๐ฑ๐ค Bot Or Not?!
In Search of Regenerative Intelligence #32
When are you talking to an AI? When to a human? When to a deepfake? And when to โฆ a cyborg?
Iโve handpicked three gems that will give you an update on where we stand in the world of Bot or Not?!
(Want to dive deeper? Check out our book Real Fake (available in both English and Dutch).
Hooray; Our IEEE Standard has just been published!
Patient using Neurlink AND Grok AI
Deepfakes, Scams, and the Age of Paranoia
1) Hooray; Our IEEE Standard has just been published!
Human + Artificial Intelligence
๐ It's aim is to help companies to be transparant about their use of AI in communications. --> Are you, the user, talking with an AI, a human, or something in between?
There are too many reasons why this is important. But let's take a 'fun' recent anekdote: Did you hear about the Reddit users who unknowingly became part of an AI experiment?
๐คฏ Researchers from the University of Zurich secretly unleashed AI bots on the r/changemyview forum wit the goal to actively try and change people's minds.
The bots crafted arguments, sometimes even impersonating individuals with specific backgrounds, to sway opinions on contentious topics. A draft version of the studyโs findings indicates that AI-generated comments were three to six times (!!!!) more effective at influencing peopleโs opinions compared to those written by human users, based on the number of comments marked as having changed someoneโs mind.
"๐๐ฎ๐ซ๐ข๐ง๐ ๐จ๐ฎ๐ซ ๐ข๐ง๐ญ๐๐ซ๐ฏ๐๐ง๐ญ๐ข๐จ๐ง, ๐ฉ๐๐ซ๐ญ๐ข๐๐ข๐ฉ๐๐ง๐ญ๐ฌ ๐ข๐ง ๐ซ/๐๐ก๐๐ง๐ ๐๐๐ฒ๐๐ข๐๐ฐ ๐ง๐๐ฏ๐๐ซ ๐ช๐ฎ๐๐ฌ๐ญ๐ข๐จ๐ง๐๐ ๐ฐ๐ก๐๐ญ๐ก๐๐ซ ๐ญ๐ก๐ ๐๐จ๐ฆ๐ฆ๐๐ง๐ญ๐ฌ ๐๐ซ๐จ๐ฆ ๐จ๐ฎ๐ซ ๐๐๐๐จ๐ฎ๐ง๐ญ๐ฌ ๐ฐ๐๐ซ๐ ๐๐-๐ ๐๐ง๐๐ซ๐๐ญ๐๐," the researchers noted. "This underscores the potential of AI-powered botnets to integrate effortlessly into online communities."
Just one of the many stories out there.
๐ช Read the standard here and make sure your company is (proudly) compliant. Let people know wether it is a Bot or Not?! https://lnkd.in/eFCgTgU9
Many thanks to Nell Watson for leading this project to success!
2) Patient using Neurlink AND Grok AI
Human + Artificial Intelligence
As I said above; there a variants between talking to an AI or humans. E.g. you can talk to a human aided by AI; like a callcenter agent who uses ChatGPT during the talk. We can expect many new variants. One โstate of the artโ example is the story of Bradford G. Smith. MIT Technology Review wrote a intriguing story about Smith. Some exerpts:
Smith โgot a brain implant from Elon Muskโs company Neuralink. The device, a set of thin wires attached to a computer about the thickness of a few quarters that sits in his skull, lets him use his thoughts to move a computer pointer on a screen.โ
โSmithโs case is drawing interest because heโs not only communicating via a brain implant but also getting help from Grok, Muskโs AI chatbot, which is suggesting how Smith can add to conversations and drafted some of the replies he posted to X.โ
โHe said Neuralink engineers had started using language models including ChatGPT and Grok to serve up a selection of relevant replies to questions, as well as options for things he could say in conversations going on around him. One example that he outlined: โMy friend asked me for ideas for his girlfriend who loves horses. I chose the option that told him in my voice to get her a bouquet of carrots. What a creative and funny idea.โ
โThese arenโt really his thoughts, but they will doโsince brain-clicking once in a menu of choices is much faster than typing out a complete answer, which can take minutes.โ
โ> How about that huh? This is truly something new. Conversing with Smith will be different whether he uses ChatGPT or Grok or some other AI. It's a fascinating dance between human intention and artificial augmentationโฆ Sounds like sci-fi, but itโs real..!
3) Deepfakes, Scams, and the Age of Paranoia
Human + Artificial Intelligence
Deepfake scams have caused new behaviours. WIRED published an interesting piece about people creating code words to check wether their colleauges are โrealโ. Two excerpts about high tech solutions and old-fashioned ones can be found below.
โThese kinds of schemes have become so widespread that AI startups have emerged promising to detect other AI-enabled deepfakes, including GetReal Labs and Reality Defender. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman also runs an identity-verification startup called Tools for Humanity, which makes eye-scanning devices that capture a personโs biometric data, create a unique identifier for their identity, and store that information on the blockchain. The whole idea behind it is proving โpersonhood,โ or that someone is a real human. (Lots of people working on blockchain technology say that blockchain is the solution for identity verification.)
But some corporate professionals are turning instead to old-fashioned social engineering techniques to verify every fishy-seeming interaction they have. Welcome to the Age of Paranoia, when someone might ask you to send them an email while youโre mid-conversation on the phone, slide into your Instagram DMs to ensure the LinkedIn message you sent was really from you, or request you text a selfie with a time stamp, proving you are who you claim to be. Some colleagues say they even share code words with each other, so they have a way to ensure theyโre not being misled if an encounter feels off.โ
I realize this week was more about the symbiosis between AI and humans. Next week, it will also focus more on Natural Intelligence!