Project Lazarus Is Coming
Rumor has it that Meta is working on a project which completely replicates a person’s social identity. Whether the rumor is true or not, we can certainly say that someone must already be working on it.
You can check out the full screenshots here:
So, let’s try to see what might happen in the future as this tech evolves. In exact words, We are trying to maintain the target’s social accounts without them around.
Actions which needs to be automated
Text Posts: We can use ChatGPT or similar algos here.
Photo Posts: There are lots of AI tools like Lensa which can take existing photos and create photo of Target in a completely different scenario.
Video Posts: The algorithms for this aren’t here yet but should be soon. Also, most social media accounts can be maintained without videos as well.
Messaging People: Can be done with ChatGPT.
Answering Calls: VallE + ChatGPT might be usable
Video Chats: Again not necessary but deepfakes can be used here.
Random Actions: Making Friends, following and unfollowing people etc. Can be automated.
What can this be used for
Helping people struggling with the Loss of Loved Ones
Wetwork (Murder or Assassination)
Advertising by Dead Celebrity Accounts
Covert Operations by the Government
Election Fraud
Shitposting beyond the grave
…. and many more things.
What about Offline Relationships?
In case a person goes missing, all above communication methods can be clone except offline relationships. But you can easily solve this by adding a post of “going for vacation”, “quarantining” etc.
Then, over time you could tweak the AI so it starts being abrasive/stand-offish in order to degrade any existing relationships that person has with people until they eventually become a persona non grata with their friends and family and just, poof, vanish. Although they've actually been gone for a year or two at that point.
How to Prevent this from Happening
I’d like to propose a solution which might be wildly incorrect, feel free to end reading here if you want.
We can create a Peer to Peer Decentralized Verification service to make sure that the Target Person is actually alive and using their own account. The service can work as an attendence sheet where all users can enroll onto a database which keeps record of their photos, name etc as well as their social media handles. (I don’t generally like cryptos but I think using it here kinda makes sense.)
Every week at a particular time, their locations will be encrypted and sent to a node which will then match the Target with a Verifier. The algorithm will decide a location, time and send the Target the Verifier’s photo. Also, you both get a key which you can exchange only if you meet physically.
You can reach the given location and time, exchange the keys, verify and update any info and you’re both good to go for another week.
Resilience of this Service
The service needs to be decentralized otherwise it would be prone to institutional capture.
Rogue Node, Verifiers are already discussed at length in crypto space and I think are solvable problems.
A random person might show up instead of your Verifier with the key (meaning the actual Verifier is captured) and threaten you to not raise any alarms. You might comply but threating a different person every week doesn’t seem like a good plan.
People might not show up and will be marked absent in their attendence sheet. Some consecutive absents might raise some eyebrows and get attention where it’s needed. Or worse be marked as “impersonated” and have all eyes of crowd on you.
Thanks For Reading!! [I’m a Real Person and this is not written by AI].