How to spot spot AI generated images
Images generated by artificial intelligence can be convincing at first. Here are some things to look for if you’re unsure if the image is real or not.
- I’m not done testing the vehicle in which the experience happened, so I am not naming it.
- Fortunes have been made surveying drivers about vehicle features that don’t work, but there’s no data on how other drivers react to lippy virtual assistants.
I had an annoying experience with a vehicle’s virtual assistant recently.
When I say “vehicle virtual assistant,” can I assume we all know how the experience was going to be annoying, or is that just me?
I was driving a very promising new EV to my brother’s house — more about it to come; I’m not done testing the vehicle, so I am not naming it. The drive would be 70 miles. Enough time behind the wheel to experience a few basic functions followed by a pleasant lunch of Pie Sci pizza.
As I set out, I asked the assistant to perform a task well within its promised capability: “Directions to John Phelan’s house.”
It failed. Repeatedly. Infuriatingly.
So I did what anybody would do: I cut loose with a loud and thoroughly NSFW curse-filled product review.
After a moment, it responded: “I am a virtual assistant, but your words are real. Please be respectful.”
Yes, it really said that. Seems I was talking to the ancestor of all movie AIs gone rogue. There’s never an electromagnetic pulse weapon around when you need one.
I repeated my rant. It consisted of short, pithy words, including one used more conversationally in Ireland and Australia than America. Because AI Gone Rogue Sr. never answered, I pulled over, input my brother’s location and drove on, shooting the occasional venomous glance at the vehicle’s push-to-talk button.
Fortunes have been made surveying drivers about vehicle features that don’t work, but there’s no data on how other drivers react to lippy virtual assistants.
This wasn’t the first time one reduced me to spewing curses, just the first time a robot has accused me of impertinence. Previous interactions generally ended with the machine shutting down and sulking silently, an outcome I was happy to claim as a victory of man vs. machine. Not quite as cautionary as the man vs. machine story retold in an old folk tale you may know. Nevertheless, this one’s for you, John Henry.
A modest suggestion to automakers about their future AI overlords: Don’t program them to scold me like a 5-year-old caught fidgeting in church, particularly when your billions of dollars of R&D just failed to find my brother’s address in my contact list ― immediately after it did call his phone number from the same contact card.
I’ll banter with sassy wait staff and acerbic bartenders, but I will not be told to mind my tone by a petulant stack of silicon chips.
Don’t make me turn this car around.
Contact Mark Phelan: 313-222-6731 or mmphelan@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @mark_phelan. Read more on autos and sign up for our autos newsletter. Become a subscriber.