Fake News, Streaming Fraud & AI Assistants
5 in 5 - Brave & Heart HeartBeat #199 ❤️
This week we’re talking why Made With AI labels may not be enough to convince our brains it isn’t real, plus we introduce you to streaming fraud and TikTok’s new Instagram.
We also ask if an AI assistant that spies on everything you do is a good or a bad idea, and why working less might not be enough to avoid burnout.
Let’s get into it.
Were you forwarded this? Not a subscriber? 👉 Sign up here
#1 - AI Imagery Still FEELS Real
What you know isn’t real can’t hurt you, or can it?
As generative AI comes on in leaps and bounds seemingly by the minute, it’s becoming harder to tell which images have been created by the tech and which are real.
Facebook is already flooded with AI images, weirdly lots including the Beatles, or depicting fake news stories like a 122-year-old woman who baked her own birthday cake (this one went viral).
Last week we talked about the good news that Meta would be adding “Made With AI” labels to AI-generated imagery amid fears that deepfakes and voice replication may define the upcoming presidential elections in the US, but some experts say that labels might not actually help.
According to the experts at factchecking group Logically, even if you tell somebody they’re looking at a deepfake before watching, the social psychology of watching that video is so powerful that their brain will still reference it as if it was fact.
So even though the viewer knows technically they aren’t real, AI generated images still may stick in your brain as if they were.
Although Meta have argued that adding the labels will be a solution that still allows people freedom of expression, those at Logically argue that the most effective way to beat false information through AI generated content is to remove the content as quick as possible.
In itself, easier said than done, considering how difficult they’re becoming to spot.
The conclusion to a Guardian article on the subject ends by saying that tech isn’t the whole problem – people are. If they believe that a photo of an 122 year old woman with her home made birthday cake is real, it isn’t going to take too much to make them believe worse..
#2 – Streaming Fraud
While many fear that AI might be the biggest menace to the music industry right now, others argue that streaming fraud might be a bigger risk – at least right now – and it’s in the news right now after a Danish man was given an 18 month prison sentence for being a naughty boy on Spotify.
So what is streaming fraud?
Streaming fraud refers to the generation of royalties by creating multiple accounts and playing music that you’ve created over and over again – often with the help of bots. If you look up streaming farm you can see images reminiscent of bitcoin mines – shelves of phones set away to play certain tracks on repeat.
The Danish man in question played 244 of his tracks 5.5 million times in the space of a week using 20 different accounts, becoming the 46th highest-earning musician in Denmark at one point.
It’s illegal, apparently, although not easy to prove, and even big names in music – artists and record industries included – have paid streaming farms to get some traction on their music (allegedly).
So while this one Danish guy did make a few hundred thousand pounds in unearned royalties, streaming fraud can also be used to push certain songs into the streaming charts to make them more visible to listeners and boost their popularity.
So what’s the harm, really?
It’s basically earning money for nothing, apart from being a bit sneaky, but the bigger issue for the industry at large is that fake streams dilute the royalty pool and lower payments to legitimate artists, who already earn much less money from streams than they did back in the CD days.
Spotify started cracking down on stream farming big time back in 2023, so now the best way to make loads of money on Spotify if you can’t sing is probably by making white noise tracks…
#3 - TikTok Takes On Instagram
We all miss the Instagram of old, where slightly artier photos of our daily lives with fun captions revolutionised how we socialized online in comparison to Facebook, and has now been largely taken over by influencer marketing, but do we miss it enough to switch to another app?
Maybe, if the new app in question is TikTok Notes.
TikTok just announced via an in-app notification that they’re getting ready to release a photo-sharing app called TikTok Notes.
Apparently they are “exploring ways to empower our community to create and share their creativity with photos and text in a dedicated space for those formats”. So, Instagram in 2010.
The kicker is that “existing and future public TikTok photo posts” will also be converted and posted on the new platform, which is probably referring to the image slideshows to music that can currently be posted on TikTok.
Integrating their existing audience is a big bonus, and although we do think TikTok has some brain-rotting and attention span killing properties, would we be willing to make a deal with the devil to get old Instagram back? Possibly…
#4 - The Assistant That Never Forgets?
We reported on AI assistants a few weeks ago, concluding that while an AI assistant is going to be pretty useful, as a computer usually is, they wouldn’t be able to exactly replicate that "human touch”.
Like, knowing what gifts people like and when to send them, and what to make space for in the diary and what not to. Actually, they could, but you’d have to programme all that information into them, and the point is, as many executive assistants will attest, the person being assisted more often than not doesn’t know it…
Experts like Tom Gruber, co-founder of the company that created Siri, says that AI has the potential to be the ultimate assistant to anyone in one specific area – memory.
Gruber argues that while human brains are really good at remembering the overall “story”, they’re not great at rememberin the details, such as names, faces and dates, and he has been arguing for the creation of digital AI assistants that can analyze everything you do on your devices, indexing it later for reference.
Basically, he wants his pal Siri to spy on us, and like a really really good executive assistant, store it all in their brain for when we might need it.
And for those who feel a bit iffy being spied on, don’t. We’re being spied on as it is anyway for advertising purposes, we might as well get some use out of it, right?
#5 - Working Less Might Not Be The Answer
We hear a lot about burnout, and especially about knowing when and how to turn off from our work as being the antidote – especially since hybrid working has allowed work to leak into the full day rather than set work hours, and our homes rather than set offices.
The author of the book “Working Less Is Not Enough!” – exclamation mark and all – argues, obviously, that simply working less is not enough to combat burnout. She posits that although working less is good, we need to be working “better” to be truly fulfilled.
For example, despite all the benefits of the four-day work week, such as more rested and engaged and productive employees and better work-life balance, there are other factors to take into account to have a truly fulfilled working life.
Working better means finding a sense of purpose in what we do, either because we take pleasure in it, or because we feel like what we do is serving a purpose. It is also important to feel that the organization employing us respects us and others, and the values we uphold.
If you hate what you do, it might not be overwork that’s leading you to burnout, simply the wrong work.
Brave & Heart over and out.
Bonus
Weird Time Off
Time off is a great bonus, some companies offer you an extra day off for your birthday, or allow you to take the day for moving house, but there are an increasing number of companies offering weird and wonderful options for time off.
From “Pawternity Leave” to hangover days, check out this list of the most unusual offerings out there.
To find out more on how you can retain your top talent, or how we can help you with digital solutions to your business and marketing challenges, check out our case studies.