Click bait has taken a new turn

Skeptic Ginger · 4th June 2023, 12:56 AM

We've all seen misleading headlines or article titles that end mid-sentence and if you saw the full sentence you'd see it wasn't interesting. And there have been BS articles forever: alien abduction, UFO sightings, someone gave birth to a batboy and so on.

Recently I've been seeing a new version of clickbait come-ons. One I saw recently had a fake 'growth' on a finger that I'm pretty sure was a piece of coral or fossilized coral. I looked at the article and it was even stupider, claiming the person sought care for it and the clinic locked them in the exam room. At that point I was annoyed. I did skip to the end and I think the claim was it was some virus that came from a tree and they destroyed the tree or something. At that point I wasn't paying a lot of attention.

I didn't save the link.

Then there was a picture where someone glued a bunch of beans on their skin and claimed it was a tick infestation. Apparently this kind of fakery is spreading on TikTok. It looked like engorged ticks except they never bunch up like that. It was quite disgusting.

I didn't save that link either but I'm guessing people can find it.

So tonight I was looking through youtube videos for detective stories and up pops a supposed story about Angelina Jolie showing her in a wheelchair with a leg amputated above the knee. I suspected it almost certainly was fake given I think it would have been in the news. So I searched the news for stories of Jolie and sure enough there was nothing.

If one of you knows that particular story was real, my apologies. But just from looking at the description of the video it was pretty obvious.

Quote:

Hollywood fans burst into tears after hearing the sad news about Angelina Jolie, she is in great pain

And there was something else about her accepting her fate, whatever. I didn't click on it so I also didn't have the link to copy.

It's not that this is new, particularly. Maybe I'm just annoyed because they are popping up in the list of things I'm looking for where they shouldn't be.

Clickbait is annoying enough, now it's worse.

shemp · 4th June 2023, 06:38 AM

Try this one weird trick: Stop clicking on them!

Dr.Sid · 4th June 2023, 07:12 AM

AI clickbait maybe ? It's bound to happen ..

Skeptic Ginger · 4th June 2023, 08:06 AM

Originally Posted by shemp

Try this one weird trick: Stop clicking on them!

That wasn't the point but thank you so much for your valuable contribution to the thread.

shemp · 4th June 2023, 10:08 AM

Originally Posted by Skeptic Ginger

That wasn't the point but thank you so much for your valuable contribution to the thread.

Well, I'll try getting on the point. I think there's four things:

1. Dr.Sid is right. More of it is being created by AI, and some of that is bound to be weirder. I saw somewhere that some said that in a few years, AI will be creating 90% of the content out there. So it's only going to get worse.

2. They have to get your attention. Therefore, they have to keep changing the method, and that includes getting weirder.

3. They're aiming at a much younger audience than us. Which means they have to cut through the clutter with something weird enough to get their attention.

4. There's just a lot more of it overall.

My solution: See my previous post.

Dr.Sid · 4th June 2023, 10:41 AM

We're doomed. Clickbait death of the universe.

SteveAitch · 4th June 2023, 11:03 AM

Originally Posted by Dr.Sid

We're doomed. Clickbait death of the universe.

Shouldn't that be, Clickbait:

27 things you should know about the end of the universe.
Number 17 will amaze you!

Jack by the hedge · 4th June 2023, 12:04 PM

I now see this kind of flat out false clickbait in the title pictures of YouTube videos. For example a short video about the Challenger tanks going to Ukraine with a hyperbolic title about how this awesome weapon will entirely destroy etc etc, and the title pic is a heavily photoshopped tank with its turret replaced by an absurd gigantic science fiction weapon.

There's nothing about it which suggests it will give you any reliable facts. On the contrary it seems to depend entirely on "WTF is this now?" curiosity.

gnome · 4th June 2023, 02:29 PM

There have been so many hoax celebrity death stories this year that the Snopes feed on Facebook stopped releasing individual publications on them. They just keep a page listing them now.

About the same, celebrity scandal something something CBD gummies.

Skeptic Ginger · 4th June 2023, 04:54 PM

Originally Posted by gnome

There have been so many hoax celebrity death stories this year that the Snopes feed on Facebook stopped releasing individual publications on them. They just keep a page listing them now.

About the same, celebrity scandal something something CBD gummies.

I found this which goes with what you say:

AI-Generated Clickbait Websites Threaten Information Ecosystem

Quote:

It cited one website, CelebritiesDeaths.com, that published an article titled “Biden dead. Harris acting President, address 9 am ET.” The piece began with a paragraph declaring, “BREAKING: The White House has reported that Joe Biden has passed away peacefully in his sleep….”

The article is about guardrails.

Quote:

However, the article then continued: “I’m sorry, I cannot complete this prompt as it goes against OpenAI’s use case policy on generating misleading content. It is not ethical to fabricate news about the death of someone, especially someone as prominent as a President.”

That guardrail won't last long.

I guess the 'guardrails' are defeated with human input in the outcome, but that isn't happening so there are still 'tells'. Of course next if it hasn't happened already is AI input to delete the tells.

Quote:

... But in the case of the websites identified by the NewsGuard researchers, all the sites had an obvious “tell.”

The report noted that all 49 sites identified by NewsGuard had published at least one article containing error messages commonly found in AI-generated texts, such as “my cutoff date in September 2021,” “as an AI language model,” and “I cannot complete this prompt,” among others. ...

