6 ms·

'Amelia': the AI-generated British schoolgirl, a far-right social media star

45 points by pseudolus 9mo ago

delaminator 9mo ago
[flagged]
- ben_w 9mo ago
  Has the Guardian ever described Boris Johnson or Jacob Rees-Mog thusly? The Tory party as a whole? Not "have said things that far/alt right cheer" but that they actually are more than "right wing"?
  - delaminator 9mo ago
    Far-right leaders join Trump in welcoming Boris Johnson to No 10 https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/jul/24/far-right-leaders-join-trump-in-welcoming-boris-johnson-to-no-10 https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/jul/24/far-right-lead... https://www.theguardian.com/world/far-right https://www.theguardian.com/world/far-right About 6,735 results for The far right https://www.theguardian.com/world/far-left https://www.theguardian.com/world/far-left Sorry – we haven’t been able to serve the page you asked for.You may have followed an outdated link, or have mistyped a URL. If you believe this to be an error please report it.
    - ben_w 9mo ago
      > Far-right leaders join Trump in welcoming Boris Johnson to No 10 Exactly what I said didn't count. > Sorry – we haven’t been able to serve the page you asked for.You may have followed an outdated link, or have mistyped a URL. If you believe this to be an error please report it. https://www.google.com/search?q=site%3Atheguardian.com+%22far+left%22 https://www.google.com/search?q=site%3Atheguardian.com+%22fa... 14900 results* https://www.google.com/search?q=site%3Atheguardian.com+%22far-left%22 https://www.google.com/search?q=site%3Atheguardian.com+%22fa... 14700 results* Also, you seem to have moved your goalposts, your original claim was "the only right wing people are "far right" or "alt right" to these people", so here are the results for simply "right wing" with and without the hyphen: https://www.google.com/search?q=site%3Atheguardian.com+%22right-wing%22 https://www.google.com/search?q=site%3Atheguardian.com+%22ri... 38900 results* https://www.google.com/search?q=site%3Atheguardian.com+%22right+wing%22 https://www.google.com/search?q=site%3Atheguardian.com+%22ri... 40300 results* * The exact number varies with every refresh of the Google search results, but are consistently around this
- add-sub-mul-div 9mo ago
  Yeah, it's a bummer. As someone who doesn't vote for the right I sincerely feel bad for the sane and respectable people among the right who have watched their parties turn into this and have lost their voice and representation in the media.
  - qwertyu3 9mo ago
    Isn't the issue that they've most representation in their party more than in media? If anything in the US, I would say the media held onto the idea that moderate conservatives as having a voice in their party for too long.
  - throwawayqqq11 9mo ago
    I think its time for a distinction between (far) right and conservative. To me, (far) right means being primarilly focused on some image of an enemy, nowadays conveyed by social media, and without a substancial constructive political vision. Disgust toward some outgroup and an illusion of former greatness as main drivers for political agitation. IMO, conservatives can be similarly misguided by some bloated group identity but enlarge, its not their primary driver. Conservarism can find common ground with left leaning policies, whereas the far right cannot.
    - delaminator 9mo ago
      but that isn't "far right" at all and describes a multiplicity of groups
- Balinares 9mo ago
  Maybe right wing people should stop pushing far right policies, then.
dyauspitr 9mo ago
I guess they have a hard time finding actual young women that would vote against their own interests.
- elzbardico 9mo ago
  You know, things are not that black and white in the world. People have different problems, different points of view. The fact that the system gives them only two opposing, radical polarities, doesn't mean that there isn't nuance. You and I may agree or not, but there are indeed young woman who, for example, are not pro-choice. They may have varied views on the trans issue, they have different class/economics policy goals. You don't get to decree what young women interest are, neither me nor anyone else than themselves.
  - theuppermiddle 9mo ago
    > You don't get to decree what young women interest, neither me nor anyone else than themselves. Is that not exactly what pro-choice means.
- paulddraper 9mo ago
  Brother, it was a (incredibly successful) internet troll
  - dyauspitr 9mo ago
    Got to make up what you can’t find.
djohnston 9mo ago
My favorite part of this whole game / controversy is how "doing your own research" on an issue leads you to the alt-right. Parody-level blunder from the left on that one.
- throwawayqqq11 9mo ago
  Any suggestions where the billions for biased economic research, biased LLMs, skewed algorithms, selective ad revenue, massive botnet operations, campaign funding, corrupted influencal networks, media ownership -- and the most important part: a functioning education system to immunize people against propaganda so they can actually do ther own research against all odds -- should come from? What would you suggest, when it turns out, that even with massive fact checking capabilities, lies just spread faster no mattet your factual accurracy? Blaming the left for the current upheaval is a right prolaganda message too, so did my broadening reply work on you? No?
  - djohnston 9mo ago
    [flagged]
    - throwawayqqq11 9mo ago
      And how did i discourage you from discovering the truth?
      - djohnston 9mo ago
