The solution to the problem of AI-generated images isn’t to try to detect the “tells” of AI. That’s a battle that’s lost every time AI improves. The solution is to use technology—specifically, cryptography—to record what’s real. This different approach shifts the burden of proof to better fit a world where AI is cheap and investigations are expensive.
Back in October, I had the opportunity to speak at Qcon SF on combating AI-generated fake images, as part of a fantastic track including Ryan Dahl (creator of Node.js) and Miško Hevery (creator of Angular.) The talk explored my work with Starling Lab. Rather than trying to detect AI-generated photos by various means, a more promising approach is to preemptively timestamp real images and their metadata.
Recently I came across a puzzling fact: the International Criminal Court hashes electronic evidence with MD5, even though MD5 is badly broken. So, why are lawyers using broken, outdated technology? The answer involves the common law system, cultural isolation, and a single man named Don L. Lewis.
Glen Weyl, Puja Ohlhaver, and Vitalik Buterin argue that we should create non-transferable, initially public, “soulbound” tokens to represent commitments, credentials, and affiliations. This is a bad idea. Instead, we should make off-chain statements digitally signed with Ethereum private keys.
Criticizing smart contracts for not being completely “trustless” instruments completely misses the point.
Kate Sills joins the Building Tomorrow podcast to discuss the so-called Oracle Problem and other critiques of smart contracts
“Smart contracts aren’t legal contracts,” they say. They’re right. But that’s missing the point.
New technologies might help integrate communities living under local, customary property law into the global economy.
Property rights aren't the physical objects themselves, but a social agreement with our neighbors that can be digitized.
Because of the Internet, our lives are significantly different. But early Internet advocates thought digital cash would make it truly transformational.
Blockchain technology and other advances help expand our ability to make enforceable agreements without the state.
Distinguishing between fake and real accounts is an incredibly hard problem, and the solution proposed by The Democracy Earth Foundation, as stated, will not work.