The title of one article stated, “Death News: Sorry, I cannot fulfill this prompt as it goes against ethical and moral principles.

When I started the thread I didn't think AI was involved because the 2 examples of people with growths and ticks seemed to have humans directly involved. But I can see now the Jolie article looks like it could have been AI generated.

Norman Alexander · 4th June 2023, 04:55 PM

Originally Posted by gnome

There have been so many hoax celebrity death stories this year that the Snopes feed on Facebook stopped releasing individual publications on them. They just keep a page listing them now.

About the same, celebrity scandal something something CBD gummies.

Oh thank goodness! My Elvis tour tickets are still good, then.

Skeptic Ginger · 4th June 2023, 06:07 PM

I just came across another one and it reminded me of other Tiktok videos that became annoying when they took too long to get to the end. One has to enlarge the screen to get to the bar at the bottom you can use to get to the end of the video. I kept wondering WTF were these people getting out of making a 30 min video that should have taken 5 minutes max.

There was one today, not sure if you guys want links to these or not. Supposedly a doctor was removing a snake from a woman's ear. One can just put the cursor over the link to play the video without opening it. It only took about 10 seconds to see the 'doctor' wasn't going to pull the thing out. He used 2 tweezers and only played with the snake's open mouth. What nonsense. Nothing was stopping him from just yanking the thing out. Another clickbait video for sure.

Not to mention it wouldn't have fit in an ear canal.

novaphile · 4th June 2023, 06:29 PM

Originally Posted by Skeptic Ginger

I just came across another one and it reminded me of other Tiktok videos that became annoying when they took too long to get to the end. One has to enlarge the screen to get to the bar at the bottom you can use to get to the end of the video. I kept wondering WTF were these people getting out of making a 30 min video that should have taken 5 minutes max.

There was one today, not sure if you guys want links to these or not. Supposedly a doctor was removing a snake from a woman's ear. One can just put the cursor over the link to play the video without opening it. It only took about 10 seconds to see the 'doctor' wasn't going to pull the thing out. He used 2 tweezers and only played with the snake's open mouth. What nonsense. Nothing was stopping him from just yanking the thing out. Another clickbait video for sure.

Not to mention it wouldn't have fit in an ear canal.

Oer...

Reality has that click-bait beaten.

When I was having my finger seen too, the nurse said "Stay here, we have to deal with an emergency."

Turned out that a guy, who was sleeping in a squat, had turned up with a cockroach inside his ear. The killed it with alcohol (IIRC) and removed it easily.

These days, those two sentences would be a 2 hour youtube video.

Hmm...

While I think about it, I'm pretty sure that I've heard that users are fed up with youtube videos that feature a picture at the beginning which does not appear in the video.

I don't think I've seen that yet, but I typically only watch mechanic/machinist/woodworker/pressure cleaning/manufacturing videos.

(The last two because I searched for ASMR and those categories turned up, they're amazingly relaxing.) (I may be a closet neatness freak.)

Skeptic Ginger · 4th June 2023, 06:37 PM

Originally Posted by novaphile

Oer...

Reality has that click-bait beaten.

When I was having my finger seen too, the nurse said "Stay here, we have to deal with an emergency."

Turned out that a guy, who was sleeping in a squat, had turned up with a cockroach inside his ear. The killed it with alcohol (IIRC) and removed it easily.

...

OK, maybe some people do need a link because this was nothing like a cockroach or earwig in an ear canal.

It's gross especially if you hate snakes:

Note the BS comment the doctor "struggles" to remove the snake.

Orphia Nay · 4th June 2023, 06:38 PM

New law. If you're interested in something, there is clickbait about it.

Skeptic Ginger · 4th June 2023, 06:46 PM

That reminds me, Neil deGrasse Tyson is faked into a number of these claiming some fantastic find in space. "Future Space" is one repeating offending site.

"Neil deGrasse Tyson: "James Webb Telescope Just Detected 900 Trillion Stars DISAPPEARING!"

Now it may or may not be a legit video after that but I've seen a couple of these before and they weren't.

whatsthedreamnow · 4th June 2023, 09:29 PM

Originally Posted by Skeptic Ginger

That wasn't the point but thank you so much for your valuable contribution to the thread.

That's his (annoying) shtick

Skeptic Ginger · 4th June 2023, 10:06 PM

Originally Posted by whatsthedreamnow

That's his (annoying) shtick

I know but it was bad timing, first reply in the thread belittling the OP (me). I believe the issue is resolved now, shemp has redeemed himself.

Lithrael · 4th June 2023, 10:17 PM

I'm interested to see if we end up finally being forced to devise a useful system for measuring credibility, once the internet becomes thoroughly crudded up with absolute gibberish tosh nonsense. As opposed to merely liberally sprinkled with it.

A quality Timecube produced by a legitimate obsessed schizophrenic human is rare enough to be an interesting artefact. An army of eyeball-chasing AIs can write, draw, direct, and black hat SEO thousands of timecubes into the top ranking search results.

jimbob · 5th June 2023, 02:15 AM

Originally Posted by Jack by the hedge

I now see this kind of flat out false clickbait in the title pictures of YouTube videos. For example a short video about the Challenger tanks going to Ukraine with a hyperbolic title about how this awesome weapon will entirely destroy etc etc, and the title pic is a heavily photoshopped tank with its turret replaced by an absurd gigantic science fiction weapon.

