Scientists Asked AI to Impersonate 112 Public Figures. What Happened Next Is a ‘Dire’ Warning | Researchers discovered that people found AI impersonators to be more authentic, coherent, and relevant than the real politicians, raising alarm bells around the potential for public deception.
https://www.404media.co/untitled-28
9 Comments
This study has ai mimicking uk politicians on question time and folks rated the fakes higher for authenticity and coherence. Real answers from the show just seem choppy next to them.
Kinda scary when you think about it. In a few years telling real debate from generated stuff might get real hard without new checks or tools in place.
Well, given that large swathes of the globe vote for their politicians specifically because of their incoherence, this doesn’t seem to be as urgent as using the deepfakes to slander.
This reminds me of the quote “writing fiction is hard.because it has to make sense, while reality has no such obligation” (probably butchered, don’t remember who said it).
This is the storyline on a Black Mirror episode. Prophetic, that one!
well, politicians are people, even the really slimey ones. they will lie and cheat but also sweat and obfuscate. they’ll trail off or get quiet. they’ll shudder at a question and pretend to be confused. they’ll willingly break decorum or fabricate theatrical spittle to avoid a topic.
the people, as in everyone not a politician, are extremely used to this. it’s pretty much an accepted norm. So yes, people will find something as simple as coherent chatter to be appealing.
This is funny because it lays bare how much humans value name/image recognition more than actual content, just because of the reductionist heuristics in our rodent brains.
Once a given person has gained the trust of a certain demographic, the idea of that person is worth a lot more than the actual person is. The actual person will fuck up sometimes, whereas if very competent AI can sort of wear that person’s likeness or voice as a “skin”, you’ll have a lot more control over the demographic in question.
Very interesting a public figure is an open book , it’s been quiet a while now that fake news spread thru these methods an era when reading to understand is a lost art ,most people read to reply
I mean “generic conservative” or “generic liberal” tends to poll better than any individual candidate for a reason. You can attribute all the positives of the idea of them, without any of their background or physical traits.
Making a fictional politician appealing is much MUCH easier than making a real politician appealing.
people found AI impersonators to be more authentic, coherent, and relevant than the real politicians
Granted that’s a low bar, but Maybe we should put AI in charge after all.