<h2 class="wp-block-heading eplus-wrapper">Fishy business</h2>

Depending on how you look at it, the images are brilliantly surrealStrange, like a dream. or deeply disturbing. They show Jesus with scaly claws or lying down surrounded by small crustaceansCreatures with segmented bodies and limbs and armour-like exoskeletons. They include lobsters, crabs and prawns.. Welcome to the latest internet phenomenon - Shrimp Jesus.

Two experts at Stanford University have just made a study of AI-created images like these. One picture got 40 million views, putting it in Facebook's top 20 for last summer.

The experts warn¹ that the AI pictures are not just being created for fun: "that the capacity to produce captivating, novel and immersive imagery cheaply and instantly... is also what makes the technology appealing to spammers and scammers".

In fact, says Jason Koebler on the website 404 Media, "Hundreds of AI-generated spam pages are posting dozens of times a day and are being rewarded by Facebook's recommendation algorithmAny set of rules followed by a computer. In the context of social media, "the algorithm" refers to the intelligent AI that learns the interests of the user and presents them with posts that it thinks will interest them.."

Though the Jesus Shrimp pictures were obviously faked, comments on others showed that not every viewer realised they were not real.

The people who created the images often add a comment such as "I made this with my own hands". DupedTricked or deceived. users then like the post, and as a result the algorithm sends them more, similar images.

The images sometimes come with links to pages where viewers are persuaded to buy non-existent products and to share their personal details.

In a podcast,² Kevin Roose warns that it is just a short step from Shrimp Jesus to political misinformationIncorrect or misleading information unintentionally presented as fact. It can be contrasted with disinformation or deliberate lies.. In contrast, some people could become so distrustful of what they see that they start to believe that even real pictures are fakes.

Facebook and Meta have said that they are creating tools to automatically detect AI-created content. But, says Kevin Roose, "They're never going to be able to catch everything. And at least so far, it doesn't seem like they're trying all that hard."

Do we need labelling laws for content?

Yes: We have such laws for food and medicine; AI-generated content could potentially harm a lot of people, so it makes complete sense that it should come with some sort of warning.  

No: Most people are not taken in by these kind of posts, which are basically just for fun.

Or... Unfortunately such laws would be impossible to enforce. The internet exists beyond the control of any government, and even if there were a labelling system, scammers would find a way around it.

surreal - Strange, like a dream.

Crustaceans - Creatures with segmented bodies and limbs and armour-like exoskeletons. They include lobsters, crabs and prawns.

Algorithm - Any set of rules followed by a computer. In the context of social media, "the algorithm" refers to the intelligent AI that learns the interests of the user and presents them with posts that it thinks will interest them.

Duped - Tricked or deceived.

Misinformation - Incorrect or misleading information unintentionally presented as fact. It can be contrasted with disinformation or deliberate lies.