Resisting Misinformation
Sunday, August 25, 2:30 pm Central Time
Where: via Zoom
As the growth of humanlike chatbots and other forms of generative AI continues to accelerate across the internet and infiltrate every aspect of our lives, we are inhabiting a reality where misinformation and disinformation become increasingly more difficult to discern and combat. Detecting deception has never been so difficult and so imperative. Don’t assume that being a Mensan makes you callous from and immune to being duped!
How do you know if something you see on the internet is true? It’s easier than ever to create convincingly authentic images, videos, and audio of real people. Rapid advances in large language models (LLMs) and the simplicity of new user interfaces have opened a new era in generative AI. The convincing realism is amazing, but it’s also problematic in that it makes it harder to detect AI-generated content and even more difficult to discern reality from falsehood.
For example, as part of the Calling Bullshit Project, Jevin West and Carl Bergstrom of the University of Washington developed Which Face is Real? (whichfaceisreal.com). According to their site: “Our aim is to make you aware of the ease with which digital identities can be faked and to help you spot these fakes at a single glance.” You can test yourself by playing a game which asks you to choose between a pair of images one which is a photograph of a real person and one which is computer-generated by the StyleGAN Algorithm (NVIDIA). Give it a try and then join us for a presentation exploring the challenges of navigating an internet landscape where you can no longer depend on believing your eyes.
Dr. Jevin West, Associate Professor at the University of Washington’s Information School, will address some of the new challenges of generative misinformation and potential next steps to resist manipulation. Dr. West co-founded the new Center for an Informed Public at UW, aimed at resisting strategic misinformation, promoting an informed society, and strengthening democratic discourse. His research and teaching emphasize the influence data and technology have on science and society, and explore how to slow the spread of misinformation.
Register for this presentation at: https://tinyurl.com/yvpx55f6. You must register for each lecture with an email address associated with your Zoom account. If you don’t have one, you can sign up for a free Zoom account at: https://zoom.us/signup.
Even if you can’t attend the live Theodore Talk, as long as you register you will receive a link to a recording of the event. All Theodore Talks have closed captioning enabled.
Remember, Theodore Talks are free to all Mensa members in an effort to provide value to your membership.
A list of future Theodore Talks can be found on the Mensa National Event Calendar at https://www.us.mensa.org/attend/calendar/ or by viewing the January 2024 issue of the Mensa Bulletin.
Questions? Contact Brad Lucht at [email protected].
Thank you for your support of the Theodore Talk lecture series.
Brad Lucht, Life Member, American Mensa
