Internet communications of the future - fake it till you make it

Photo by andré spilborghs on Unsplash

Fake news, fake pictures, fake video, is nothing real anymore?

As artificial intelligence improves and the human-generated content can be increasingly mimicked, will there be a time when what is real and what is fake merge into one morality-free mess?

Certainly the trend is moving in that way.

Increasingly through Natural Language Processing we have entered a time where structured data can create article content at scale and while it may still lack the nuances and ambiguity of human characteristics, it is getting close. Particularly for drier, fact-based content, like aggregated news headlines, rolling sports reports and financial data.

And in the video sphere, not only can celebrities and politicians be increasingly convincingly mimicked, but also individuals can transform themselves into someone else on video chat.

Take for example the story of the Chinese vlogger, the wonderfully named Your Highness Qiao Bilou, who used a filter to portray herself as a young, glamorous woman only to be unmasked as a middle aged, slightly less glamorous version when a glitch removed the filter mid-chat. Fair play to her you may say for exploiting the shallowness of her fee-paying audience, but it only emphasises the point of not taking things at, literally, face value.

So, are the machines taking over once and for all? No, at least not for quite a while yet.

What can be automated, will be automated, but authenticity is going to become increasingly valued over utility.

Hitch

In the age of consumer-generated media, virtual word of mouth provides a way of evaluating just about any product or service. Little wonder that brands are finally waking up to the potential benefits and risks of the general public as publisher.

After waiting months for Screenselect to deliver the Will Smith vehicle 'Hitch', I was looking forward to finding out for myself why the film caused such mixed reactions.

I'd seen the trailer and the film looked great. Hip, original, witty and Will Smith looking in great form. I'd read the critics who offered some decidedly mixed reviews very much at odds with the hype put out by the film's publicity machine.

I decided to let the usually accurate consumer reviews decide it for me. Apart from a few (better informed) cynics, the typically well informed Screenselect film junkies were decidely positive with many claiming it was the ideal rom com. They should have known better.

The first hour lived up to the trailer. The second lived up to the print reviews. To watch the demise of such a promising and well produced film was a crying shame. I could understand it if it had been a money-chasing sequel, but not within the same film.

From an original take on the business of dating, it ended as saccharine nonsense with one of the least believable endings I have had the misfortune to sit through. I can't help wishing the DVD had jammed half way through and I could have that half hour of my life back.

A boost for traditional media. One in the eye for consumer-generated media.

It's Goodfellas, but not that good...

The contenders to the title of best ever film are a topic of endless debate. It is also a cheap way to get publicity for your magazine title when you publish your list.

Far from discouraging the cheap publicity Netcoms dot com is happy to add to the debate, with the news that Total Film had added its two admission tickets to the debate. While controversy over choices, helps the publicity, Total Film have made some particularly strange choices.

The top 25 is below:

1. Goodfellas
2. Vertigo
3. Jaws
4. Fight Club
5. The Godfather: Part II
6. Citizen Kane
7. Tokyo Story
8. The Empire Strikes Back
9. The Lord of the Rings trilogy
10. His Girl Friday
11. Persona
12. Chinatown
13. Manhattan
14. Taxi Driver
15. It's a Wonderful Life
16. The Apartment
17. Once Upon A Time In The West
18. All About Eve
19. The Texas Chain Saw Massacre
20. Apocalypse Now
21. Crash
22. Sunrise
23. The Godfather
24. Rear Window
25. Sunset Boulevard

Among the more dubious elements to this list:

• How is filler The Empire Strikes Back the top Star Wars film rather than the ground-breaking original?
• And on that note, how can the me-too Goodfellas top its inspiration, The Godfather?
• Why is the Lord of the Rings in as a trilogy wheras The Godfather is not?
• And how did Crash and Fight Club even make the list?

I could understand it if it was compiled by the general public and subject to the inconsistencies of fashion and good taste, but apparently the list was compiled by the editorial staff.

In truth, if the top 5 contained all the usual suspects (in fact, where is The Usual Suspects in this list?), such as Citizen Kane, The Godfather and Casablanca, it would be less newsworthy and wouldn't be the subject of posts like this extending its reach online.

Ever feel like you've been had?

Arise Sir Webcam

Long the preserve of lonely souls and indiscreet soap stars, the humble webcam now comes with royal approval. This follows news that royal enthusiasts will be able to follow this week's second, or third, most important event live on the web.

Before you get too carried away at the thought of a CamillaCam or a Subservient Charles, the 'powerful' cams in question will be placed on the roof of the hotel across the street from the civil ceremony offering, I quote, 'the best seats in the house'. Let's just hope they're pointing in the right direction, after PigeonCam has finished with them.

As ever E-bay is getting in on the act with characteristic good taste by offering a Windsor shopfront up for hire, no doubt to sell all of that wonderful memorabilia.

There's nothing quite like a Royal wedding in the Internet age...

Who leaked the Doctor?

With the new series of Doctor Who about to be released, it was hardly a surprise to read that the first episode had been leaked onto the Net.

Material ranging from the recent U2 album to the dire Matrix sequels have done the pre-release rounds to much media hype and outrage from the producers in what seems to have become the sign of must-have content in today's peer-to-peer age.

While I'm by no means suggesting that the prematurely returning Doc was deliberate (and I'm sure the BBC lawyers would back me on that), it does make me consider how risk-taking marketers with the right product could use the peer-to-peer phenomenon wisely by actually releasing limited content through this channel.

It's increasingly commonplace for artists with an album to market offer limited free downloads of their tracks and a natural extension would be the right P2P networks, some of whom are slowly moving down the road to a legitimate business model.

The problem is that such networks are hardly respecters of copyright once the full versions are released, but perhaps engaging with this huge community of potential customers can help begin to address the major challenge that content producers are facing.

Blinkx and you'll miss it

Much-hyped desktop search tool Blinkx's meteoric rise as the next big thing in search is under threat as soon as it has begun to reach the public consciousness. Blinkx, which boasts 1m unique users since its July launch, was famously revealed to the world through a humble blog posting, which was followed by excited columns in the print press, which helped to propel its legend.

However, its charmed life is about to get more difficult as Google gets in on the act by launching a beta version of its own desktop search tool - Google Desktop Search. A look into my crystal ball reveals further clouds in the form of AOL and Microsoft entering into the fray.

The question is, can Blinkx survive in such a fiercely competitive arena and will its cult status prove strong enough to keep it front of mind in the face of superiour resources? Google's rise is proof that with a great idea the little guys can take over the world, but can it be done in the field of search? Surely not again.