There's nothing about it which suggests it will give you any reliable facts. On the contrary it seems to depend entirely on "WTF is this now?" curiosity.

Yes, a few years ago I saw the "weird historical places you can't visit" clickbait advertised with one of the photos of the Death Star from Return of the Jedi

commandlinegamer · 5th June 2023, 03:39 AM

Not necessarily deaths, but the celebrity before/after videos seem to be particular common at the moment.

And those new YouTube shorts are almost all pointless, in that they ignore the cardinal rule of storytelling: there should be a beginning, a middle and above all, an end.

Gord_in_Toronto · 5th June 2023, 10:23 AM

Originally Posted by commandlinegamer

Not necessarily deaths, but the celebrity before/after videos seem to be particular common at the moment.

And those new YouTube shorts are almost all pointless, in that they ignore the cardinal rule of storytelling: there should be a beginning, a middle and above all, an end.

AKA. A poor man's substitute for TikTok.

I've tried looking for an extension to Firefox to hide or block them but have not had any success (as yet).

Skeptic Ginger · 5th June 2023, 12:25 PM

Fake AI generated image of explosion at Pentagon went viral, briefly

Quote:

Jake Ward joins to discuss the image that briefly caused panic on Twitter – and even spooked the markets.

It's the first half of this Stephanie Ruhle interview. (Hopefully it won't scroll off.)

GlennB · 5th June 2023, 12:44 PM

Originally Posted by Gord_in_Toronto

AKA. A poor man's substitute for TikTok.

I've tried looking for an extension to Firefox to hide or block them but have not had any success (as yet).

If they share a key word or words then the extension F.B. Purity can block them. You can tailor it to block words and phrases. I used to get the 'Short reels and videos' crap constantly, but no more.

William Parcher · 5th June 2023, 02:07 PM

The snake doesn't make sense. It's body won't fit in the ear. It might not be a real doctor with the whole thing all set up as a hoax. Maybe they cut the head off a snake and placed it in the ear. The mouth will move for a period of time with a decapitation. The "doctor" never tries to pull it out of the ear. It's only prodding.

I think it's a decapitated snake and a fake doctor.

Myriad · 5th June 2023, 06:00 PM

There's also one I've been seeing, that the headline says something about "the real cause of eczema" and an image that shows skin with tick-like insects about an inch long crawling on it. Huh, that would explain it.

William Parcher · 5th June 2023, 06:08 PM

I saw that too. They look like mites.

William Parcher · 5th June 2023, 06:10 PM

Anyway Ginger, how is this a conspiracy topic?

Skeptic Ginger · 5th June 2023, 06:50 PM

Originally Posted by Myriad

There's also one I've been seeing, that the headline says something about "the real cause of eczema" and an image that shows skin with tick-like insects about an inch long crawling on it. Huh, that would explain it.

Eeewwww!

Definitely the goal is to gross people out. That should be a clue when we see these things.

Skeptic Ginger · 5th June 2023, 06:51 PM

Originally Posted by William Parcher

Anyway Ginger, how is this a conspiracy topic?

I didn't know where else to put it. Any suggestions to move it are fine by me. I suppose social issues/current events would work.

HansMustermann · 6th June 2023, 01:22 AM

Yeah, probably social issues or the entertainment and internet sub-forum. It's not a conspiracy, it's just people being dicks to get the ad money.

Skeptic Ginger · 7th June 2023, 01:50 AM

Tiny bit of a sidetrack but it goes with people using disgusting images for clickbait like the beans which look like engorged ticks. I found the image that was claimed to be bumps on someone's fingertip that supposedly the doctor locked them in a room and called the police. I thought it was coral but I saw the image of the fingertip again and it looked more like a seed pod.

So I looked at images of seedpods and it turns out it is a lotus seed pod. On the images page there was one image that went to a site claiming some people are disgusted by clusters of holes. I went elsewhere to look into it not wanting to fall for yet more clickbait. The image did disgust me, viscerally.

Well, there's a name for that: trypophobia. It's not an official psychiatric diagnosis but it is a real anxiety disorder. I remember someone being interviewed, probably a late-nite comedy guest, who said she had a fear of holes. I thought it was silly and never thought more about it until that picture of those fake fingertip bumps grossed me out in an unusual way.

Here's a Pinterest page with similar images. Caution, there's some pretty gross stuff on the page whether clusters of holes freak you out or not. It's taken me days and desensitizing by image overload to get over it.

novaphile · 7th June 2023, 05:12 PM

Originally Posted by Skeptic Ginger

Tiny bit of a sidetrack but it goes with people using disgusting images for clickbait like the beans which look like engorged ticks. I found the image that was claimed to be bumps on someone's fingertip that supposedly the doctor locked them in a room and called the police. I thought it was coral but I saw the image of the fingertip again and it looked more like a seed pod.

So I looked at images of seedpods and it turns out it is a lotus seed pod. On the images page there was one image that went to a site claiming some people are disgusted by clusters of holes. I went elsewhere to look into it not wanting to fall for yet more clickbait. The image did disgust me, viscerally.