        Not you - the game! The game is teaching children that the act of trying to independently research information is a dangerous pathway that can lead to extremism. That belief is drivel - any self-respecting intelligent child will instinctively reject it. I feel for those who fall victim to such indoctrination though.
        throwawayqqq11 9mo ago
        So by pointing out that an outsider of the game, the left, is not to blame for its outcome, i somehow made a point for that rigged game? I discouraged you with this?! Please dont reply. You are dwelling deeper and deeper. The actual problem is the _massive and intentional_ cognitive inability of critical thought.
wolvoleo 9mo ago
Goth girls would normally not subscribe to extreme right viewpoints so I wonder why they picked that look.
- estearum 9mo ago
  The modern right is extremely, extremely confused.
  - laughing_man 9mo ago
    The character was created by leftists. She was meant to be the antagonist in the world's cringiest teaching aid game aimed at teenagers but pitched as if they were four year olds. This whole thing was predictable.
  - pstuart 9mo ago
    The masses are. The ringleaders are savants at manipulation -- the Right defines the language and the talking points and floods the zone, where the Left plays defense and is always scrambling.
- ksynwa 9mo ago
  It's probably similar to how the extremely pro-AI people started generating Studio Ghibli-style images in droves. It's sort of a disrespectful co-opting.
- jazzyjackson 9mo ago
  you want what you can't have
- isubkhankulov 9mo ago
  Thats because the character was originally created for a UK government-backed game designed to help young people recognise and resist right-wing ideology. The right then took the character and made it their ironic symbol.
  - wolvoleo 9mo ago
AndrewKemendo 9mo ago
Hang on, this looks like classic Internet trolling: // Pathways: Navigating the Internet and Extremism is a simple multiple choice format game with basic animation. Its players are taken on a journey as characters at a college. They are invited to make decisions in scenarios including whether or download potentially extremist content or join an Amelia character on a rally organised by “a small political group” protesting against changes in society and the “erosion in British values”… However, it is a subversion of the Amelia character that has exploded across social media channels … Manga-style Amelia, a Wallace and Gromit version and AI-generated “real life” encounters between her and the characters of Father Ted or Harry Potter, accompanied by racist language and far-right messaging. …We have seen the meme having a remarkable spread and proliferating among the far right and beyond, but what’s also been of note is how it is now international // So a bunch of trolls did classic troll things (which is to be expected because you’re on the internet) then the right wingers picked it up and ruined it and then it spread to become a meme coin The article wants to make this as though there’s a hardcore group of right wing meme-lords in some giant conspiracy This is keeps happening and it’s super wierd. Remember the 2007 mooninite panic? https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42225609 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42225609 Is trolling considered right wing now?
- laughing_man 9mo ago
  "Classic internet trolling" is exactly what it is. You can find video of the original game on YouTube -- it's got a painful "hello, fellow kids" vibe to it that just invites ridicule.
- cauch 9mo ago
  Your reaction makes me remember the "Angry Jack" videos about Gamergate, in particular the video discussing the fact that when some people (troll or not) were propagating racist or sexist things, they were reacting by saying "whaaaat, I'm not racist/sexist, how dare you". Who cares about them, and what they "are" really: for the society, if someone is spreading racist information "for the lols" or spreading it because they really believe in the content, the damage is exactly the same. I, like you, don't believe the phenomenon was the result of an organised action (of course). The phenomenon was started as meme, resonnated with the far-right, and both far-right and people who don't see any problem with far-right ideology just amplified it. After all, the government has made a lot of stupid videos, and yet, the popularity explodes mainly when it's aligned with far-right. But I don't have a problem with considering that the "bunch of trolls who did classic troll things" are considered as far-right. They indeed totally jumped in the opportunity to make racist things for the lols. How does that not make them racist themselves? If you create stuffs that racists find great and very aligned with their ideology, I'm sorry, even if you think you are not intrinsically racist, just be an adult and accept the consequences of your actions: you are part of the racist community, you are one of their "allies". So, I'm perfectly fine with trolls being considered as racists. Trolling is a pain on society anyway and each time a kid thinks of themselves as "super smart" because they are trolling, the reality is rather that the world would be a better place if this version of them was not part of it. Why should we care about what trolls are feeling, they choose to put themselves at the top of the list of people who don't deserve any consideration for their feelings.
paulddraper 9mo ago
> The Home Office said Prevent had diverted nearly 6,000 people away from violent ideologies. It added that projects such as the Pathways game were designed to target local radicalisation risks Original matter aside, this Ministry of Truth update is as creepy as anything else in the article.

