LIVING IN WORLD OF MISINFORMATION AND DISTRUST - is it indeed our future? Please join discussion.

INTRODUCTION

Few days ago I had pleasure to read @xinyuhe post called: "Fake News and A.I. Porn, Why Blockchain Technology Will Prevail":
https://steemit.com/cryptocurrency/@xinyuhe/fake-news-and-a-i-porn-why-blockchain-technology-will-prevail

@xinyuhe directs our attention towards discussions about Artificial Intelligence and some latest achievements in that field. And I must admit that what I've learned impressed me and scared at the same time.

It seems that with current solutions available on the market it is possible to create fake audio and videos that look and sound very real. And for untrained human eyes, it may not be that easy at all to be able to recognize if you've watched fake content.

Pretty soon we might not be able to believe our own eyes and ears. We may wonder so often what is real and what's a lie. We can receive voice messages from our brother, who went for vacation and got kidnapped and is begging us to help him with ransom. And many of us would fall for it.

FAKE OBAMA / REAL OBAMA

Impossible? Let me tell you something about a startup called Lyrebird. They just released their product which "allows users to create an audio clip of anyone saying anything".

No words can describe this impressive yet scary development better than watching this short video for yourself:
"Fake Obama created using AI video tool - BBC News"

At the end of this short video some reputable professor from University of Washington said that:

every technology can be used in some negative way and so we all should work towards making sure it't not going to happen.
And even one of the interesting directions is once you know some how to create something then you know how to reverse engineer it.
And so one could create methods for identifying edited videos versus real videos.

She said that looking very optimistic and happy. With a bright shiny smile on her face. Happily sharing a "solution" that is not really a solution for regular people. Or at least I dont see it that way.

To be able to protect ourselfs from misinformation we will now need to be able to identify real content from fake. And this time it's going to require some decent skills and resources. Which means that at the end of the day most of us will be vonurable. It will be even harder to tell what's real and what is not. How will you even be able to tell if you're talking online to real human or an advanced AI ?

I'm following this subject related to AI closely and it fascinates me, but at the same time I think that we should be really scared. Not because AI will destroy humanity (Terminator) but rather AI will change the world and many of us will not be able to find a place in this new world. Isn't it scary enough?

STEEMIT

Sometimes I wonder if it would be possible to create AI, that would study posts on Steemit and then would manage it's own blogging channel. This AI would be able to do research, study, collect information and then create valuable posts. On top of that, it could easily target audience in a way we humans will never be able to. And dropping 100 unique comments per hour wont be a problem as well. It may possibly happend. Or maybe some of us still believe that it's Sc-Fi?

CONSEQUENCES

I really like what @xinyuhe wrote:

If the footage and audio generated by these programs become indistinguishable from live footage, what are the implications?
If Cambridge Analytica was simply able to manipulate an entire population just from well placed ads on a social media network, imagine what fake video and audio propaganda can do to disrupt political status quo and influence people’s beliefs and opinions.

I dont think it requires any more comments. I believe that many of us share similar worries. It is our job to share our concerns and voice them loud out. Hopefully we will be heard. I think sharing our worries and building awarness is the best think we can do.

CENSORSHIP

Let's have an example. How difficult will it be to create more FUD within cryptocommunity faking news and backing them up with "real" videos.

Weather we like it or not, but it seem that official goverment run media may be more reliable than ever before comparing to "independent" informations available online. Perhaps some of us will even decide to go back to traditional "paper" newspapers, knowing that whatever is printed is "real".

At the moment, our population is generally against censorship and I see many reasons why is it considered "evil". With blockchain technology where nothing can be removed and censorship hardly exist we will most likely face insane amount of "independent misinformation".

What's your view on that topic? What kind of world are we going to live in? World of misinformation where trust will be something hard to find?

Please share with me.

Yours,
Piotr

Creating interesting and engaging content require time and resources and I would not achieve it without constant support from:	www.promib.pl www.cryptohype.tech

sources: http://sites.bu.edu/ombs/2016/12/07/how-artificial-intelligence-is-beginning-to-sense-and-perceive/