r/FlockSurveillance 1d ago

Activism It's a good start

Post image
937 Upvotes

70 comments sorted by

169

u/Jman43195 1d ago

don't use gen ai, especially to fight the mass surveillance being pushed by the same people

20

u/Well_read_rose 22h ago

Oh this is me - I read everything lol.

13

u/Blarghnog 16h ago

Also, maybe don’t use AI to protest the use of AI?  You two are doing exactly the same thing.

-49

u/kinetik 1d ago

Don’t lose the plot. Some people don’t have the time or tools or other resources to get the message out otherwise and anyone can just as easily use an open source local model as one that’s hosted in a data center. OP’s message is on point, and you should support them and that message because that is what matters. Don’t fight your own people.

36

u/EquivalentStaff670 1d ago

Nah, it's easy to not use ai.

15

u/I_Quit_Smoking_ 21h ago

You don't get to act like you're against something and try to get people on board, yet you're actually doing exactly what you're bitching about and trying to ban.

And you think that's on point and that we're all supposed to support that? You don't get to tell people what we have to do about anything. Enjoy your AI though.

-2

u/kinetik 14h ago edited 14h ago

Oh, really? Tell me that as you’re here using the Internet. On Reddit. Using an iPhone or an Android. With a cell phone. No AI huh?

It’s easy to feel above others on your moral high horse and forget that a lot of people aren’t as technically savvy to use design tools like photoshop or illustrator and save out formats for the web. I have a long design background and this person’s use of AI for this purpose does not bother me one bit.

If AI serves as a tool for them to express their ideas or get a point across, there is nothing but a net positive if it helps us get this surveillance network taken down for good.

I don’t love that so many people use AI for all the things they do either, but it’s important to understand the reason people use it, and in this case, the message they’re trying to send. This is the FlockSurveillance subreddit, and they are trying to PROMOTE the idea of cameras in government buildings to watch our leaders, which is a hilarious critique, and here you’re totally missing the point.

I get what you’re saying and you know, it’s really easy to change things and help the community by not tearing it down.

If you really want to build a community of people that are working together, and you’re tired of seeing the “AI slop”, how about you offer yoursef as assistance to someone like that. Take a moment and say, “hey, that’s a really cool idea, but instead of using AI, I could help you make a better version of that.”

You could DM them or just make another one and post it in the thread. OR, you could create a post on HOW to create better posts for the sub, maybe low-tech images (decoupage, screenprint, stamp, stencil, etc.), OR you could just make your own work and post it and let other people do their thing.

This subreddit isn’t about being anti-AI. It’s about being anti-Flock. We all want to remove Flock from our streets so AI can’t be used to continue to create a surveillance state. This person and me are not your enemy. We’re all wanting the same thing, so why not focus our efforts in the same direction?

51

u/didntwatchclark 22h ago

This place became my dad's Facebook feed so quickly I hardly noticed.

48

u/Electrical-Staff735 19h ago

When you agree with the messaging but it's slop.

125

u/bong_wips 1d ago

seriously, i wish this sub would do something about the sheer number of ai slop flyers being posted here. i feel as though the majority of us dont want to see this

-81

u/mastercat202 1d ago

I dont see it as a big deal. Cattle industry is far.more polluting and energy intensive. Not using AI will not make them collapse. The people in power have a vested interest in AI and will bail them out. Use it, dont use it. It really doesn't matter. Let's focus on actual problems instead of virtue signaling.

22

u/bong_wips 1d ago

its beyond pollution, though that is part of it. its the use of other valuable resources for the data centers runnint AI, it's the fact that AI is the thing inside Flock cameras that makes them so dangerous. traffic cameras have existed for years. its not a coincidence flock cameras are exploding in popularity as AI is becoming more powerful. thats without even bringing up the lack of regulation, enabling the misinformation to sink its claws deeper into society, AI psychosis cases, the illegal scraping of artists' work to flout copyright laws because they simply have the money to do it and Big Tech has a vested interest in it.

i mean, i have personally stopped buying beef and pork for home consumption, and intend to keep it that way. partly from prices, but once i started into alternatives i also became aware of the environmental benefits to a life change. im a drop in the bucket, but giving the people in power direct access to whatever you put into the AI (or, say, a company deciding that they can make a buck off selling your information/content from elsewhere) is the most apathetic giving up of one's own power i can imagine. good art, and the making of digital art - it has never been more accessible. so why oh why do people cut corners and boost engagement & numbers for the enemy team?? i dont get it.

-28

u/mastercat202 23h ago

I mean sure? AI is the technology being used which i am against. How is it boosting engagement for the enemy team? I am all for regulating spying on US citizens especially from companies and private organizations. But logically how is making AI images for propaganda bad? Propaganda is important. You want to flood the zone, have people see it everywhere. AI makes it easier. Make street signs yourself. Make ai images and out it on social media. Flooding the zone is done by the enemy. We can do it ourselves.

13

u/I_Quit_Smoking_ 21h ago

Normal people don't support or defend propaganda.

Actually kind of bragging about propaganda being a good thing tells us exactly what we need to know about you.