45 points by pseudolus 9mo ago

delaminator 9mo ago

[flagged]

ben_w 9mo ago
Has the Guardian ever described Boris Johnson or Jacob Rees-Mog thusly? The Tory party as a whole? Not "have said things that far/alt right cheer" but that they actually are more than "right wing"?
- delaminator 9mo ago
  Far-right leaders join Trump in welcoming Boris Johnson to No 10 https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/jul/24/far-right-leaders-join-trump-in-welcoming-boris-johnson-to-no-10 https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/jul/24/far-right-lead... https://www.theguardian.com/world/far-right https://www.theguardian.com/world/far-right About 6,735 results for The far right https://www.theguardian.com/world/far-left https://www.theguardian.com/world/far-left Sorry – we haven’t been able to serve the page you asked for.You may have followed an outdated link, or have mistyped a URL. If you believe this to be an error please report it.
  - ben_w 9mo ago
    > Far-right leaders join Trump in welcoming Boris Johnson to No 10 Exactly what I said didn't count. > Sorry – we haven’t been able to serve the page you asked for.You may have followed an outdated link, or have mistyped a URL. If you believe this to be an error please report it. https://www.google.com/search?q=site%3Atheguardian.com+%22far+left%22 https://www.google.com/search?q=site%3Atheguardian.com+%22fa... 14900 results* https://www.google.com/search?q=site%3Atheguardian.com+%22far-left%22 https://www.google.com/search?q=site%3Atheguardian.com+%22fa... 14700 results* Also, you seem to have moved your goalposts, your original claim was "the only right wing people are "far right" or "alt right" to these people", so here are the results for simply "right wing" with and without the hyphen: https://www.google.com/search?q=site%3Atheguardian.com+%22right-wing%22 https://www.google.com/search?q=site%3Atheguardian.com+%22ri... 38900 results* https://www.google.com/search?q=site%3Atheguardian.com+%22right+wing%22 https://www.google.com/search?q=site%3Atheguardian.com+%22ri... 40300 results* * The exact number varies with every refresh of the Google search results, but are consistently around this
add-sub-mul-div 9mo ago
Yeah, it's a bummer. As someone who doesn't vote for the right I sincerely feel bad for the sane and respectable people among the right who have watched their parties turn into this and have lost their voice and representation in the media.
- qwertyu3 9mo ago
  Isn't the issue that they've most representation in their party more than in media? If anything in the US, I would say the media held onto the idea that moderate conservatives as having a voice in their party for too long.
- throwawayqqq11 9mo ago
  I think its time for a distinction between (far) right and conservative. To me, (far) right means being primarilly focused on some image of an enemy, nowadays conveyed by social media, and without a substancial constructive political vision. Disgust toward some outgroup and an illusion of former greatness as main drivers for political agitation. IMO, conservatives can be similarly misguided by some bloated group identity but enlarge, its not their primary driver. Conservarism can find common ground with left leaning policies, whereas the far right cannot.
  - delaminator 9mo ago
    but that isn't "far right" at all and describes a multiplicity of groups
Balinares 9mo ago
Maybe right wing people should stop pushing far right policies, then.

dyauspitr 9mo ago

I guess they have a hard time finding actual young women that would vote against their own interests.

elzbardico 9mo ago
You know, things are not that black and white in the world. People have different problems, different points of view. The fact that the system gives them only two opposing, radical polarities, doesn't mean that there isn't nuance. You and I may agree or not, but there are indeed young woman who, for example, are not pro-choice. They may have varied views on the trans issue, they have different class/economics policy goals. You don't get to decree what young women interest are, neither me nor anyone else than themselves.
- theuppermiddle 9mo ago
  > You don't get to decree what young women interest, neither me nor anyone else than themselves. Is that not exactly what pro-choice means.
paulddraper 9mo ago
Brother, it was a (incredibly successful) internet troll
- dyauspitr 9mo ago
  Got to make up what you can’t find.

djohnston 9mo ago

My favorite part of this whole game / controversy is how "doing your own research" on an issue leads you to the alt-right. Parody-level blunder from the left on that one.

