1,000-plus AI-generated LinkedIn faces uncovered Two Stanford researchers have fallen down a LinkedIn rabbit hole, finding over 1,000 fake profiles using AI-generated faces at the bottom. Renée DiResta and Josh Goldstein from the Stanford Internet Observatory made the discovery after DiResta was messaged by a profile reported to belong to a "Keenan Ramsey". It looked like a …
A recent study found that the average person has no better odds than chance at distinguishing a real face from an AI-generated one. Think you can do better? Test yourself at this site. ®
So am I weird in some way? I just tried 30 faces and was told every one was correct. I will admit that if I had to do each one in less than 5 secs it would be a different matter but quite a few were so poor that it took less than 3 secs. My worst case was about 8. I will also admit that 3 of them I trusted the naff background to reduce the time I took.
Like you, all correct, although for the first few that I saw I had to take a bit of time to decide. After 20 or so I've started to fly through them, taking only a second or two to choose.
Sounds like prime AI/Machine Learning fodder to me, so I imagine that it won't be too long before we have AIs generating images that don't contain the obvious giveaway artefacts.
> I just tried 30 faces and was told every one was correct
Same here, but then again knowing that one of the pair has to be fake helps a lot, it reduces the difficulty by 50%. I'm sure we all would had been fooled a couple times if they came one by one.
BTW flat lighting is the most obvious giveaway, after unnatural imperfections: When AI learns to make realistic, contrasted lighting fakes will be much harder to spot.
Pretty much. I usually only wear one, partly because one ear's always given me hassle and I just can't be arsed any more, but it's not that uncommon and I feel I'm just channelling my ageing goth/punk vibe. And my hair naturally kinda blurs into the background especially when exposed to sea air when it just becomes a giant mass of frizz, leaving me looking much like Alice from Dilbert.
Many years ago I got an interview for a technical sales job for a company in Leeds. I was given a psychometric test to complete before the interview, then shown through to the manager. He said "I've got some good news and some bad news for you. You're a nice chap, but I'm not giving you the job." and then went to explain his psychometric software had been a good investment, had always got characters correct, and that I just wasn't slimy enough to be a salesman. He said "I need someone that never had real friends as a kid, and has always been selling themselves, and that's not you."
(somewhat of a joke alert as well)
Back when I was in High School some students made up a fake student to mess with the substitute teacher's head. They turned in homework, and did other things to make the student seem real. I had my picture taken as this student and it ended up in the yearbook. (another guy did something similar, when he saw me doing it, someone who had a real chance at a sports career in baseball, though i never actually saw his name on any team)
So, why not just create fake profiles for fun? (not like nobody ever did this with a fake name on some platform someplace...)
(Still leveraging them for profit is an odd twist, but not an unexpected one)
In my first computer job in the late 1980s we had a fictitious employee called John Toombs. His ephemeral existence was defined by the many job functions he got shuffled around in the company. These promotions were announced in Computer Weekly, and the other UK PC rags, just to get the company name in the press every couple of months.
I was watching some of that just yesterday, funnily enough; the original feature film, that is, which had to be ripped from VHS tape as last time I looked it's never been released on any medium. Just as well I had the presence of mind to tape it when it was first broadcast back in 1985...
LinkedIn are almost certainly aware of all this going on, as it allows them to claim 30 million UK users. An amazing figure when you consider the population is around 67 million, 11m of which are 0-14 and about the same are over 65... so they've managed to 'sign up' around 2/3 of the available working age population
Given it has been around for 18+ years and it's incredibly easy to create a basic account, it wouldn't surprise me if this figure was correct even if the majority are dormant.
Certainly among office workers everyone I have ever searched for seems to have one.
When LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook et al started out, I created some bogus accounts so I could get an understanding. Those accounts have gone on to lead a far more interesting life than me.
Given that I haven't used them for years, the endless parade of emails I get from "people who know me" etc etc does really underscore how the value of these platform is slowly, but inevitably, sinking to zero.
I recently deleted 2/3s of my "contacts" as they were either people I don't like, barely know, haven't seen for 10 years, recruiters (who obviously fall into the first 2 categories);or duplicates, in that some people seem to sign up with their work emails, and thus have to create a new account each time they change jobs.
I mean I have and/or have had about 20 fake accounts. It all started back in 2005 when some pimp started ploughing my list for contract gigs using my name and rep.
I am surprised that people take it seriously these days. It is is full decline just like facebook. Yet another good investment by Microsoft. If M$ didn't have the cash cows of Office and Windows I doubt they would be running things like github into the ground and certainly would not be buying crap like linkedin.
Coincidentally, I've just launched a filter that makes your photos more like they were generated by AI. It fuzzes up the background, messes up your clothes and your hair, removes or adds an earring, and makes you slightly piebald and half tanned. You can thank me when they come for your peers but leave you alone because they think you are a bot.
I'm calling it BorisLook.
I'm also teaming up with aManFromMars to produce a filter that obfuscates your prose.
The Register 
Biting the hand that feeds IT
Copyright. All rights reserved © 1998–2024
