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'Facebook Misinformation Is Bad Enough. The Metaverse Will Be Worse' (rand.org) 53

Posted by EditorDavid from the manipulation-at-scale dept.
The Rand Corporation is an American (nonprofit) think tank. And veliath (Slashdot reader #5,435) spotted their recent warning about "a plausible scenario that could soon take place in the metaverse." A political candidate is giving a speech to millions of people. While each viewer thinks they are seeing the same version of the candidate, in virtual reality they are actually each seeing a slightly different version. For each and every viewer, the candidate's face has been subtly modified to resemble the viewer.... The viewers are unaware of any manipulation of the image. Yet they are strongly influenced by it: Each member of the audience is more favorably disposed to the candidate than they would have been without any digital manipulation.

This is not speculation. It has long been known that mimicry can be exploited as a powerful tool for influence. A series of experiments by Stanford researchers has shown that slightly changing the features of an unfamiliar political figure to resemble each voter made people rate politicians more favorably. The experiments took pictures of study participants and real candidates in a mock-up of an election campaign. The pictures of each candidate were modified to resemble each participant. The studies found that even if 40 percent of the participant's features were blended into the candidate's face, the participants were entirely unaware the image had been manipulated.

In the metaverse, it's easy to imagine this type of mimicry at a massive scale.

At the heart of all deception is emotional manipulation. Virtual reality environments, such as Facebook's (now Meta's) metaverse, will enable psychological and emotional manipulation of its users at a level unimaginable in today's media.... We are not even close to being able to defend users against the threats posed by this coming new medium.... In VR, body language and nonverbal signals such as eye gaze, gestures, or facial expressions can be used to communicate intentions and emotions. Unlike verbal language, we often produce and perceive body language subconsciously....

We must not wait until these technologies are fully realized to consider appropriate guardrails for them. We can reap the benefits of the metaverse while minimizing its potential for great harm.
They recommend developing technology that detect the application of this kind of VR manipulation.

"Society did not start paying serious attention to classical social media — meaning Facebook, Twitter, and the like — until things got completely out of hand. Let us not make the same mistake as social media blossoms into the metaverse."
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'Facebook Misinformation Is Bad Enough. The Metaverse Will Be Worse' More

'Facebook Misinformation Is Bad Enough. The Metaverse Will Be Worse'

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  • That's why... (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward
    That's why Zuck the Cuck's avatar looks like a Ken doll that got to close to a dumpster fire...

  • Or... (Score:2)

    by cirby ( 2599 )

    ...instead of trying to develop tech to counter big-media manipulation, the users of VR could just not deal with Facebook/Meta/Twitter/et cetera in the first place.

    Use open source, distributed virtual worlds, and keep a close eye on them.

    When they start acting all Facebooky, walk away.

    • Re:Or... (Score:5, Insightful)

      by jenningsthecat ( 1525947 ) on Sunday August 28, 2022 @02:02PM (#62830203)

      ...instead of trying to develop tech to counter big-media manipulation, the users of VR could just not deal with Facebook/Meta/Twitter/et cetera in the first place.

      Use open source, distributed virtual worlds, and keep a close eye on them.

      This approach requires independence of mind, the ability and willingness to do some research, and generally just giving a fuck. If there were enough people to matter who possessed these qualities, Facebook would be dead. Microsoft would be dying or dead and the Year Of Linux On The Desktop would be a celebrated historical fact and not an in-joke. And on and on...

      • THIS. We keep hearing "well everyone should do this and that and use such and such" but the people saying that fail to realize that most people want to go with the flow, even if it's an inferior or even harmful option. In the case of computing devices, grandma just wants to see pictures of her grandkids and does not care about all of the controversy behind Facebook. And most 'gamers' just want the device that makes Mario look real good and exciting and will buy into the "metaverse" because they think it's c

        • And most 'gamers' just want the device that makes Mario look real good

          Nope, they buy the shittiest hardware that Nintendo can put out and claim Mario never looked better. For the same reason, the real world isn't immune to this manipulation either. Various people will latch on to the one hot topic statement "their" candidate said at some point in their life, and then utterly refuse any and all evidence that the candidate in question lied all the way to the voting booth. We have mailers sent out that were tailored to specific groups during elections. Many people are completel

      • I've been seriously trying to switch to Linux since Win2000 was no longer viable, and I had to move to XP. Every time I tried any new Linux distro or desktop environment, I was left seriously disappointed.

        It's not the end-users who lack enough fucks.

    • So you're effectively going to be forced to deal with Facebook at some point. They're just going to buy whoever you want to deal with. And best you'll get a duopoly with the two companies teaming up to screw you over.