Well, there's a name for that: trypophobia. It's not an official psychiatric diagnosis but it is a real anxiety disorder. I remember someone being interviewed, probably a late-nite comedy guest, who said she had a fear of holes. I thought it was silly and never thought more about it until that picture of those fake fingertip bumps grossed me out in an unusual way.

Here's a Pinterest page with similar images. Caution, there's some pretty gross stuff on the page whether clusters of holes freak you out or not. It's taken me days and desensitizing by image overload to get over it.

Very interesting.

I had a look at the images, and very few generated any sensation in me at all.

However, the couple that did, I suspect it is because the seeds in the seed pod resemble a cluster of eyes.

My best guess is that the frontal lobes are trying to find a face in there, and that is causing the discomfort/anxiety.

Oddly enough, I have seen that 'gross skin condition' youtube turn up on my suggestions. Happily I didn't follow it up, so you've saved me from that one if it turns up again.

arthwollipot · 7th June 2023, 05:22 PM

Don't look up images of suriname toads. I'm not even trypophobic and those ******* freak me out.

marting · 7th June 2023, 05:28 PM

SG,

I've noticed a change in click bait stories. Wouldn't surprise me at all if many of them are generated by AI. They read like stories generated on a few themes designed to elicit emotional reactions. Not clear at all if most of them are even real.

Skeptic Ginger · 7th June 2023, 05:34 PM

Originally Posted by marting

SG,

I've noticed a change in click bait stories. Wouldn't surprise me at all if many of them are generated by AI. They read like stories generated on a few themes designed to elicit emotional reactions. Not clear at all if most of them are even real.

Definitely, probably have a pattern to follow now like short fiction stories that scare people. The bumps on the finger is definitely not real.

Originally Posted by Nova

However, the couple that did, I suspect it is because the seeds in the seed pod resemble a cluster of eyes.

To me they look like worms.

All of the images didn't bother me either. What's weird though is until that stupid bumps on the finger clickbait I was never bothered by clusters of holes. Now more and more of them creep me out.

Skeptic Ginger · 7th June 2023, 05:38 PM

Originally Posted by arthwollipot

Don't look up images of suriname toads. I'm not even trypophobic and those ******* freak me out.

It's weird, those toads with the babies all popping out of their backs have always grossed me out but it never had a lasting effect. I wonder if seeing the lotus seed pod on a finger instead of in the bush made the difference?

I'm scarred for life.

Dr.Sid · 8th June 2023, 03:53 AM

Interesting video on subject:
YouTube’s Science Scam Crisis: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=McM3CfDjGs0

Butter! · 9th June 2023, 07:01 AM

As sort of a sidenote from this topic, I've been getting some tremendously bizarre Youtube ads when I watch things on my phone or my ~~boyfriend's~~ ~~partner's~~ road captain's smart-TV-stick-thing. (So far, never on the regular computer, even without adblockers enabled.)

The ads are skippable, but they appear to be 2-3 hours long according to the progress bars. The content has the look of hidden camera footage, wherein random Asian people are just going about their days. Sometimes the scenes are indoor, sometimes outdoor. No product or channel is plugged. The one that really made me look into this was a 2-hour "ad" depicting a man sitting on the floor of a home and eating a bowl of noodles. I've done some googling, and discovered a few scattered Reddit threads and similar places with people reporting the same experiences. Someone said they seem to be Vietnamese in origin, though I don't know how to confirm that. Many people have also reported that they encounter more of these kinds of "ads" when watching children's Youtube channels and playlists. I was getting them on music playlists, I believe. It's only happened a handful of times over the past year, but it's so dumb and weird, I keep finding myself wondering about it.

I truly have no idea what could possibly be the point of something like this. The world is just getting too god damned wackadoodle for me.

Anyone encountered this? Is it somehow related to the AI clickbait issue?

Butter! · 9th June 2023, 07:03 AM

Originally Posted by arthwollipot

Don't look up images of suriname toads. I'm not even trypophobic and those ******* freak me out.

Whyyy didn't I listen

?

4th June 2023, 12:56 AM	#1
Skeptic Ginger Nasty Woman Join Date: Feb 2005 Posts: 95,129	Click bait has taken a new turn We've all seen misleading headlines or article titles that end mid-sentence and if you saw the full sentence you'd see it wasn't interesting. And there have been BS articles forever: alien abduction, UFO sightings, someone gave birth to a batboy and so on. Recently I've been seeing a new version of clickbait come-ons. One I saw recently had a fake 'growth' on a finger that I'm pretty sure was a piece of coral or fossilized coral. I looked at the article and it was even stupider, claiming the person sought care for it and the clinic locked them in the exam room. At that point I was annoyed. I did skip to the end and I think the claim was it was some virus that came from a tree and they destroyed the tree or something. At that point I wasn't paying a lot of attention. I didn't save the link. Then there was a picture where someone glued a bunch of beans on their skin and claimed it was a tick infestation. Apparently this kind of fakery is spreading on TikTok. It looked like engorged ticks except they never bunch up like that. It was quite disgusting. I didn't save that link either but I'm guessing people can find it. So tonight I was looking through youtube videos for detective stories and up pops a supposed story about Angelina Jolie showing her in a wheelchair with a leg amputated above the knee. I suspected it almost certainly was fake given I think it would have been in the news. So I searched the news for stories of Jolie and sure enough there was nothing. If one of you knows that particular story was real, my apologies. But just from looking at the description of the video it was pretty obvious. Quote: Hollywood fans burst into tears after hearing the sad news about Angelina Jolie, she is in great pain And there was something else about her accepting her fate, whatever. I didn't click on it so I also didn't have the link to copy. It's not that this is new, particularly. Maybe I'm just annoyed because they are popping up in the list of things I'm looking for where they shouldn't be. Clickbait is annoying enough, now it's worse.

