DEAR GOD: This is OFF THE RAILS
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=okHR4tOAyus
无作者
All right.There is a picture going absolutely viral, that shows Donald Trump kissing his aide,Natalie Harp, on a golf course and getting a little hands with her.Now, before anybody runs with this as proof of anything,we have to talk about what we actually know.
NOTE
1Proceed with; accept.
we do lots of tests before we run with a product
2Associate habitually with (someone)
ever since Lou dropped out, he’s been running with a bad crowd
This is one of the problems I write about in my forthcoming, book, Pay Attention, which is out in six days.This is a problem we are going to have in general, on the internet and in the political world.Now, the answer right now about this picture is, we don’t exactly know whether it’s real.And I can’t come to you today and say the entire thing is simply a fabricated.However, I also can’t come to you and say it’s been proven, that these pictures are fake.So let me explain what’s going on.The picture of what appears to be Donald Trump.I don’t want to say fondling, but certainly getting handsy with, and making out with his assistant, Natalie Harp.The picture that started circulating was very blurry, and it purported to show.
a golf course and embrace a kiss between someone who seems to be Trump, and a blond woman that seems to be Natalie Harp.Now, we don’t have a confirmed photographer attached to the picture.As of this moment, we don’t have a confirmed date when the picture was taken.We have no independently confirmed location.Nobody has come forward so far with an original camera file, or some kind of chain of custody for the image.That’s problem number one.Now then things get even stranger because after the blurry picture came out,a much clearer version of essentially the same image started circulating online.And that version, has a pretty spectacular problem, which is look at the woman’s gloved hand.It kind of seems like she’s got six fingers.Now, there were some tests done of The Sharper Picture,and there was strong evidence that that picture was AI generated.There was one report from hive.That that Sharper Image is 99.9% likely to be AI generated.Open AI’s verification system.
detected a watermark associated with their own image tools.So then we can go, oh, so it is AI, right?Well, not really, because it could be the case, that the sharpened image is coming up as AI generated or modified,because AI was used to upscale and sharpen the image,but that the underlying blurry image may indeed be real.And so this is where the story becomes really interesting.It doesn’t settle even determining that the upscaled picture, might have some AI stuff in it.That doesn’t tell us whether the blurry picture is real.So then the blurry version of this image was tested, with multiple systems, including Hive and Open AI and Google’s tools.And all of those systems said, hey, you know what?The blurry image does not have signals indicating that it is AI generated.Now, does that mean that that picture is real? No.AI detectors are not these magic truth machines.And what may have happened is that an AI picture was generated,and then somebody went into Photoshop or Gimp or Canva or whatever,
and reduced the resolution of the original AI generated image to make it blurry.
[U, sing.] the power of a computer screen, printer, etc. to give a clear image, depending on the size of the dots that make up the image 清晰度；析像；分辨率
Link to original
high-resolution graphics
高清晰度的图
And that algorithmic decrease in the resolution, may have allowed the picture to evade AI detection sequence.So that’s like one possible sequence.Or you could have the opposite.You could have somebody starting with an authentic, really low quality image.And then all you do is upscale it.So it is a real image.But the upscaling invents, these weird details like six fingers on Natalie Harp’s hand.Now, we do not know.And this is why establishing which is the first image is really so important.Now a lot of investigation has been done.What’s the earliest version of the image?Well, it seems as though, the blurry version was posted on threads on September 14th.And the sharper version that has been detected as using AI only, surfaced later in one trail that was been that was that was sort of put together.But again, this doesn’t prove that the original image is authentic,
and it doesn’t prove that the original image is AI generated.This is the world in which we now operate.Now, there’s another thing about the picture that makes me a little skeptical,although this is really circumstantial rather than forensic evidence.Think about what we’re supposedly seeing here.It is the president of the United States, standing on a golf course in an intimate moment with Natalie Harp,and somehow the two of them are essentially by themselves.And there’s someone with a camera positioned far away enough, that the picture looks almost paparazzi style.It’s kind of hard to believe, right?I mean, presidents, don’t usually casually wander around golf courses completely unaccompanied.Their Secret service, their staff.There’s caddies, golf course personnel, vehicles, etc.now, that doesn’t mean the scene is impossible.There could be people right outside the frame.Or, you know, maybe a long lens is being used and it’s compressing.