      You've got about two elections cycles to do something about that give or take. I think we all know what we need to do to fix this I just don't think we want to.
    • Given the fact that the metaverse is likely to be used for cyber-sex and not much else, I am guessing that this technology will be used to make your cyber-partner look more like your mother.
      • I see many parallels with Second Life. Everyone and every company had to have a presence there. A few years later it was abandoned by mostly everyone; however, the adult section was still thriving.

  • Non profit sounds nice, but let's make sure we put "Government Funded" in there. Would have put "Non Profit" in my title, but there wasn't enough space.

  • Similar to what some sports do (Score:5, Insightful)

    by quonset ( 4839537 ) on Sunday August 28, 2022 @11:51AM (#62829855)

    Way back (pre-2001) I was watching a baseball game (not by choice) and noticed something odd behind the plate. Every so often instead of there being the usual ad there was a green board. It took me a few moments to realize they were green screening the ads. For example, if you were in one part of the state you might see ads for something local to you whereas someone in a different part of the state would see something local to you.

    I've seen this in soccer (football for those across the pond) as well.

    It wouldn't be a stretch to think what Rand is suggesting won't happen or isn't happening now. With the ability to do deep fakes, subtle manipulation of a person's face for political purposes is barely a bump in the road.

  • That's assuming the metaverse will catch on (Score:5, Insightful)

    by marcle ( 1575627 ) on Sunday August 28, 2022 @11:52AM (#62829859)

    So far, the metaverse has been a dud. Will everybody decide to wear bulky goggles and pretend they're somewhere else? It's not attractive to me, and I know virtual reality was supposed to be the next big thing quite a while ago, but never happened.
    This strikes me as being like the prophecy that AI will become sentient and take over the universe. Sounds great in a sci-fi story, maybe not so much in real life.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      You realize "real time video manipulation" doesn't depend on the metaverse catching on, or even existing in the first place.

      YouTube and the like are equally able to provide video.
      Television too, assuming that ever catches on :P

      The thing is, real time video manipulation exists right now.
      The cheap/free stuff we have access to isn't all that great yet, but the much more expensive software is quite a bit better.
      The tech is improving all the time as well, far faster than VR seems to be.

      Online video streams like

      • Re: (Score:3)

        by Entrope ( 68843 )

        On the other hand, all it takes to undermine this kind of thing is getting caught at it, and that seems really easy/likely when you target a medium that involves thousands of people livestreaming their feeds to third-party video services. "Hey, Joe Politician looks different in Bob's stream than in Mary's! What's up with that?"

        • What it takes is network effects, and those don't happen unless enough people buy your shit to get the rest of the people on board. And there's the rub, as it costs too much to buy a display that isn't garbage. Plus users might not be geniuses, but gamers are just smart enough to ask whether something is compatible with the things they want to do. If the answer is no because it's stuck behind a facebook authwall then they're not going to buy in even if it is affordable, unless it's very cheap. We're a very

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by HiThere ( 15173 )

      The metaverse is a totally independent dimension. This is already a threat.

      OTOH, I do expect VR to catch on. But it has several major barriers to overcome first, and I expect it will take a decade or so yet before it gets there. For what I expect, I expect something like the VR of "California Voodoo Game", or "The Barsoom Project". OR instead of the holograms used in "Dream Park". Or possibly the VR of "Halting State".

      Do note, however, that all of those approaches require capabilities that current syst

    • So far, the metaverse has been a dud

      Not really. ROBLOX was already the metaverse before Meta started working on "the metaverse".

  • "Mr & Mrs Everywhere" as political propagandis (Score:4, Interesting)

    by david.emery ( 127135 ) on Sunday August 28, 2022 @11:54AM (#62829865)

    From Stand on Zanzibar https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org] Another is a kind of interactive television that shows the viewer as part of the program ("Mr. & Mrs. Everywhere"). The book was written in 1968 and set in 2010. Looks like John Brunner was a dozen years off...

  • Read Neal Stephenson's "Interface" (Score:3)

    by mtaht ( 603670 ) on Sunday August 28, 2022 @12:09PM (#62829887) Homepage
    It really nails this nightmare scenario... and is also hilarious.
  • I don't see people flocking in droves to the meta verse

    • Re:What metaverse? (Score:4, Informative)

      by blahplusplus ( 757119 ) on Sunday August 28, 2022 @02:58PM (#62830341)

      I don't see people flocking in droves to the meta verse

      In case you have been living under a rock, there's been a war on general computing from 1997 onwards to take us back to mainframe computing where you own nothing. This started with the rebrand of PC rpg's as mmo's in 1997 with ultima online, and everquest in 1999, we got steam later in December 2003. There's been a war on software ownership we've long since lost.

      "Metaverse" just means digital devices owned and controlled by corporations because the global public is too dumb to protect their interests as consumers. Steam DRM/MMO's are signs of idiocracy.

      We lost dedicated servers and level editors in PC games over the last 20 years. Compare Neverwinternights (2002) to the "modern" incarnation.

