Netflix Doc ‘What Jennifer Did’ Uses AI Images to Create False Historical Record (www.404media.co)
from some_guy@lemmy.sdf.org to technology@lemmy.world on 18 Apr 2024 15:36
https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/15518159

#technology

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sic_semper_tyrannis@lemmy.today on 18 Apr 2024 16:03 next collapse

A primary concern for Petrucelli, Jenkins, and Antell, longtime documentary filmmakers and co-founders of the Archival Producers Alliance (APA), is to avoid a situation in which AI-generated images make their way into documentaries without proper disclosure, creating a false historical record.

They shouldn’t be in a documentary period. A documentary is meant to be factual and historical so nothing fake should be injected into it.

Flying_Hellfish@lemmy.world on 18 Apr 2024 16:07 next collapse

Just to play devil’s advocate, does that mean any “artist rendering” shouldn’t be in a documentary? Documentaries have had drawings, with a disclaimer that it is an artist rendering, for as long as I can remember. Or what about when they hire actors to do a “dramatization” of what happened, how is this different?

rdyoung@lemmy.world on 18 Apr 2024 16:11 collapse

They are different because they are clearly not real images or video. The fact that we can generate images of whatever we want that are near if not impossible to discern as fake by the naked eye, means that they shouldn’t be in there at all.

Flying_Hellfish@lemmy.world on 18 Apr 2024 16:13 collapse

Again, how is this different from an artist rendering? There’s been artists creating digital media for documentaries for a long long time.

gimpchrist@lemmy.world on 18 Apr 2024 16:18 next collapse

How is a computer generated image different from an artist rendering? Well for one an artist is a human being… AI is machines. No human on earth can render as well as a machine can. If you want to use machine rendering, make sure your audience is completely aware that it is AI generated, otherwise, it’s not a documentary… it’s an art film.

Flying_Hellfish@lemmy.world on 18 Apr 2024 16:26 next collapse

Documentaries have had drawings, with a disclaimer that it is an artist rendering, for as long as I can remember. Or what about when they hire actors to do a “dramatization” of what happened, how is this different?

The quote above is in my first post in this thread. And to say a human can’t render as well as a machine, is arguable, but that isn’t what this is about.

So again, if people are told that it’s a rendering, regardless of who or what rendered it, what is the issue, and should all past documentaries with human renderings/reenactments not be called documentaries?

cm0002@lemmy.world on 18 Apr 2024 17:24 collapse

That’s what he’s saying, with proper disclosure, there’s really no difference so if one (with proper disclosure) is banned then the other (Also with proper disclosure) should be as well because (assuming proper disclosure) they’re both recreations of a historical event that has no actual photo or video of said event.

homesweethomeMrL@lemmy.world on 18 Apr 2024 17:09 collapse

You’re not understanding, possibly on purpose?

Look, try this: if the scene with the artist’s rendering says “artist’s rendering” in it, then it’s fine. Start there.

Flying_Hellfish@lemmy.world on 18 Apr 2024 17:11 collapse

I’m not sure if you meant to reply to me, but that’s what I have been saying, if it says it’s a rendering, I don’t see how it’s different.

KoboldCoterie@pawb.social on 18 Apr 2024 16:09 next collapse

Documentaries often include recreations of events, such as historical events that weren’t filmed. It’s usually noted as being a recreation or re-enactment. If AI-created images are used instead and are noted as being such, I don’t really see the problem, assuming the images are curated to depict the scene accurately.

DdCno1@kbin.social on 18 Apr 2024 16:33 next collapse

The problem in both cases is that people remember these artistic depiction as real, even if there's a disclosure.

db2@lemmy.world on 18 Apr 2024 16:41 next collapse

Are we worrying about the fully functional adults that still need to be told not to drink Draino?

jaspersgroove@lemm.ee on 18 Apr 2024 16:54 next collapse

It wouldn’t be such a concern if they didn’t make up like 40% of the population.

sudoreboot@slrpnk.net on 19 Apr 2024 07:59 collapse

Global population? You say “the”, so you obviously mean the one we have in common.

homesweethomeMrL@lemmy.world on 18 Apr 2024 17:07 next collapse

Yeah television doesn’t affect anyone. That’s been a great success. Fox News anybody? Pizzagate?

BearOfaTime@lemm.ee on 18 Apr 2024 17:10 next collapse

We’re all susceptible to this stuff, even when we’re aware of it.

masquenox@lemmy.world on 19 Apr 2024 08:45 collapse

As someone who actually worked in the corporate propaganda industry… I concur.