the distance and the photographer maybe is in the bushes or something like that.But if this were an authentic photograph, the obvious first question is, who took the picture? We haven’t gotten an answer to that.Second question is where were they standing?What golf course? We don’t have the answer to that.How did this photographer get into this position to get the shot?What’s the original?These are all really important questions.And there’s not a single photographer saying, yeah, I took this picture.It’s a real picture.Now, there is also a danger, I believe, in going too far in the opposite direction.Natalie Harp regularly accompanies Donald Trump on golf outings,
NOTE
outing
[C] ~ (to…)a trip that you go on for pleasure or education, usually with a group of people and lasting no more than one day （集体）出外游玩（或学习等）；远足 SYN excursion
We went on an outing to London.
我们游览了伦敦。
a family outing
全家远
so, that in and of itself is not weird.That’s independently documented.They’re appearing together in legitimate pictures, though, doesn’t tell us whether they were really making out on a golf course.So the conclusion is very unsatisfying.But this is exactly the problem that we are now going to be facing.
I open my book, pay Attention, with an anecdote, that some of you may remember when there was a picture of Donald Trump, with a walker, a mobility aide, a walker, walking down the hallway of the white House.This was years ago,and I opened the book with this anecdote, and it spread far and wide.And it was used by Trump’s detractors as proof, that he is declining physically and has a medical problem.And the picture was completely AI generated.And in the book, I talk about how the fact that it was a, I generated did not really matter in the end,in the sense that those who were most eager to share it, already believe the conclusion is true, regardless of the images existence,which is Donald Trump.Trump is declining medically and physically,and at the end of the day, the correction was seen by relatively few people.And so there’s a bunch of issues, that almost make it irrelevant whether the picture is real or not.At this point in time, we don’t have authentication of the blurry version.AI detectors.
Failing to say it’s been manipulated doesn’t a prove that it’s real,and we are left in the position of saying, well, can we get an original image?Can we get a name of a photographer?Can we get the metadata?Does anybody else have video or pictures from another angle,some way to independently confirm whether this is real?And the entire episode really previews a world we are entering,where even seeing something with our own eyes isn’t going to be enough.A real image could be called AI.That happens all the time.An AI image can be degraded until it becomes difficult to determine, whether it originally came from something that is AI.A real image can be a I enhanced, and the enhancement is, what adds these fake details.Even though the original image is real.And sometimes the most accurate answer of, is the one people hate, which is we don’t know.I can’t tell you at this moment whether the source image is real, and whether Donald Trump is having an intimate affair with Natalie Harp,
and whether they were making out and getting handsy.It’s an 80 year old man we’re talking about on the golf course.We just don’t know yet, and we don’t know can lead people, to use these uncertain moments cynically for their own gain.We need a way to protect ourselves against this sort of thing.If you’re someone who can’t work with music on, check this out.Most music asks for your attention, lyrics, familiar melodies,dramatic changes, songs you want to go and skip.Music by brain FM is built around the opposite idea.It is sound that supports what you’re doing.Our sponsor, brain FM, creates functional music, using patented audio technology designed to influence brain activity, associated with attention so that you can better focus.Brain FM is the only music app funded by the National Science Foundation.They have peer reviewed research which has found brain FM can increase activity, in attentional networks and also improve performance on attention based tasks.
You can choose modes for deep work, learning.Creativity, motivation.They have an aide de mode for people who benefit from additional stimulation.So even if you’ve always thought, I work better without music, brain FM is worth testing against silence.Try it yourself.Anyone in my audience can try brain FM totally free, for a whole month at brain.fm/pacman.The link is in the description.