In the fall of 2021, after a remote year, I was teaching in person wearing a mask close to 100% of the time.
-
In the fall of 2021, after a remote year, I was teaching in person wearing a mask close to 100% of the time. A few weeks into one intro course, where the students didn’t already know me, I lowered my mask for a moment and there were audible gasps from the class. They’d never seen the lower half of my face!
“What did you •think• was going to be down there?!” I quipped. (Maybe they were picturing tentacles, like an Ood?)
But the gasp was genuine: after hours of looking at my masked face, they still had no idea what my •unmasked• face looks like.
1/
-
In the fall of 2021, after a remote year, I was teaching in person wearing a mask close to 100% of the time. A few weeks into one intro course, where the students didn’t already know me, I lowered my mask for a moment and there were audible gasps from the class. They’d never seen the lower half of my face!
“What did you •think• was going to be down there?!” I quipped. (Maybe they were picturing tentacles, like an Ood?)
But the gasp was genuine: after hours of looking at my masked face, they still had no idea what my •unmasked• face looks like.
1/
There are several photographs circulating online right now purporting to show the full, unmasked face of Renee Good’s killer. These photos are, as far as I’m aware, all AI-generated.
Please do not share these photos.
Remember that, as with all gen AI, it is answering the question “What would be statistically plausible here?” It’s not showing you the •killer’s• face. It’s showing you •a• face that fits with the what we know of the killer’s face.
2/
-
There are several photographs circulating online right now purporting to show the full, unmasked face of Renee Good’s killer. These photos are, as far as I’m aware, all AI-generated.
Please do not share these photos.
Remember that, as with all gen AI, it is answering the question “What would be statistically plausible here?” It’s not showing you the •killer’s• face. It’s showing you •a• face that fits with the what we know of the killer’s face.
2/
Generative AI can’t magically reveal otherwise unknown truths. AI doesn’t have any idea what the lower half of the killer’s face looks, no more than my students knew what my unmasked face looked like.
What AI •can• do is generate a random plausible face that really looks like a face. It might even look like the face of a real person — a random, innocent person.
Sharing AI-generated unmasking photos is dangerous.
3/
-
Generative AI can’t magically reveal otherwise unknown truths. AI doesn’t have any idea what the lower half of the killer’s face looks, no more than my students knew what my unmasked face looked like.
What AI •can• do is generate a random plausible face that really looks like a face. It might even look like the face of a real person — a random, innocent person.
Sharing AI-generated unmasking photos is dangerous.
3/
I hope the identity of Good’s killer is in fact revealed.
Let’s help with that by being very careful about what information we share, and making sure it’s good information. That’s hard, and we’ll all mess up I’m sure. But let’s do our best.
Now at least you and I both have a warning: if there’s a purported photo of Good’s killer, be careful and be skeptical.
/end
-
J Jeri Dansky shared this topic
