While the American authorities fear several hundred dead after the passage of Hurricane Helene in the southeast of the United States and the human and material toll looks catastrophic, Facebook is still being noted for its management of content generated by artificial intelligence (AI). Pages are taking advantage of the situation to create engaging, completely bogus content, and obviously make money with it. A complicit algorithm, no moderation and this is how Mark Zuckerberg’s social network turns into a little more trash.
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Although rather successful, the images contain – as is often the case with AI – numerous anomalies. Look closely at the hands of the golden retriever rescuers, you will see that something is wrong. This is not a problem for the page’s subscribers who do not hesitate to like and comment in large numbers, sending their thoughts and prayers to the victims of Hurricane Helene. So what interest does “Coastal Views” have in riding the wave of dramatic flooding in recent days? Money obviously.
The Facebook page links to an Etsy store where prints of improbable images are on sale: a turtle nose to nose with a horse, Santa running on the beach with his reindeer, etc. And when it is not thanks to a store, it is directly on Facebook that these kinds of pages, many created by companies based in India, Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia and Pakistan, reach a little under, thanks to Meta’s “Creator Bonus” program.
Jesus as shrimp and six-fingered hands
The invasion of Facebook by thousands of AI-generated content is not new. Many pages try to attract people who continue to use the network, often targeting older people, who are visibly more gullible in the face of false images. Capturing attention, playing on the viewer’s empathy and sensitivity with moving, beautiful or disproportionately tragic content: the formula is quite simple and has already proven itself.
A few months ago, we told you about this strange fashion of Jesus represented in every possible and imaginable form, in coins, in shrimp or in sand. However, do not think that this spam is randomly designed. The creators behind these prompts sometimes strange people do everything to affect Facebook’s algorithm, in order to generate engagement. A more than doubtful business and which does not seem close to being moderated by Facebook which fully assume its willingness to push AI-generated content onto your feed.
For the moment, we cannot say that the publications of “Coastal Views” are as successful as Jesus taking a selfie with a turtle and it is difficult to quantify the revenue generated by this page. No mention is made of the involvement of AI in the creation of the image, so one can legitimately assume that the intentions of “Coastal Views” are not particularly laudable.
Don’t let that stop you from marveling at some incredible productions, like this dog (above) who doesn’t let the tragic floods linked to the hurricane that devastated his city get him down. Bravo to him.
