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

⁨210⁩ ⁨likes⁩

Submitted ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩ by ⁨Zak@lemmy.world⁩ to ⁨technology@lemmy.world⁩

https://www.404media.co/a16z-backed-startup-sells-thousands-of-synthetic-influencers-to-manipulate-social-media-as-a-service/

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Comments

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  • Alphane_Moon@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

    A16Z should be shut down and all their mid to senior level employees should be required to pick between real community service work (de-mining, live-in janitor at a hospice service, custodian at an infectious disease hospital) for 20 years or doing 40 in jail. Full asset seizure in both cases.

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    • 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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      • M1ch431@slrpnk.net ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

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

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      • the_q@lemmy.zip ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

        Ah yes the old legal vs right argument.

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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 ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ 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 ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ 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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  • Manjushri@piefed.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

    Using AI to impersonate another human, real or, fictional should become a crime. It is becoming rapidly apparent that people are far more easily manipulated than we would like to think. We’re staring down the barrel of a world where anyone with $7500 bucks can orchestrate global conversation on any topic they want be it religious, economic, or political.

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  • bigchungus@piefed.blahaj.zone ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

    Lakhani said Doublespeed doesn’t support “political efforts.”

    …for the same price.

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    • AmbitiousProcess@piefed.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

      And even if it’s never political, so what?

      Someone uses it to promote a dangerous supplement, with thousands of fake, AI-generated videos of people taking it without issues, and suddenly a bunch of people buy it, take it, and suffer severe consequences, or even die.

      But good thing it’s not gonna manipulate who you’d vote for amirite? Totally harmless! /s

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      • bigchungus@piefed.blahaj.zone ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

        Oh, I agree with you. My point was that they will probably support more political efforts than the spokespeople will have you believe.

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  • Icytrees@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

    If dead internet theory was the goal.

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  • seraphine@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

    what in the actual 1984 is that thumbnail

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    • tal@lemmy.today ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

      It’s showing cell phones as marionettes. Marionettes are sometimes used as idiom used to indicate that someone else is, behind the scenes, controlling something. Here, the company is controlling social media accounts.

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      • seraphine@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

        yes, i understood the metaphor, in my comment i meant “what the fuck”

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  • CatsPajamas@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

    How do I tag db0 to ask if we can make the horde make leftist instathotties to combat this

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    • SnoringEarthworm@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

      Flood the feed with a million twinks and AOCs and Republican Congress will coom itself until early retirement.

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  • HertzDentalBar@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

    Only good capitalist is a dead capitalist.

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  • DeathByBigSad@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

    Bots, repeat after me: Glory to Arstotzka, best country in the world!

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  • General_Effort@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

    Maybe it’s time to have a little think about that word, “influencer”, and how that is a job with which people make money.

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  • ChogChog@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

    Great, now there’s MSMaaS??

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