DdCno1@kbin.social on 18 Apr 2024 17:50 collapse

If you think you are impervious to this, then I got news for you.

db2@lemmy.world on 18 Apr 2024 18:00 collapse

I think I’m pretty impervious to the impulse of drinking drain cleaner. 🤷

Daft_ish@lemmy.world on 19 Apr 2024 03:01 collapse

Ok but drinking draino is the cure for all life’s problems. To each their own, though.

db2@lemmy.world on 19 Apr 2024 03:08 collapse

That or seeing Batman.

sudoreboot@slrpnk.net on 19 Apr 2024 07:56 collapse

That argument extends to any realistic recreation of events. It’s not wrong, I’m just not sure what could be done about it.

just_another_person@lemmy.world on 18 Apr 2024 16:36 next collapse

A recreation is a scripted recreation, and I believe legally required to be noted as such. Whether that’s in the credits or on screen at time of playing I think is at the discretion of the filmmaker and editors.

Wildly different concept than generative AI models doing whatever they feel. At the end of the day, I can see why some people can’t see the difference, but it’s huge. I’d also say that if the former were improperly used in a horrific way, you’d just say “Well the viewers can stay away from that documentary”, but as we we’ve all seen over the past decade or so, once the falsely represented account of events is out there, you can’t stop it from spreading. Whether is a still image, or a reenactment. One has current legal repercussions and is covered by libel and slander protections, and the other doesn’t. World of difference.

NegativeInf@lemmy.world on 18 Apr 2024 17:39 collapse

I… I don’t think they are generating the history on the fly for each individual playback. Probably just generating images based on the concept, iteratively tweaking until it conveys the message that is desired by the artist. You know. Like most artistic works. AI is another tool.

Not to say training data being copped from hardworking artists is good, but an ethically trained AI for image generation for this context is not necessarily evil if it is used in the context of executing the artist’s vision in the way they deem necessary and sufficient. Relying on outside people can often cloud the vision of a project.

That being said, pay artists for their work, license if you want to train, and credit/royalties should be paid until copyright expires or the rights are purchased outright for a competitive compensation.

just_another_person@lemmy.world on 18 Apr 2024 19:30 collapse

The point is more that false “recreations” are protected when you have a planned and scripted setup to film and display it. Generative AI is not included in those laws yet, which is why everyone is trying to get their bullshit in while they can.

homesweethomeMrL@lemmy.world on 18 Apr 2024 17:03 next collapse

Yeah they shouldn’t do that either

ringwraithfish@startrek.website on 18 Apr 2024 18:06 collapse

This is how I’m leaning too. If done appropriately this should be no different than “this is a reenactment of events” seen in 90s and 00s true crime shows.

The big challenge is getting the content creators to respect that template and not bury the disclosure in the credits.

littletranspunk@lemmus.org on 19 Apr 2024 02:45 next collapse

A documentary is meant to be factual and historical so nothing fake should be injected into it.

If you trust a documentary like this then I don’t trust your reasoning. “Vaxxed” is a documentary that, incorrectly, talks about the dangers of vaccination.

dumbass@leminal.space on 19 Apr 2024 07:17 collapse

As a wrestling fan I know to never fuck with the APA!

Seraph@kbin.social on 18 Apr 2024 16:25 next collapse

Are the images clearly labeled, or are they trying to pass them off as reality? There's a clear difference.

SuckMyWang@lemmy.world on 18 Apr 2024 17:36 collapse

It’s Netflix marketing with ai. If this happened in the past it would just be photoshopped. They’re using buzzwords to get you engaged

dexa_scantron@lemmy.world on 18 Apr 2024 20:41 collapse

You didn’t read the article. These are images that appeared in the documentary and were not marked as generated. It was implied they were real photos.

SuckMyWang@lemmy.world on 20 Apr 2024 06:13 collapse

I didn’t no but I gathered that. What I meant was that in the past the images that would have appeared in the documentary would have simply been photoshopped - it’s the deception that the images were real that is the problem. This article, I assume is using the topic of ai to imply something new has happened when it hasn’t

doublejay1999@lemmy.world on 18 Apr 2024 17:17 next collapse

So do I though

yesman@lemmy.world on 18 Apr 2024 17:38 next collapse

Reading through these comments it seems that many lemmings have wildly optimistic ideals about ethics in the “true crime” genre of documentaries.

Even for sincere documentarians, presenting unvarnished history accurately and completely is an impossibility. For the bad-faith actors, you’d be amazed at how much is outright staged or otherwise faked. The only rule is that it be entertaining.

As far as “true crime”, the question of “should we even make this” is pretty ethically fraught. True crime is cheap, popular, and stuffed to the brim with hacks and bad faith actors.