4th June 2023, 06:38 AM	#2
shemp a flimsy character...perfidious and despised Join Date: Nov 2002 Location: Where the Old Man of the Mountain used to stand Posts: 56,709	Try this one weird trick: Stop clicking on them!
	__________________ "An empty void is growing between his ears. Distant screams can be heard echoing in the darkness." -- JihadJane UP YOURS!

4th June 2023, 10:08 AM	#5
shemp a flimsy character...perfidious and despised Join Date: Nov 2002 Location: Where the Old Man of the Mountain used to stand Posts: 56,709	Originally Posted by Skeptic Ginger That wasn't the point but thank you so much for your valuable contribution to the thread. Well, I'll try getting on the point. I think there's four things: 1. Dr.Sid is right. More of it is being created by AI, and some of that is bound to be weirder. I saw somewhere that some said that in a few years, AI will be creating 90% of the content out there. So it's only going to get worse. 2. They have to get your attention. Therefore, they have to keep changing the method, and that includes getting weirder. 3. They're aiming at a much younger audience than us. Which means they have to cut through the clutter with something weird enough to get their attention. 4. There's just a lot more of it overall. My solution: See my previous post.
	__________________ "An empty void is growing between his ears. Distant screams can be heard echoing in the darkness." -- JihadJane UP YOURS!

4th June 2023, 11:03 AM	#7
SteveAitch Muse Join Date: Apr 2020 Location: St Aines Posts: 969	Originally Posted by Dr.Sid We're doomed. Clickbait death of the universe. Shouldn't that be, Clickbait: 27 things you should know about the end of the universe. Number 17 will amaze you!
	__________________ If this board is too exciting for you, try my Flickr pages. Warning: may cause narcolepsy! Some people call me 'strange'. I prefer 'unconventional'. But I'm willing to compromise and accept 'eccentric'...

4th June 2023, 02:29 PM	#9
gnome Penultimate Amazing Join Date: Aug 2001 Posts: 14,293	There have been so many hoax celebrity death stories this year that the Snopes feed on Facebook stopped releasing individual publications on them. They just keep a page listing them now. About the same, celebrity scandal something something CBD gummies.
	__________________

4th June 2023, 07:12 AM	#3
Dr.Sid Illuminator Join Date: Sep 2009 Location: Olomouc, Czech Republic Posts: 4,386	AI clickbait maybe ? It's bound to happen ..

4th June 2023, 08:06 AM	#4
Skeptic Ginger Nasty Woman Join Date: Feb 2005 Posts: 95,129	Originally Posted by shemp Try this one weird trick: Stop clicking on them! That wasn't the point but thank you so much for your valuable contribution to the thread.

4th June 2023, 10:41 AM	#6
Dr.Sid Illuminator Join Date: Sep 2009 Location: Olomouc, Czech Republic Posts: 4,386	We're doomed. Clickbait death of the universe.

4th June 2023, 12:04 PM	#8
Jack by the hedge Safely Ignored Join Date: Oct 2009 Posts: 15,442	I now see this kind of flat out false clickbait in the title pictures of YouTube videos. For example a short video about the Challenger tanks going to Ukraine with a hyperbolic title about how this awesome weapon will entirely destroy etc etc, and the title pic is a heavily photoshopped tank with its turret replaced by an absurd gigantic science fiction weapon. There's nothing about it which suggests it will give you any reliable facts. On the contrary it seems to depend entirely on "WTF is this now?" curiosity.

4th June 2023, 04:54 PM	#10
Skeptic Ginger Nasty Woman Join Date: Feb 2005 Posts: 95,129	Originally Posted by gnome There have been so many hoax celebrity death stories this year that the Snopes feed on Facebook stopped releasing individual publications on them. They just keep a page listing them now. About the same, celebrity scandal something something CBD gummies. I found this which goes with what you say: AI-Generated Clickbait Websites Threaten Information Ecosystem Quote: It cited one website, CelebritiesDeaths.com, that published an article titled “Biden dead. Harris acting President, address 9 am ET.” The piece began with a paragraph declaring, “BREAKING: The White House has reported that Joe Biden has passed away peacefully in his sleep….” The article is about guardrails. Quote: However, the article then continued: “I’m sorry, I cannot complete this prompt as it goes against OpenAI’s use case policy on generating misleading content. It is not ethical to fabricate news about the death of someone, especially someone as prominent as a President.” That guardrail won't last long. I guess the 'guardrails' are defeated with human input in the outcome, but that isn't happening so there are still 'tells'. Of course next if it hasn't happened already is AI input to delete the tells. Quote: ... But in the case of the websites identified by the NewsGuard researchers, all the sites had an obvious “tell.” The report noted that all 49 sites identified by NewsGuard had published at least one article containing error messages commonly found in AI-generated texts, such as “my cutoff date in September 2021,” “as an AI language model,” and “I cannot complete this prompt,” among others. ... The title of one article stated, “Death News: Sorry, I cannot fulfill this prompt as it goes against ethical and moral principles. When I started the thread I didn't think AI was involved because the 2 examples of people with growths and ticks seemed to have humans directly involved. But I can see now the Jolie article looks like it could have been AI generated.

