is such an absolute coward and bully. Like, we've gone past the "if you wrote a character like this, everyone would say it's 'too on-the-nose'" point.
This may be the greatest rope-a-dope in employment relations history.
- Am I fired Mr Musk?
- Yes you are definitely fired, you lazy good-for-nothing.
- OK then. That is your right. I hope you will pay the terms of my contract.
*Lawyer smashes the door down and whispers frantically in Elon's ear
- I'm so sorry. I was wrong. Would you please consider staying?
Again, a bully and a coward. This blame-shifting apology is nestled in the replies to someone else's thread (much like his apology about the Pelosi stuff).
45M views for the insult, 1.8M for the apology.
A completely spineless man.
What kind of contract did that man have with Twitter that makes him "un-fireable"?
What kind of contract did that man have with Twitter that makes him "un-fireable"?
Acquired Founder. He founded Ueno which was bought by Twitter in 2021.
WizKid wrote:What kind of contract did that man have with Twitter that makes him "un-fireable"?
Acquired Founder. He founded Ueno which was bought by Twitter in 2021.
Basically there is unpaid purchase price on the sale of his company that was structured as salary (which he did deliberately to pay more tax in Iceland). I suspect firing him would accelerate the payout and Twitter literally cannot afford to cash flow that upfront.
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