Entropywins@lemmy.world on 18 Apr 2024 21:54 collapse

Well thanks to you I’ve found my niche…documentaries about true crime documentaries

hazeebabee@slrpnk.net on 19 Apr 2024 06:19 collapse

Is this a real niche? Cuz I would watch some if you have recs

7heo@lemmy.ml on 18 Apr 2024 18:55 next collapse

Is it just me, or is everyone here commenting on a half article, the other half being behind a paywall? 😬

Dariusmiles2123@sh.itjust.works on 18 Apr 2024 20:01 next collapse

Yeah I couldn’t read the whole article, so what I’d want to know is if the AI generated images were shown with a disclosure or not. Because that changes everything…

Edit: apparently there was no disclosure in the movie, which is the problem

IllNess@infosec.pub on 18 Apr 2024 20:17 collapse

If there was a disclosure, that would be fine. Documentaries used actors, reenactments, illustrations, 3D generated content, etc. before. If it helps viewers visualize the topic, it is fine. If it skews the story to push a theory of the documentary, that’s not fine.

7heo@lemmy.ml on 18 Apr 2024 21:02 collapse

I think we can all agree on that… But without the entire article, one can only parametrise their answer… I was hoping someone with a full version could do an HTML dump. 😅

Or at the very least a markdown dump in here.

C3D@lemmy.world on 18 Apr 2024 21:40 collapse

You can find the complete article on archive.org

Grimy@lemmy.world on 18 Apr 2024 20:47 collapse

In my experience, most just read the headline. That’s why the tldr bot is so important and most subs banning it are just doing the community a disservice.

uriel238@lemmy.blahaj.zone on 18 Apr 2024 19:14 next collapse

A proof of concept documentary about how fabricated evidence could be used to promote a fringe theory or even convict would be way cool.

How Jennifer shot JFK

Dunno if this is that.

MaxHardwood@lemmy.ca on 19 Apr 2024 03:06 collapse

Knew it all along; Jennifer was the second shooter!

Kolanaki@yiffit.net on 19 Apr 2024 06:40 collapse

Duuuuuuude… JFK. Jennifer Fucking Killed! It was in front of us the whole time! 😱

lanolinoil@lemmy.world on 18 Apr 2024 20:11 next collapse

loginwall – here’s the full text pastebin.com/krVEdG5v

Forgottengoldfish@lemmy.world on 19 Apr 2024 00:01 next collapse

We call that historical fiction.

le_saucisson_masquay@sh.itjust.works on 19 Apr 2024 07:46 next collapse

We call that bullshit where I come from. Either it’s historical or it’s fiction. Fiction can be done in an historical setting, but is never historical itself.

uienia@lemmy.world on 19 Apr 2024 08:35 next collapse

Not if it poses as a documentary.

sunbeam60@lemmy.one on 19 Apr 2024 09:04 collapse

In the U.K. there’s a law (perhaps it’s an agreement between the broadcasters, no sure) to display a P in the corner of the screen when there’s product placements. So every time someone takes a phone out in a soap opera, the little P appears. Hilarious how ALL the characters in Hollyoaks chose Windows Mobile for a while.

Perhaps we ought to require the same for AI generated media.

pastermil@sh.itjust.works on 19 Apr 2024 11:16 collapse

So like Inglorious Bastards?

TWeaK@lemm.ee on 19 Apr 2024 08:03 next collapse

Paywall :/

tearsintherain@leminal.space on 19 Apr 2024 08:18 next collapse

Yes there are re-enactments in documentaries but this was using actual photos of the subject. I def have a problem with that. It’s exploitive at the very least and reminds of the AI shitshow to come. Disclosure should be on the damn picture itself, not in the credits.

Re-enactments have actors and no one confuses them for the actual subjects. If you dont have enough material, don’t make a ‘true crime documentary’.

melpomenesclevage@lemm.ee on 19 Apr 2024 09:16 next collapse

okay, so, yes, its not ‘true’, and the crime its about didn’t actually ‘happen’, but everyone knows’ true crime’ is a genre defined by its aesthetics and ‘grittiness’ and being very cheap to produce, so we here at Netflix believe we’re being true to the highest ideals and aesthetics of the genre.

XeroxCool@lemmy.world on 19 Apr 2024 15:18 collapse

They might not be mistaken for the actual people in the case, but they certainly get beleived as 100% accurate reenactments.

GeoGio7@lemmy.world on 19 Apr 2024 15:04 collapse

Fuck all these disgusting true crime documentaries regardless whether or not they use AI