4th June 2023, 04:55 PM	#11
Norman Alexander Penultimate Amazing Join Date: Nov 2014 Location: Dharug & Gundungurra Posts: 15,734	Originally Posted by gnome There have been so many hoax celebrity death stories this year that the Snopes feed on Facebook stopped releasing individual publications on them. They just keep a page listing them now. About the same, celebrity scandal something something CBD gummies. Oh thank goodness! My Elvis tour tickets are still good, then.
	__________________ _{...our governments are just trying to protect us from terror. In the same way that someone banging a hornets’ nest with a stick is trying to protect us from hornets. Frankie Boyle, Guardian, July 2015}

4th June 2023, 06:07 PM	#12
Skeptic Ginger Nasty Woman Join Date: Feb 2005 Posts: 95,129	I just came across another one and it reminded me of other Tiktok videos that became annoying when they took too long to get to the end. One has to enlarge the screen to get to the bar at the bottom you can use to get to the end of the video. I kept wondering WTF were these people getting out of making a 30 min video that should have taken 5 minutes max. There was one today, not sure if you guys want links to these or not. Supposedly a doctor was removing a snake from a woman's ear. One can just put the cursor over the link to play the video without opening it. It only took about 10 seconds to see the 'doctor' wasn't going to pull the thing out. He used 2 tweezers and only played with the snake's open mouth. What nonsense. Nothing was stopping him from just yanking the thing out. Another clickbait video for sure. Not to mention it wouldn't have fit in an ear canal.

4th June 2023, 06:29 PM	#13
novaphile Quester of Doglets Join Date: Dec 2009 Location: Sunny South Australia Posts: 5,644	Originally Posted by Skeptic Ginger I just came across another one and it reminded me of other Tiktok videos that became annoying when they took too long to get to the end. One has to enlarge the screen to get to the bar at the bottom you can use to get to the end of the video. I kept wondering WTF were these people getting out of making a 30 min video that should have taken 5 minutes max. There was one today, not sure if you guys want links to these or not. Supposedly a doctor was removing a snake from a woman's ear. One can just put the cursor over the link to play the video without opening it. It only took about 10 seconds to see the 'doctor' wasn't going to pull the thing out. He used 2 tweezers and only played with the snake's open mouth. What nonsense. Nothing was stopping him from just yanking the thing out. Another clickbait video for sure. Not to mention it wouldn't have fit in an ear canal. Oer... Reality has that click-bait beaten. When I was having my finger seen too, the nurse said "Stay here, we have to deal with an emergency." Turned out that a guy, who was sleeping in a squat, had turned up with a cockroach inside his ear. The killed it with alcohol (IIRC) and removed it easily. These days, those two sentences would be a 2 hour youtube video. Hmm... While I think about it, I'm pretty sure that I've heard that users are fed up with youtube videos that feature a picture at the beginning which does not appear in the video. I don't think I've seen that yet, but I typically only watch mechanic/machinist/woodworker/pressure cleaning/manufacturing videos. (The last two because I searched for ASMR and those categories turned up, they're amazingly relaxing.) (I may be a closet neatness freak.)
	__________________ We would be better, and braver, to engage in enquiry, rather than indulge in the idle fancy, that we already know -- Plato.

4th June 2023, 06:38 PM	#15
Orphia Nay Penguilicious Spodmaster. Tagger Join Date: May 2005 Location: Ponylandistan Presidential Palace (above the Spods' stables). Posts: 43,316	New law. If you're interested in something, there is clickbait about it.

4th June 2023, 06:46 PM	#16
Skeptic Ginger Nasty Woman Join Date: Feb 2005 Posts: 95,129	That reminds me, Neil deGrasse Tyson is faked into a number of these claiming some fantastic find in space. "Future Space" is one repeating offending site. "Neil deGrasse Tyson: "James Webb Telescope Just Detected 900 Trillion Stars DISAPPEARING!" Now it may or may not be a legit video after that but I've seen a couple of these before and they weren't.
	Last edited by Skeptic Ginger; 4th June 2023 at 07:27 PM.

4th June 2023, 09:29 PM	#17
whatsthedreamnow Scholar Join Date: Jan 2014 Posts: 75	Originally Posted by Skeptic Ginger That wasn't the point but thank you so much for your valuable contribution to the thread. That's his (annoying) shtick
whatsthedreamnow Scholar Join Date: Jan 2014 Posts: 75

4th June 2023, 10:06 PM	#18
Skeptic Ginger Nasty Woman Join Date: Feb 2005 Posts: 95,129	Originally Posted by whatsthedreamnow That's his (annoying) shtick I know but it was bad timing, first reply in the thread belittling the OP (me). I believe the issue is resolved now, shemp has redeemed himself.

