AI Crochet

A friend pointed me to this pattern, posted on a FB page called Quick Crochet.

Seeing the # of people who were eagerly joining the page in order to “keep getting TUTORIAL patterns”, I decided to follow the instructions and post the results in their Comments.

The pieces are Top Fin, Tail Panel (only 1 of 8-10 suggested), Head and Body, and Side Fin. Note that the Head is to the left…I guess I should have put the Tail on the other side.

I don’t know how they’re monetizing this, though I’m sure they are. I also don’t know how we fight it. It makes me so mad to think of all of the people who will be so disappointed, and may think it’s their fault for not getting the beautiful end product.

3 Likes

People who don’t care about people will always be happy to scam whatever they can, in any way they can, from whoever they can.
I think every generation has their snake oil and this is (one of) ours.

How we fight it? Most likely one person at a time, calling it out for what it is. As you have done.

My little misters school have just rolled out copilot across the entire school… minus 1. In a place with 1000 students one voice isn’t much. I previously contacted school about other AI platforms and chatbots they are using which he isn’t going on.
The introduction of copilot at school came with a link to a 10 page policy covering the dangers of data sharing and the importance of checking all AI responses as it should not be expected to be factual.
How can kids/teens fact check when they don’t have a basic foundation of facts?
School should teaching facts, knowledge, skills.
It is all so back to front.

They say it will help the students learn to write.
A 10p ball point pen and piece of paper are pretty good tools for that, and they don’t come with a 10 page policy document.

3 Likes

@ColoCro Kudos to you for proving a point. AI generated patterns tick me off royally. Sometimes I wonder if a lot of people are simply suckers looking for a way to get scammed. :frowning:

@Creations Wading through things like a policy document of 10 pages? Have the teachers done that? I’m wondering what will happen with Linux since states are passing legislation here in the US to require age verification by the OS in order to do anything online. I may well end up not using the internet if I refuse to comply. I’m sick of being surveilled. If all Linux distros said we won’t comply how much havoc would that wreak? Most servers these idiots rely on are run on Linux. Things might grind to a halt if Linux people flex their collective muscles.

2 Likes

Exactly.
They didn’t even know what trash the AI homework was setting as they’ve never seen it from a student account. For English for example a bunch of flashcard pictures (weird random inages from the web) with phrases like, “this is a dog” it was a chair, another one “this is a gun” yes it was a gun, why are they flash-carding guns?? Basically it was the kid’s job to correct the AI when it was wrong. You might think my little mister is around 4 or 5 years old having flash cards. Nope this is when he was 15.
I had already taken him out of one trash English homework programme and then they changed it to another so i had to see one session before telling school he isn’t doing it.
For computer science class, AI set and marked the homework, my kid typed the wrong answers on purpose, total gobbledegook, AI marked it wrong, little mister hit the disagree button and told AI he was 100% correct, AI said congratulations you are 100% correct! I let my kid do this for 3 sessions as it was hilarious and he learned something about the validity of AI, then told school he’s not taking part any more.
He’s had almost no homework in 4 years at high school because I’ve taken him out of each of the programmes… as a result he is sitting 4 additional high school exams plus his graded music exams… and he still has time for fun, play, hobbies.
The amount he has learned by not doing homework and not engaging wih AI is immense.

So, yes, you’re right, the teachers won’t have read it.

The age verification and facial ID, is that for ALL online in the US? I’m avoiding it in the UK so far, our xbox keeps asking and i keep saying no, we don’t play 18+ games so really there is no need to check age.

I notice AI doesn’t need age verification before it’s allowed to go everywhere and write all sorts of nonsense.

2 Likes

I have barely enough understanding of your school system to see that your son is doing fantastic. Please tell him this great gramma in the US is proud of him.

California passed the law that the OS must verify age. Once California makes it law, soon the rest of the country follows. Fun fact: CA is short for cancer and also California. I live in a state that wants to tax us to the point that anyone who can will pick up sticks and go to another state will, and has passed a law concerning 3D printers that I hope will eventually be overturned. Whether one agrees with the reason behind it or not, it’s an intrusion that will be expanded.

AI isn’t faring so well in court rooms. Attorneys are being caught using it and not checking their homework, citing nonexistent cases. AI hallucinates and that’s dangerous when it’s being relied upon for serious things like medical care. Who’s going to catch those mistakes?

1 Like

Yep.
There seems to be this idea that people (school kids included) can be trained to catch the errors and hallucinations but, like colocro’s crochet example, it takes skill and knowledge in the subject to be able to spot it and call it out and even then it’s rarely enough to just point out it’s incorrect and more often that person is required to prove it’s wrong, with a pile of evidence.

I imagine there must have been scams like this with the roll out of the printing press, same with photography and all sorts of technological advances. If it’s in printed text it must be true, if it’s in a photo it must be true… our species is incredibly intelligent and creative, and equally as ignorant and gullible.

2 Likes