Media outlets around the world reported a man died after surgery to look like a K-pop star despite numerous red flags.
The news that Saint Von Colucci, a 22-year-old Canadian-Portuguese actor, singer, and songwriter with pull in South Korea’s entertainment scene, died after undergoing surgeries to look like a K-pop star set media abuzz.
Von Colucci was reported to have undergone 12 plastic surgeries, costing more than $200,000, to resemble BTS member Jimin and overcome discrimination “against his Western traits”. He was said to have recently secured a role in an upcoming Korean drama.
The only problem is that Von Colucci may have never existed.
A raft of evidence suggests he is the product of an elaborate hoax using artificial intelligence that fooled dozens of media outlets, stretching from the United States and Canada to the United Kingdom, South Korea, India, Malaysia and the Philippines.
The debacle appears to be the first known case of AI being used to trick media outlets en masse into spreading misinformation, heralding the dawn of a new era of computer-generated fake news.
...
heralding the dawn of a new era of computer-generated fake news
As if humans ever needed any help coming up with fake news
yeah like at one point they drop this line
the case of Von Colucci appears to be the first example of journalists being duped on a large scale,
and I guess they mean this is the first time "AI" was involved, but it's like, no, come on, this has been happening since before the internet, and the developments that have exacerbated it have less to do with advances in image generation technology than with the complete demise of journalism as a serious profession. As they point out, hardly any digging was required to poke holes in the story, but "serious" publications took it seriously because they just need something to fill a page.
Absolutely. "Journalists get duped" should be a dog bites man story at this point.
Hell, not even Junior. SADDAM RIPPED THE BABBYS OUTTA THE DING DANG INCUBATORS!
...also the Kuwaitis were slant-drilling into oil fields along the border that were mostly on the Iraqi side, so Saddam was justifiably pissed. The UN blew him off, the US Embassy in Iraq said they wouldn't intervene, and then, out of nowhere (!), along comes a massive PR/disinfo campaign funded by the Kuwaiti royal family. Western media outlets lapped all that shit up.
You could probably go even deeper with the Gulf of Tonkin.
the Kuwaitis were slant-drilling into oil fields along the border that were mostly on the Iraqi side
Oh
A reporter talking to himself - "If I don't write some hot articles fast - I'm going to get fired. But how about my ethics? How about my morals? Fuck it. A man's gotta eat..." That repeats a few dozen times all over the world.
Later...
Photos of Von Colucci online are blurry and contain strange features, including deformed hands in at least one case – a tell-tale sign of the use of AI.
That's the son of a bitch who killed Inigo Montoya's father!
When Al Jazeera attempted to call HYPE via the number listed, no one answered. Al Jazeera was later sent a text message from the number saying, “Wtf do u want.”
Powers levels unsustainable
AI being used to trick media outlets en masse into spreading misinformation, heralding the dawn of a new era of computer-generated fake news.
Because the media didn't fall for dumb shit back when people had to write it themselves instead of getting the computer to do it for them.
This guy already exists for real but survived to become the most annoying transphobe on twitter rn, why did they need to hoax an AI version into existence?
Like Oil London also literally picked Jimin to try and become, they didn't even change the kpop guy. How did journalists not pick up on the fact that this is already literally a guy who exists?
He was already famous before and right now he's trying to become a detrans icon by not telling people that what he is detransitioning from is going back to being Bri'ish instead of Korean.
Thank you, I was going to say this is just a recycled Oli London storyline. This version's ending is better than the original though, considering.
