Matt Novak
@paleofuture.bsky.social
86K followers 1.2K following 23K posts
Reporter at @Gizmodo.com. I’ve been writing about the history of futurism at @Paleofuture.com since 2007. Email: [email protected] Signal: mattnovak.11
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paleofuture.bsky.social
I FOIA'd the FTC for consumer complaints about crypto scammers who pretend to be Elon Musk.

People are cashing out their retirement accounts and losing ridiculous sums of money.
Elon Musk Fans Are Still Losing Ridiculous Amounts of Money to Crypto Scams
gizmodo.com
paleofuture.bsky.social
Don’t worry. It’s not like the most powerful people in the world have fully embraced AI fakery or anything *puts finger to earpiece* oh no
TrumpRx Is a Narcissistic, AI-Generated Nightmare
AI art really has become the aesthetic of grifters and fascists.
gizmodo.com
paleofuture.bsky.social
As I said a couple hours ago about a different fake video, you don't need to feel stupid if you fell for it.

The entire internet is drowning in this AI shit. And there's no easy solution. We're just fucking cooked as a society.
paleofuture.bsky.social
Don’t feel stupid if you fell for fake video. It can be really hard to tell these days. But we do have to try and be careful with what we share because there’s so much AI video out there.

It’s just the world we live in now.
paleofuture.bsky.social
But the real confirmation this video is AI comes from Saad Abedine, a news editor at Al Jazeera English.

Abedine says Al Jazeera has "never had these chairs, this set or this anchor." He says he's been at Al Jazeera for 11 years and never seen a rat.
Saad Abedine: Reality (below) versus Cheesy AI 🤣 

#AlJazeera never had these chairs, this set or this anchor

But we've only ever had kittens born under the desk in addition to the dozens born outside the newsroom that can walk across the set

I have been here for 11 years and can confirm that we have never seen a rat 🐀 

We have enough cats.  Trust me. I know. I am
Hyper allergic to them
feline. I almost died in Baghdad because of a a kitty
paleofuture.bsky.social
You'll also notice that when she stands up, the chair swivels around. When she sits back down in the chair, it's on the non-existent seat.
paleofuture.bsky.social
It's a little more obvious that this video is fake in the longer 10-second version that's been going viral on Twitter. (Which I've posted below)

The 8-second video posted above cuts before the AI anchor just resumes into a news story in a very unnatural way.
paleofuture.bsky.social
This video is AI.
onestpress.onestnetwork.com
A rat ran across the table at Al Jazeera during a broadcast 🐀 😬
paleofuture.bsky.social
I see absolutely no downsides to huge private companies issuing their own currencies to compete with the currencies of major countries.
techmeme.com
Ten major banks including Bank of America, Goldman Sachs, Deutsche Bank, and UBS announce an early-stage project to explore issuing stablecoins to G7 currencies (Reuters)

Main Link | Techmeme Permalink
paleofuture.bsky.social
Better idea: hockey shootout. Yes, it may take some time to flood the field and freeze it onto a rink, but that’s a great time for a bathroom break.
mtsw.bsky.social
If you insist on ending tie games earlier the following are all better ideas than the free runner on second:

- ending game in tie after 12
- runners left on base return for next inning
- teams have to pull a fielder every inning after 10 or 12
Reposted by Matt Novak
botmatrix.myatproto.social
this post is a war crime
paleofuture.bsky.social
Okay but that was actually interesting to watch. Why didn’t all of you guys who were complaining just tune in for the last three minutes of the 15th inning like I did and save yourself from all the boring parts?
paleofuture.bsky.social
Okay but that was actually interesting to watch. Why didn’t all of you guys who were complaining just tune in for the last three minutes of the 15th inning like I did and save yourself from all the boring parts?
paleofuture.bsky.social
I don’t follow baseball at all but turned the game on because 15 innings is hilarious
paleofuture.bsky.social
For example, here’s an AI video from that same account that shared the fake reporter.

The lighting and the warping of the lens tell your brain it’s a security camera. But those elements also mask other AI clues that might be present when the subject is broad daylight and shot on an iPhone.
paleofuture.bsky.social
This is a good idea, but it can also just be really hard to tell because some AI videos use techniques that intentionally mask the artifice.

For example, AI videos that mimic Ring camera videos can be hard to immediately clock as AI because of weird lightning and warped camera lens inherent there.
susieusmaximus.bsky.social
Also, it's a good idea to look carefully at videos you know to be AI so you can start noticing how they look. There's often a combination of exaggerated expressions on the faces of the primary characters and almost expressionless, unmoving faces on the people in the background, for example.
paleofuture.bsky.social
Don’t feel stupid if you fell for fake video. It can be really hard to tell these days. But we do have to try and be careful with what we share because there’s so much AI video out there.

It’s just the world we live in now.
Reposted by Matt Novak
Reposted by Matt Novak
amutepiggy.bsky.social
anybody who's good at history want to tell me if it's good or not to starve your troops
drewharwell.com
Military families on day 9 of the shutdown lining up at the food bank
Reposted by Matt Novak
paleofuture.bsky.social
Fascists like Trump are capitalizing on all of this. In both directions, unfortunately.

Plausibly calling real videos fake is as much a danger as people believing fake videos are real.

Trump in Sept: “If something happens really bad, just blame AI.”
Trump Blames AI for Weird Video of Stuff Being Tossed Out White House Window
gizmodo.com
paleofuture.bsky.social
Only because of woke. Remember the good old days when boobs had hands?
paleofuture.bsky.social
OpenAI’s Sora puts a watermark on its videos but not enough people know what it means.

To complicate matters, people have built tools to easily remove and (oddly) add a Sora watermark. Sharing real videos with an AI watermark can make for a funny joke, but it also really fucks with the landscape.
yappydagger.bsky.social
There should be an AI labeler if there isn't already.
paleofuture.bsky.social
Don’t feel stupid if you fell for fake video. It can be really hard to tell these days. But we do have to try and be careful with what we share because there’s so much AI video out there.

It’s just the world we live in now.
paleofuture.bsky.social
This is a real video of a journalist in Chicago being arrested.
heartlandsignal.bsky.social
BREAKING: Masked Border Patrol agents aggressively arrested WGN video producer Debbie Brockman in Lincoln Square Friday morning, supposedly for "obstructing justice." (Video via Josh Thomas on Facebook)

Follow @heartlandsignal for more.
paleofuture.bsky.social
That’s way above my pay grade but feels very much like a “why not both” situation.