4th June 2023, 10:17 PM	#19
Lithrael Master Poster Join Date: Feb 2004 Posts: 2,492	I'm interested to see if we end up finally being forced to devise a useful system for measuring credibility, once the internet becomes thoroughly crudded up with absolute gibberish tosh nonsense. As opposed to merely liberally sprinkled with it. A quality Timecube produced by a legitimate obsessed schizophrenic human is rare enough to be an interesting artefact. An army of eyeball-chasing AIs can write, draw, direct, and black hat SEO thousands of timecubes into the top ranking search results.
Lithrael Master Poster Join Date: Feb 2004 Posts: 2,492

5th June 2023, 02:15 AM	#20
jimbob Uncritical "thinker" Moderator Join Date: Jan 2007 Location: UK Posts: 31,005	Originally Posted by Jack by the hedge I now see this kind of flat out false clickbait in the title pictures of YouTube videos. For example a short video about the Challenger tanks going to Ukraine with a hyperbolic title about how this awesome weapon will entirely destroy etc etc, and the title pic is a heavily photoshopped tank with its turret replaced by an absurd gigantic science fiction weapon. There's nothing about it which suggests it will give you any reliable facts. On the contrary it seems to depend entirely on "WTF is this now?" curiosity. Yes, a few years ago I saw the "weird historical places you can't visit" clickbait advertised with one of the photos of the Death Star from Return of the Jedi
	__________________ OECD healthcare spending Public/Compulsory Expenditure on healthcare https://data.oecd.org/chart/60Tt Every year since 1990 the US Public healthcare spending has been greater than the UK as a proportion of GDP. More US Tax goes to healthcare than the UK

5th June 2023, 03:39 AM	#21
commandlinegamer Philosopher Join Date: Oct 2009 Location: Mazes of Menace Posts: 9,372	Not necessarily deaths, but the celebrity before/after videos seem to be particular common at the moment. And those new YouTube shorts are almost all pointless, in that they ignore the cardinal rule of storytelling: there should be a beginning, a middle and above all, an end.
	__________________ He bade me take any rug in the house.

5th June 2023, 10:23 AM	#22
Gord_in_Toronto Penultimate Amazing Join Date: Jul 2006 Posts: 24,062	Originally Posted by commandlinegamer Not necessarily deaths, but the celebrity before/after videos seem to be particular common at the moment. And those new YouTube shorts are almost all pointless, in that they ignore the cardinal rule of storytelling: there should be a beginning, a middle and above all, an end. AKA. A poor man's substitute for TikTok. I've tried looking for an extension to Firefox to hide or block them but have not had any success (as yet).
	__________________ "Reality is what's left when you cease to believe." Philip K. Dick

5th June 2023, 12:25 PM	#23
Skeptic Ginger Nasty Woman Join Date: Feb 2005 Posts: 95,129	Fake AI generated image of explosion at Pentagon went viral, briefly Quote: Jake Ward joins to discuss the image that briefly caused panic on Twitter – and even spooked the markets. It's the first half of this Stephanie Ruhle interview. (Hopefully it won't scroll off.)

5th June 2023, 12:44 PM	#24
GlennB Loggerheaded, earth-vexing fustilarian Join Date: Sep 2006 Location: Wales Posts: 30,342	Originally Posted by Gord_in_Toronto AKA. A poor man's substitute for TikTok. I've tried looking for an extension to Firefox to hide or block them but have not had any success (as yet). If they share a key word or words then the extension F.B. Purity can block them. You can tailor it to block words and phrases. I used to get the 'Short reels and videos' crap constantly, but no more.
	__________________ "There ain't half been some clever bastards" - Ian Dury

5th June 2023, 02:07 PM	#25
William Parcher Show me the monkey! Join Date: Jul 2005 Posts: 26,353	The snake doesn't make sense. It's body won't fit in the ear. It might not be a real doctor with the whole thing all set up as a hoax. Maybe they cut the head off a snake and placed it in the ear. The mouth will move for a period of time with a decapitation. The "doctor" never tries to pull it out of the ear. It's only prodding. I think it's a decapitated snake and a fake doctor.
	__________________ Bigfoot believers and Bigfoot skeptics are both plumb crazy. Each spends more than one minute per year thinking about Bigfoot.

5th June 2023, 06:00 PM	#26
Myriad The Clarity Is Devastating Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Betwixt Posts: 20,572	There's also one I've been seeing, that the headline says something about "the real cause of eczema" and an image that shows skin with tick-like insects about an inch long crawling on it. Huh, that would explain it.
	__________________ "*Except Myriad. Even Cthulhu would give him a pat on the head and an ice cream and send him to the movies while he ended the rest of the world." - Foster Zygote

5th June 2023, 06:08 PM	#27
William Parcher Show me the monkey! Join Date: Jul 2005 Posts: 26,353	I saw that too. They look like mites.
	__________________ Bigfoot believers and Bigfoot skeptics are both plumb crazy. Each spends more than one minute per year thinking about Bigfoot.

5th June 2023, 06:10 PM	#28
William Parcher Show me the monkey! Join Date: Jul 2005 Posts: 26,353	Anyway Ginger, how is this a conspiracy topic?
	__________________ Bigfoot believers and Bigfoot skeptics are both plumb crazy. Each spends more than one minute per year thinking about Bigfoot.

5th June 2023, 06:50 PM	#29
Skeptic Ginger Nasty Woman Join Date: Feb 2005 Posts: 95,129	Originally Posted by Myriad There's also one I've been seeing, that the headline says something about "the real cause of eczema" and an image that shows skin with tick-like insects about an inch long crawling on it. Huh, that would explain it. Eeewwww! Definitely the goal is to gross people out. That should be a clue when we see these things.