      Neverwitner "new" (aka free 2 play backended game)

      https://store.steampowered.com... [steampowered.com]

      Neverwinter (2002)

      https://www.gog.com/game/never... [gog.com]

      You own it can host your own multiplayer games and comes with advanced level editing tools, everyone should download it to see what was lost over the last 23+ years in the big budget AAA pc game space.

      The whole point was for AMD, Intel, MS, Valve and the rest of the industry to take us back of mainframe computing of the 60's with vendor lock in.

      That's what the "metaverse" is all about, aka ubiquitous back ended applications where you own nothing.

      The whole point was to kill local dos 16 and win32 exe's that enabled piracy, they want total control of the input/output of the device, that is why the new Win3/Win UI in windows 10/11 is bringing denuvo like encryption with copyright enforcement built into the hardware. The general public has been oblivious they've been robbed for the last 23+ years and the whole world has been living in a delusion.

      So that's what they mean by "metaverse" if you bought any client-server apps for your phone or using a copy of windows 10/11, you've given up ownership of your device, Microsoft/google/appple and the rest are happy because you're too stupid to protect your own consumer interests. They'll be able to do forced advertising and remotely disable your software with their last 20+ years of testing of trusting computing hardware enabling end to end encryption and control of your digital devices.

      See here:

      https://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~rja1... [cam.ac.uk]

      They wanted to kill plaintext exe's that enabled piracy, that means killing honest plaintext assembly that microchips naturally talk to other chips in.

      PDF's for the curious:

      https://web2.qatar.cmu.edu/cs/... [cmu.edu]

  • Comment removed based on user account deletion

  • The metaverse is dead for the same reasons all previous attempts at AR and VR are dead - nobody likes wearing a giant thing on their face for hours and hours. You can't make thin and light-weight glasses with high resolution, massive computing power, and long battery life, that are comfortable to wear, and don't cause nausea. Wankerberg himself has said many times the hardware does not exist yet. No amount of hopium is going to make it happen. I've been a mobile device hardware developer for over 25yrs

  • Text misinformation is bad, but VR misinformation will be worse than attending a MAGA rally.

  • Always been done, this takes it to a new level (Score:3)

    by Great_Geek ( 237841 ) on Sunday August 28, 2022 @02:54PM (#62830331)
    Things like this has always been done:

    - Candidates give speech/promise tailored for the target audience. In the old days, audiences were separate, so no problems. At some time, reporters started to followed candidates around and could report on the differences, for awhile this would cause some problems for the Candidate, but it now seems to be just par for the course

    - Micro-targeted Ads on social media are exactly this. Each ad is tailored for the recipient, see FB and Cambridge Analytica. This is particularly nasty since none of these ads will be seen by non-targeted (especially reporters) so these ads can go full nutty.

    - The Rand thing is just a video version of the Micro-targeted Ad.

  • Let's hope that people who go this far into the Metaverse, will also vote in the Metaverse, where they can't do any real-world damage.

  • This is way beyond Hillary and her hot sauce.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]

  • ...is our nightmare.

  • Nobody will ever use the metaverse..

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by dddux ( 3656447 )

      As always, one would [will] be surprised... with human stupidity. Working in computer maintenance I see that in abundance.

  • . The studies found that even if 40 percent of the participant's features were blended into the candidate's face, the participants were entirely unaware the image had been manipulated.

    Not specific to the metaverse as proposed by Zuck.

  • `Misinformation' is `false information'. A Boolean variable has only two states; how `false' can be `even more false'? Perhaps, it should read `Compared To Facebook, The Metaverse Misinformation Will Be Even More Believable/Acceptable', or something along that line.
  • Has no one seen the movie A Clockwork Orange?

    Given how VR headsets induce symptoms of motion sickness in most people, I can't imagine anyone feeling anything but fear, dread, and loathing for anyone/thing they see in the Metaverse.

  • Emotional manipulation is just one of many rhetorical techniques that can be used to influence people, which have been know about for 2500 years.
    The heart of disinformation is lies, the heart of the truth it truth. Both can be communicated using rhetoric to influence people. It you assume that everything that uses emotional manipulation is false and everything that doesn't is truth, you will just fall for all the lies told without emotional manipulation and disregard all the truths that are, which include c

  • These experiments always control their experiments by using politicians the test subject doesn't know. Except this is controlling it's actually causing the effect. This way the test subject has no knowledge framework in with with to interpret what is being said, except for the one piece of propaganda the testers are giving them. Properly designed experiments have shown that this doesn't work in the real world election campaigns because people seem many different messages, have their own political beliefs, t

  • False news is harmful to our community, it makes the world less informed, and it erodes trust. It's not a new phenomenon, and all of us — tech companies, media companies, newsrooms, teachers — have a responsibility to do our part in addressing it. - https://nicoleraposala.wixsite... [wixsite.com]

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