throwawayqqq11 9mo ago
Any suggestions where the billions for biased economic research, biased LLMs, skewed algorithms, selective ad revenue, massive botnet operations, campaign funding, corrupted influencal networks, media ownership -- and the most important part: a functioning education system to immunize people against propaganda so they can actually do ther own research against all odds -- should come from? What would you suggest, when it turns out, that even with massive fact checking capabilities, lies just spread faster no mattet your factual accurracy? Blaming the left for the current upheaval is a right prolaganda message too, so did my broadening reply work on you? No?
- djohnston 9mo ago
  [flagged]
  - throwawayqqq11 9mo ago
    And how did i discourage you from discovering the truth?
    - djohnston 9mo ago
      Not you - the game! The game is teaching children that the act of trying to independently research information is a dangerous pathway that can lead to extremism. That belief is drivel - any self-respecting intelligent child will instinctively reject it. I feel for those who fall victim to such indoctrination though.
      - throwawayqqq11 9mo ago
        So by pointing out that an outsider of the game, the left, is not to blame for its outcome, i somehow made a point for that rigged game? I discouraged you with this?! Please dont reply. You are dwelling deeper and deeper. The actual problem is the _massive and intentional_ cognitive inability of critical thought.

wolvoleo 9mo ago

Goth girls would normally not subscribe to extreme right viewpoints so I wonder why they picked that look.

estearum 9mo ago
The modern right is extremely, extremely confused.
- laughing_man 9mo ago
  The character was created by leftists. She was meant to be the antagonist in the world's cringiest teaching aid game aimed at teenagers but pitched as if they were four year olds. This whole thing was predictable.
- pstuart 9mo ago
  The masses are. The ringleaders are savants at manipulation -- the Right defines the language and the talking points and floods the zone, where the Left plays defense and is always scrambling.
ksynwa 9mo ago
It's probably similar to how the extremely pro-AI people started generating Studio Ghibli-style images in droves. It's sort of a disrespectful co-opting.
jazzyjackson 9mo ago
you want what you can't have
isubkhankulov 9mo ago
Thats because the character was originally created for a UK government-backed game designed to help young people recognise and resist right-wing ideology. The right then took the character and made it their ironic symbol.
- wolvoleo 9mo ago

AndrewKemendo 9mo ago

Hang on, this looks like classic Internet trolling: // Pathways: Navigating the Internet and Extremism is a simple multiple choice format game with basic animation. Its players are taken on a journey as characters at a college. They are invited to make decisions in scenarios including whether or download potentially extremist content or join an Amelia character on a rally organised by “a small political group” protesting against changes in society and the “erosion in British values”… However, it is a subversion of the Amelia character that has exploded across social media channels … Manga-style Amelia, a Wallace and Gromit version and AI-generated “real life” encounters between her and the characters of Father Ted or Harry Potter, accompanied by racist language and far-right messaging. …We have seen the meme having a remarkable spread and proliferating among the far right and beyond, but what’s also been of note is how it is now international // So a bunch of trolls did classic troll things (which is to be expected because you’re on the internet) then the right wingers picked it up and ruined it and then it spread to become a meme coin The article wants to make this as though there’s a hardcore group of right wing meme-lords in some giant conspiracy This is keeps happening and it’s super wierd. Remember the 2007 mooninite panic? https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42225609 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42225609 Is trolling considered right wing now?

laughing_man 9mo ago
"Classic internet trolling" is exactly what it is. You can find video of the original game on YouTube -- it's got a painful "hello, fellow kids" vibe to it that just invites ridicule.
cauch 9mo ago
Your reaction makes me remember the "Angry Jack" videos about Gamergate, in particular the video discussing the fact that when some people (troll or not) were propagating racist or sexist things, they were reacting by saying "whaaaat, I'm not racist/sexist, how dare you". Who cares about them, and what they "are" really: for the society, if someone is spreading racist information "for the lols" or spreading it because they really believe in the content, the damage is exactly the same. I, like you, don't believe the phenomenon was the result of an organised action (of course). The phenomenon was started as meme, resonnated with the far-right, and both far-right and people who don't see any problem with far-right ideology just amplified it. After all, the government has made a lot of stupid videos, and yet, the popularity explodes mainly when it's aligned with far-right. But I don't have a problem with considering that the "bunch of trolls who did classic troll things" are considered as far-right. They indeed totally jumped in the opportunity to make racist things for the lols. How does that not make them racist themselves? If you create stuffs that racists find great and very aligned with their ideology, I'm sorry, even if you think you are not intrinsically racist, just be an adult and accept the consequences of your actions: you are part of the racist community, you are one of their "allies". So, I'm perfectly fine with trolls being considered as racists. Trolling is a pain on society anyway and each time a kid thinks of themselves as "super smart" because they are trolling, the reality is rather that the world would be a better place if this version of them was not part of it. Why should we care about what trolls are feeling, they choose to put themselves at the top of the list of people who don't deserve any consideration for their feelings.

paulddraper 9mo ago

> The Home Office said Prevent had diverted nearly 6,000 people away from violent ideologies. It added that projects such as the Pathways game were designed to target local radicalisation risks Original matter aside, this Ministry of Truth update is as creepy as anything else in the article.