Absolutely amazing ant video augurs intellectual mayhem
Oh, Sexy Sora, what have you done?
Let me take you down
'Cause I'm going to strawberry fields
Nothing is real
And nothing to get hung about
—The Beatles
The instant I saw this, this Sora-generated video blew me away…
… but, um, ants have six legs.
We are about to have a whole generation of children educated by fake videos that are completely plausible to naive audiences yet biologically (or physically or culturally, etc) incorrect.
Already at least one person was fooled, too easily impressed by the fakery. I guarantee he won’t be the last:
I am worried, and you should be too. To take just one example, YouTube has long had many videos with educational value; lots of school children have consulted them. In short order, with Sora or some opensource counterparts that will emerge, scammers will start to make photorealistic fake videos simply to sell ads. The average user will have no idea what is and is not legit. A major educational resource will likely be spoiled practically overnight.
We are in for a wild ride.
Gary Marcus is, as noted, worried about where this is all headed.
The real problem here is your normative notion of what an ant body is *supposed* to look like. Sora chose to show us a day in the life of an ant who is differently-abled, which I think is commendable. #RepresentationMatters
Is it too much to hope that the proliferation of this kind of trash will result in improved critical thinking? Perhaps a willingness to subscribe to material with verified information?
FWIW, in 2024 I spend more time reading sources I pay for.