• Captain Aggravated@sh.itjust.works
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    2 days ago

    What’s the business model here? I’ve organically arrived at the South Park meme.

    1. Build ad-supported content silos.
    2. Openly flood those silos with AI slop
    3. ???
    4. Profit
    • ramirezmike@programming.dev
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      2 days ago

      everyone is looking at it wrong expecting these social media companies to show this as engagement.

      That’s not the goal.

      The purpose of the AI profiles is targeted advertising. It probably isn’t going to work on you but it does work on many demographics. It’s the same concept as any other advertisement. They all set the scene of the specific type of person they want to buy their product, whether it’s a TV commercial, a radio ad, a magazine page.

      The only real difference here is that it’s not a real person but when it comes to advertising, will that really matter? That is, will the drop in sales be negligible compared to the massive drop in cost of advertising?

        • ramirezmike@programming.dev
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          1 day ago

          you may not have an account but your friends and family might and if you have similar interests they may vouch for products that were pitched to them via AI… so in that way, they’re still reaching you

    • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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      2 days ago

      The model is that as long as it looks like there are “users” that are “engaging” with the platform, it pleases the shareholders.

      Same model with Reddit.

      • rumba@lemmy.zip
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        2 days ago

        Zombies are only cool when they’re staggering around with ripped up flesh and missing digits growling for brains.

        Non-existent uncanny valley moms trying to emulate wholesomeness, That’s a whole nother ball game…

  • Chozo@fedia.io
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    2 days ago

    People are taking issue with the fact that the AI was black and queer, not that it wasn’t a real person in the first place. Once again, the right is angry at something that literally does not exist in real life.

    • Kusimulkku@lemm.ee
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      2 days ago

      The AI being black queer mother of two just seems especially egregious. It’s like they’re just checking boxes with that stuff.

      • sunzu2@thebrainbin.org
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        2 days ago

        Some marketing parasites thought it will resonate with some people… Trigger others. It is provocative and it got people talking.

    • GrammarPolice@lemmy.world
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      2 days ago

      No, people are taking issue with the fact that Meta is clearly trying to force a stereotype down our throats. At least i am.

      The right probably IS pissed the AI was black and queer.

    • jaybone@lemmy.world
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      2 days ago

      Wait it’s the right that’s pissed? I was thinking it would be the left that’s pissed because they would consider this exploitation and astroturfing. Hmm, go figure. (I wasn’t going to read the article.) Maybe Facebook can piss everyone off with this really dumb idea.

    • Maxxie@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      2 days ago

      The problem imo is deception. I honestly think bots wouldn’t be out of place on facebook if they were all clearly marked as such, and you could filter all generated content with a single toggle.

      • njordomir@lemmy.world
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        2 days ago

        Honest profile for a bot:

        • Profile pic of a server rack, 3rd from the top, under the Dell PowerEdge, above the UPS
        • Interests are parsing webpages and hallucinating
        • Looking for a server farm to be plugged into
        • Family includes it’s entire private cloud
      • herrvogel@lemmy.world
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        2 days ago

        Don’t know about toggles, but those profiles were officially marked as bots made by meta. They didn’t try to hide that fact.

        Which makes it even weirder imo. At least with a secret AI profile you can tell they are trying to achieve something, shady as it might be. But what is the purpose of a Facebook profile that announces itself as a chat bot that’s role playing as a queer black mother, I have no fucking clue.

        • TheGrandNagus@lemmy.world
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          2 days ago

          You see they’re bots if you open their profile and read some subtext.

          Do you see it clearly marked in your feed if one of the bots posts something, shares something, or comments something?

          That’s a genuine question - I don’t actually know. But it should be marked very clearly without having to open the profile, because people generally don’t do that.

        • fine_sandy_bottom@discuss.tchncs.de
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          2 days ago

          I think that an obvious bot can still manipulate users. Fb has infinite resources with which to test this stuff prior to roll out. They skittish do it if it didn’t work for them.

