Comment on a16z-Backed Startup Sells Thousands of ‘Synthetic Influencers’ to Manipulate Social Media as a Service

Alphane_Moon@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

• count_dongulus@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

  The thing is, what they’re doing isn’t technically criminal. It just violates the terms of use of most social media sites and apps.

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  • Alphane_Moon@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

    Their crypto pyramids schemes and pump and dumps were also technically legal. And yet it is impossible for a pyramid scheme to work.

    You have “technically legal” schemes in other countries too. If there is a desire to address criminality a way can be found.

    If you want to achieve something, coming up with excuses around why it is not possible rarely bring results.

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    • tal@lemmy.today ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

      pyramids schemes

      Pyramid schemes are not legal in the US.

      There are some systems that have some aspects in common with pyramid schemes that are legal (Social Security sometimes gets called a “pyramid scheme” by people that don’t like it, for example, and MLM schemes are legal, though they can, in practice, partially work something like pyramid schemes).

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      • Alphane_Moon@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

        I am not a lawyer, so I can’t make any claims about US law.

        If, as you claim, pyramid schemes / ponzi / pump and dumps are not legal in the US. , how is it that A16Z leadership wasn’t arrested for investing in Axie Infinity?

        A business model like Axie Infinity is mathematically impossible.

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      • einkorn@feddit.org ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

        Social Security […] gets called a “pyramid scheme”

        I assume people arguing this also don’t have any other form of insurances?

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  • the_q@lemmy.zip ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

    Ah yes the old legal vs right argument.

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  • M1ch431@slrpnk.net ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

    It would be wise to make openly manipulating social media with AI illegal, immediately.

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• SharkAttak@kbin.melroy.org ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

  Too complicated. Arson is much, much simpler.

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• tal@lemmy.today ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

  A16Z should be shut down

  No point. I’m sure that they’re not the only ones, and there will be more.

  One possibility is that we just have to have expensive identities — the “Reddit model” where anyone who wants to can just create a new, anonymous identity doesn’t work. We can maybe be pseudonymous, but we might not be able to create lots of identities the way we do today.

  Or maybe we’ll have to have a more-elaborate reputation system.

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  • Alphane_Moon@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

    Shutting down the legal entity isn’t that strong of an incentive, I agree.

    Having to do 20 years community service as a junior janitor at an infectious disease hospital in rural congo and losing all your money (every last cent) is exactly the type of incentive that would work with American VC types.

    Not saying that US society (as it stands today) is capable of reforms, but that doesn’t mean one shouldn’t take a sober attitude when evaluating the type of incentives that could work.

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