AI used to bring Civil War veterans to life

[True Dough]

Sometimes technology is downright amazing.

[some_of_us_are_sane]

1. So amazing!!!!

It feels like a Time Machine.....a real "portal" to the past. Thank you!

[highplainsdem]

2. This is horrifying. Not only are these videos likely made with illegally trained AI using stolen images,

but that YouTuber is taking photos of real people and turning them into puppets.

How would you feel if someone took an old photo of one of your loved ones who's gone now and decided to animate it with expressions and gestures that were all wrong for your loved one, presenting it as bringing your loved one to life?

What that YouTuber did is exploitative in the same way as AI being used to generate a voice like a dead singer's and using it for songs that artist would probably have refused to sing.

[True Dough]

3. That's a strong opinion. While I respect it,

I don't share it

Interestingly, we live in a more AI-generated world. Some folks find that scary, others are excited at the prospects.

When it comes to death, we have people who are choosing to have AI pass on some pre-written messages and some messages authored by AI months and years later that remain in the spirit of the individual's past missives. Similarly, there are AI programs that can compose audio messages that are in keeping with an individual's personality. Of course it's not a replacement for them when they're gone, but some people find it comforting. To each their own!

Along the lines of what you mentioned above, another trend is hologram concerts, bringing back the essence of once great performers who are no longer among us. Some fans are turned off by the idea, others flock to such events.


So I say, “Live and let live.” That’s my motto. “Live and let live.” And anyone who can’t go along with that, take him outside and shoot the motherfucker. It’s a simple philosophy, but it’s always worked in our family.
-George Carlin

[highplainsdem]

7. No, generative AI is NOT a "live and let live" situation, because you're supporting unethical and

illegally trained tech causing great harm to those whose intellectual property was stolen - in addition to all the other harm from generative AI, from the dumbing-down of students and users to harm to the environment.

The use of AI to pretend a deceased loved one is still with us is considered unhealthy by psychologists. It's a delusion.

So is the use of AI to revive performers who are gone. That's done by money-grubbing estates/heirs hoping to wring some profits from fans deluded enough to think it's okay.

These are all profoundly unethical and stupid uses of technology, like the sort of fakery in the video you posted.

And all this AI slop, which your video is, threatens to drown what is real, what facts we have, in a deluge of garbage. Which we're already seeing happen on the internet.

No one is going to have any better understanding of the Civil War after watching AI-animated Civil War photos. That YT account is doing that to make money off the gullible.

No one is adding to a real artist's real legacy via AI imitations.

No one is communicating their real feelings by setting up an AI imitation of themselves to conmunicate with their loved ones after they're gone. There are real ways to do that - writing or leaving audio or video messages. What an AI version will spew out might bear some superficial resemblance to their thoughts but could also be hallucinated and completely off and potentially very upsetting for anyone who's become dependent on those bots. And people foolish enough to choose bots for companionship do become dependent on them.

What you're advocating for is extremely harmful. Saying it should be "live and let !ive" is like saying slave labor or child abuse should be "live and let live" - because you're starting with being okay with tech bros' theft of the world's knowledge and culture to train AI for their own profit. You're giving approval to the greatest theft in history, a theft designed to make the AI competitive with those still working whose work was stolen (and the competition factor wipes out any claim it was fair use).
By doing so you're showing contempt for everyone who did not want their intellectual property stolen for a power grab by tech bros who are quite happy to support fascists.

I don't believe George Carlin would think generative AI was okay. He'd probably have some very. choice words for those who develop and peddle it, those who use it to "create" what is essentially a fraud, and those who fall for it, whether completely missing that it's AI, or finding it so entertaining that they don't care at all about the harms dons.

[True Dough]

8. Drawing any comparisons to slave labor or child.abuse

is way beyond the pale for me. I'm just not going there. Done debating. Good luck putting a stop to a growing phenomenon, however!

[highplainsdem]

9. Stealing people's intellectual property to compete with them is comparable to slave labor. And the harm

done to education already by AI is abusive of children.

The point I'm making is that you're choosing to support something incredibly harmful and deliberately unethical because you find some things it does entertaining.

[Emile]

4. This is pretty cool.

[littlemissmartypants]

5. Made me wonder...

If men today realize how much they look like Civil War veterans with all their facial hair?

[True Dough]

6. Is that a good or bad thing, LMSP?

Are you anti-facial hair?

[Fla Dem]

10. To me this is very eerie. Using photos of long dead humans and in essence bringing them back to life.

Too me it just seemed totally inappropriate and offensive to those in the pictures.

But that's me and I DO understand how AI is taking over many aspects of what we see and hear. That doesn't make it right. I for one would not want a picture of me animated 100 years after my death.

[bif]

11. Very cool!