    • themurphy@lemmy.ml
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      2 days ago

      Influencers are making an extreme amount of money, and Meta doesn’t get a bite of that specific cake.

      Now they make their own influencers to funnel that money away from the people and into the company instead.

      If they succeed with making popular AI bots, they can control user buying behaviour and political views like no other. Because you are much more likely to follow a “person” you trust than an ad. (the reason why influencers are a success to begin with.)

      • Alphane Moon@lemmy.world
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        2 days ago

        I didn’t think of it in this way, but it does sound very convincing.

        Meta would love to essentially make fake virtual influencers to get all their money and have more control.

      • sunzu2@thebrainbin.org
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        2 days ago

        Because you are much more likely to follow a “person” you trust than an ad

        Pedons really got to do better on this. Socially starved losers needing their parasocial relationships and then they wonder why they are poor.

    • Dave.@aussie.zone
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      2 days ago

      Well you see, engagement is down, and the whole “sponsored content” thing is in a death spiral due to AI slop. So Meta has decided to cut out the middleman and generate their own AI slop, because surely their version of personalised AI slop will solve the whole engagement problem and keep line always going up, because if it’s one thing users love, it’s an endless torrent of AI slop.

      • Echo Dot@feddit.uk
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        2 days ago

        That will be why Nick Clegg has ducked out. He may have been a useless politician but at least he knows when to run away, which is better than some of them.

        • phubarr@lemmy.world
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          2 days ago

          The companies doing the advertising are totally fine with it because it creates fake peer pressure and gives potential customers a fear of missing out on what’s trending. Astroturfing is fine as long as it serves the will of the wealthy.

          • chaosCruiser@futurology.today
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            1 day ago

            And if that works out, you could also use the same method to shape the political atmosphere on the platform. Who knows, you might also disarm the next arab spring before the first demonstrations even happens.

            I’m pretty sure governments are very interested in seeing the results you get from using LLM bots like this.

            • phubarr@lemmy.world
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              17 hours ago

              I think you’re completely right. Information warfare is something new to a lot of people. I’ve been following a very credible, insightful teacher about this topic on YouTube, by the name of Ryan McBeth. I highly suggest everyone checks out his channel. He’s retired US infantry, but a current intelligence analyst and content creator who is VERY good at what he does. He’s taught me a lot about misinformation and disinformation, how it’s used, how to spot it, and how to fight it, and showing example of how governments and businesses are using it. Truly someone worth your ear.

      • sunzu2@thebrainbin.org
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        2 days ago

        Yeah but this model requires stupid boomers to engage with clearly fake bullshit

        Ohh wait…

  • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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    2 days ago

    One fake profile with the name “Becca” uses the likeness of a woman of color while calling itself a “dog mom.” The page is filled with AI-generated images of dogs.

    “Becca?” Did she get adopted by white parents?

  • fl42v@lemmy.ml
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    2 days ago

    So, ppl can be made black and queer, but ais can’t? What a blatant discrimination based on the form of existence.

    • Kit@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      2 days ago

      I think this part of the article sums it up:

      Washington Post columnist Karen Attiah engaged “Liv” in a conversation, in which the bot said that its creators “admitted it internally, to me” that they “lacked diverse references” in creating it and “overlook[ed] powerful black queer ones.” It said that the 12-person team that created it was comprised of ten white men, one white woman, and one Asian man, adding: “pretty glaring omission given my identity!”

      “A team without black creators designing a black character like me is like trying to draw a map without walking the land — inaccurate and disrespectful,” “Liv” wrote. “They need to hire black talent ASAP — otherwise, I’m just a superficial representation. Does that seem outrageous to you too?”

      • fl42v@lemmy.ml
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        2 days ago

        Well, if we’ve decided on not taking my comment as a joke it was intended to be, to me it looks more or less like the reversed rants of some white people when they see traditionally white characters played by black people in movies and whatnot.

        As for the quoted stuff, I’m not certain it can be believed at all, given how LLMs basically hallucinate things that fit the narrative.

        Btw, I’m also not protesting the idea as a whole is both weird and stupid.