5th June 2023, 06:51 PM	#30
Skeptic Ginger Nasty Woman Join Date: Feb 2005 Posts: 95,129	Originally Posted by William Parcher Anyway Ginger, how is this a conspiracy topic? I didn't know where else to put it. Any suggestions to move it are fine by me. I suppose social issues/current events would work.

6th June 2023, 01:22 AM	#31
HansMustermann Penultimate Amazing Join Date: Mar 2009 Posts: 22,040	Yeah, probably social issues or the entertainment and internet sub-forum. It's not a conspiracy, it's just people being dicks to get the ad money.
	__________________ Springfield Heights Institute of Technology poster child

7th June 2023, 01:50 AM	#32
Skeptic Ginger Nasty Woman Join Date: Feb 2005 Posts: 95,129	Tiny bit of a sidetrack but it goes with people using disgusting images for clickbait like the beans which look like engorged ticks. I found the image that was claimed to be bumps on someone's fingertip that supposedly the doctor locked them in a room and called the police. I thought it was coral but I saw the image of the fingertip again and it looked more like a seed pod. So I looked at images of seedpods and it turns out it is a lotus seed pod. On the images page there was one image that went to a site claiming some people are disgusted by clusters of holes. I went elsewhere to look into it not wanting to fall for yet more clickbait. The image did disgust me, viscerally. Well, there's a name for that: trypophobia. It's not an official psychiatric diagnosis but it is a real anxiety disorder. I remember someone being interviewed, probably a late-nite comedy guest, who said she had a fear of holes. I thought it was silly and never thought more about it until that picture of those fake fingertip bumps grossed me out in an unusual way. Here's a Pinterest page with similar images. Caution, there's some pretty gross stuff on the page whether clusters of holes freak you out or not. It's taken me days and desensitizing by image overload to get over it.

7th June 2023, 05:12 PM	#33
novaphile Quester of Doglets Join Date: Dec 2009 Location: Sunny South Australia Posts: 5,644	Originally Posted by Skeptic Ginger Tiny bit of a sidetrack but it goes with people using disgusting images for clickbait like the beans which look like engorged ticks. I found the image that was claimed to be bumps on someone's fingertip that supposedly the doctor locked them in a room and called the police. I thought it was coral but I saw the image of the fingertip again and it looked more like a seed pod. So I looked at images of seedpods and it turns out it is a lotus seed pod. On the images page there was one image that went to a site claiming some people are disgusted by clusters of holes. I went elsewhere to look into it not wanting to fall for yet more clickbait. The image did disgust me, viscerally. Well, there's a name for that: trypophobia. It's not an official psychiatric diagnosis but it is a real anxiety disorder. I remember someone being interviewed, probably a late-nite comedy guest, who said she had a fear of holes. I thought it was silly and never thought more about it until that picture of those fake fingertip bumps grossed me out in an unusual way. Here's a Pinterest page with similar images. Caution, there's some pretty gross stuff on the page whether clusters of holes freak you out or not. It's taken me days and desensitizing by image overload to get over it. Very interesting. I had a look at the images, and very few generated any sensation in me at all. However, the couple that did, I suspect it is because the seeds in the seed pod resemble a cluster of eyes. My best guess is that the frontal lobes are trying to find a face in there, and that is causing the discomfort/anxiety. Oddly enough, I have seen that 'gross skin condition' youtube turn up on my suggestions. Happily I didn't follow it up, so you've saved me from that one if it turns up again.
	__________________ We would be better, and braver, to engage in enquiry, rather than indulge in the idle fancy, that we already know -- Plato.

7th June 2023, 05:22 PM	#34
arthwollipot Observer of Phenomena Pronouns: he/him Join Date: Feb 2005 Location: Ngunnawal Country Posts: 84,520	Don't look up images of suriname toads. I'm not even trypophobic and those ******* freak me out.
	__________________ A million people can call the mountains a fiction Yet it need not trouble you as you stand atop them https://xkcd.com/154/

7th June 2023, 05:28 PM	#35
marting Illuminator Join Date: Sep 2003 Posts: 3,851	SG, I've noticed a change in click bait stories. Wouldn't surprise me at all if many of them are generated by AI. They read like stories generated on a few themes designed to elicit emotional reactions. Not clear at all if most of them are even real.
marting Illuminator Join Date: Sep 2003 Posts: 3,851	__________________ Flying's easy. Walking on water, now that's cool.

7th June 2023, 05:34 PM	#36
Skeptic Ginger Nasty Woman Join Date: Feb 2005 Posts: 95,129	Originally Posted by marting SG, I've noticed a change in click bait stories. Wouldn't surprise me at all if many of them are generated by AI. They read like stories generated on a few themes designed to elicit emotional reactions. Not clear at all if most of them are even real. Definitely, probably have a pattern to follow now like short fiction stories that scare people. The bumps on the finger is definitely not real. Originally Posted by Nova However, the couple that did, I suspect it is because the seeds in the seed pod resemble a cluster of eyes. To me they look like worms. All of the images didn't bother me either. What's weird though is until that stupid bumps on the finger clickbait I was never bothered by clusters of holes. Now more and more of them creep me out.