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Why do you think people would use fake pictures on mass. If they wanted to create a profile with pictures that aren't themselves then surely it's easier to just

Why do you think people would use fake pictures on mass. If they wanted to create a profile with pictures that aren't themselves then surely it's easier to just steal someone else's?

ravenstine 7y ago
Because they already do, to some extent. Now this is my own experience and intuition, but I would say that at least 15% of people's photos on dating apps are doctored in some way. I know some might dispute this, but I've seen enough questionable artifacts in such photos that I believe quite a few of them are artificially flattering. This isn't even including those puppy-face photos. And yes, already there are people who outright steal other people's photos. I've been on many dates where the person looked nothing like the photos. There are a few problems with these kinds of fakery. If you are simply touching up photos to make them more flattering, that takes a lot of work that the average person doesn't want to do. There's AI that can make you look sexier, but said AI is often inconsistent, and isn't that good at arbitrarily modifying features. People who might want to use photos of people who aren't them may have a moral hangup from using someone else's likeness, and that prevents them from going ahead with it. Deepfake technology solves both of those problems. You can use it to change your eyes, your hair, the shape of your face, consistently at every angle, and possibly I real time. More people would feel comfortable using a likeness that isn't theirs because they don't feel like they are stealing, especially if they have no intention of meeting people in real life. I'm not saying that all or even most people would use this technology in dating, but it would require only an appreciable portion of an audience to be dishonest to cause many people to throw in the towel. These are just my crazy theories, so maybe I'm way off base. Soon we will have deepfaking that is easy to use and requires minimal training, and I believe they will be used often and eventually be normalized in society.
- folkhack 7y ago
  > These are just my crazy theories, so maybe I'm way off base. You absolutely are not. From my experience I'd say about 30%+ of the pictures that were posted to OkC 2+ years ago were doctored in some major way (I'm a straight man so this anecdotally only applies to women's pictures). Using your "own" picture that's doctored is easier to justify for these folks vs. just using someone else's. Also, these people are still going on real-world dates, so if they look like an entirely different person they're taking on more risk vs. using weird Instagram filters. > I'm not saying that all or even most people would use this technology in dating I think most wouldn't employ this sort of deceit like you posit, as MOST of people I went on dates with were totally operating in good-faith. BUT - there will be a huge chunk of people that are happy to do the mental gymnastics to justify posting a fake picture of themselves.. and those people are exhausting. Protip: NEVER meet up at a bar initially because it's expensive when this happens (AND IT DOES!!!). ALWAYS do an informal coffee. It is easy to keep coffee to a 15-20 minute thing and not get on the hook for at-minimum 2x $15-20 drinks. If you chose a coffee place, do so an hour or so before lunch/dinner in walkable distance to a nice restaurant. This gives you both the opportunity to keep the date going if it's a positive experience =)
PeterisP 7y ago
It's easier to automatically detect in large scale if you're reusing someone else's pictures, so for some social media sites this will immediately flag you as a potential fake profile and escalate to requirements to e.g. use a mobile phone number verification, etc.

Why do you think people would use fake pictures on mass. If they wanted to create a profile with pictures that aren't themselves then surely it's easier to just steal someone else's?

ravenstine 7y ago

Because they already do, to some extent. Now this is my own experience and intuition, but I would say that at least 15% of people's photos on dating apps are doctored in some way. I know some might dispute this, but I've seen enough questionable artifacts in such photos that I believe quite a few of them are artificially flattering. This isn't even including those puppy-face photos. And yes, already there are people who outright steal other people's photos. I've been on many dates where the person looked nothing like the photos. There are a few problems with these kinds of fakery. If you are simply touching up photos to make them more flattering, that takes a lot of work that the average person doesn't want to do. There's AI that can make you look sexier, but said AI is often inconsistent, and isn't that good at arbitrarily modifying features. People who might want to use photos of people who aren't them may have a moral hangup from using someone else's likeness, and that prevents them from going ahead with it. Deepfake technology solves both of those problems. You can use it to change your eyes, your hair, the shape of your face, consistently at every angle, and possibly I real time. More people would feel comfortable using a likeness that isn't theirs because they don't feel like they are stealing, especially if they have no intention of meeting people in real life. I'm not saying that all or even most people would use this technology in dating, but it would require only an appreciable portion of an audience to be dishonest to cause many people to throw in the towel. These are just my crazy theories, so maybe I'm way off base. Soon we will have deepfaking that is easy to use and requires minimal training, and I believe they will be used often and eventually be normalized in society.

folkhack 7y ago
> These are just my crazy theories, so maybe I'm way off base. You absolutely are not. From my experience I'd say about 30%+ of the pictures that were posted to OkC 2+ years ago were doctored in some major way (I'm a straight man so this anecdotally only applies to women's pictures). Using your "own" picture that's doctored is easier to justify for these folks vs. just using someone else's. Also, these people are still going on real-world dates, so if they look like an entirely different person they're taking on more risk vs. using weird Instagram filters. > I'm not saying that all or even most people would use this technology in dating I think most wouldn't employ this sort of deceit like you posit, as MOST of people I went on dates with were totally operating in good-faith. BUT - there will be a huge chunk of people that are happy to do the mental gymnastics to justify posting a fake picture of themselves.. and those people are exhausting. Protip: NEVER meet up at a bar initially because it's expensive when this happens (AND IT DOES!!!). ALWAYS do an informal coffee. It is easy to keep coffee to a 15-20 minute thing and not get on the hook for at-minimum 2x $15-20 drinks. If you chose a coffee place, do so an hour or so before lunch/dinner in walkable distance to a nice restaurant. This gives you both the opportunity to keep the date going if it's a positive experience =)

PeterisP 7y ago

It's easier to automatically detect in large scale if you're reusing someone else's pictures, so for some social media sites this will immediately flag you as a potential fake profile and escalate to requirements to e.g. use a mobile phone number verification, etc.