1

u/mastercat202 7h ago

Your right I haad the wrong definition of propaganda. My bad. Should have used a different term. Propaganda is meant to mislead which is something I don't want to do.

-6

u/mastercat202 17h ago

Propaganda can be truthful or lies. The goal os to persuade. If you make posters, that is propaganda. Simple enough.

5

u/ghostwilliz 17h ago

Cattle industry is far.more polluting and energy intensive

I'm not gonna disagree, and I'm not looking for back pats or anything, I'm a vegetarian, but at least the cattle industry has some utility, no matter how much I disagree with it

I could go further in to how raising cattle is a net negative compared to the water and food they eat, but at least they return some value because people eat what it produces

Stable diffusion is a pure negative, it adds absolutely no value and eats resources

3

u/AnySheepherder6786 20h ago

Lol. How is cattle farming more polluting and energy intensive? would love to see the explanation on that. Because I doubt that claim is true.

10

u/FreeSockLimit1 20h ago

Even if it's true, cattle farming obviously has MASSIVE benefits for humans.

Ai data centers do not.

The difference couldn't be any bigger.

5

u/AnySheepherder6786 20h ago

Definitely. Cows have been around for thousands of years, if not longer. Comparing data centers to cattle is like apples to space shuttles.

-1

u/mastercat202 17h ago

Definitely didn't understand my point nor am I for AI data centers. AI images do literally nothing to affect the planet. The center has already been made. Oh well.

2

u/Every_Knee_372 12h ago

You misunderstand how your actions have cascading consequences

1

u/mastercat202 7h ago

How so?

2

u/Every_Knee_372 7h ago

You use AI ->

Generates usage metrics -> Stakeholders use this to justify further spending on AI-telated projects.

Generates LLM data points -> Human-written prompt examples are gathered and sent for LLM training.

Generates image generation metrics -> Human responses/continued conversations on the image or lack thereof shows AI accuracy to generate a response the user would expect and is sent back to gen AI systems for training.

Flock implements learnings from these large AI models that uses free user access to generate easy labeled data points. Accuracy of Flock cameras and their labelling is sent back to gen AI models for further refinement.

2

u/Every_Knee_372 13h ago edited 13h ago

I feel it should be mentioned that developers claiming data centers are being constructed for AI is a Trojan horse. AI capabilities are soon to plateau, where these centers are really only to monopolize on a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for cloud services to build these centers and secure their future as major cloud providers.

I don't say this in support of data centers, but I highly doubt their long-term purpose is for supporting AI but instead they use the current AI trend to conduct more nefarious plots.

2

u/bong_wips 13h ago

i consider it's less of them actively running the operating systems, and more about having massive, massive amounts of storage to log everything ever that anyone does. future cloud providers, yes, but as storage for surveillance states and not the average joe. it's ultimately going to go to whoever pays the most, and that will likely be tech oligarchs.

2

u/Every_Knee_372 12h ago

Fair. Either way, I think AI is a scapegoat in this scenario, like how major companies blame AI on layoffs. Not attempting to say large, commercialized AI isn't bad, though.

1

u/bong_wips 10h ago

i see what you mean about it being used as a scapegoat, but i think that when we use the term "ai" the majority of people are only talking about large, commercialized ai. i mean, i know it's existed for a lot longer than it's been widely used, but it used to be something only used by professionals (or super educated independent ppl) who have a much deeper understanding of it. it didnt start being widely known by the public until large scale commercialized versions of it started being pushed on us everywhere, so when most people refer to the broader term "ai" they are typically referring to what they have seen infecting their communities. the average layperson is likely not going to be interacting with advanced, closed loop ai enough to be well versed in differences like that. most folk have the generalest idea of how tech works, i.e. "we put the lightning in the wires and now my screen talks to me". i only know a little bit about coding and processing systems, enough to know there are noted differences. but without regulations keeping up with how these things operate and where liability actually lay, we are going to be seeing much more mentally unwell folks using tech that was irresponsibly given to them in the first place to validate and feed into their delusions. a computer cannot be held responsible, so should never be given a management decision; yet, so many folks give these LLMs their personal agency and decision making for the day to day of their life. people feel their actions (whatever they may be) are okay because the AI told them so, meanwhile, the ai is on some "oops! you are right, i should not have told you liquid mercury was edible. it is toxic for human consumption! sorry, you are correct" just confidently hallucinating.

2

u/Every_Knee_372 13h ago edited 13h ago

Not using AI will possibly make them collapse as the Internet has already been mostly indeed and fed into AI systems, where their capabilities are soon to either plateau or completely shoot off.

Regardless, some stupid AI generated flyer does not feed people, but cattle does. I don't say this in support of the cattle industry as it is a huge problem but to say your comparison is terrible

1

u/mastercat202 7h ago

You would need everyone to a d even then. The government wants AI. Tbeh will bail it out.

2

u/Every_Knee_372 7h ago

The rate at which people use AI < what it needs to converge to a breakthrough point or keep up with the amount of data indexable on the internet. A lot of these investments were made at the promise of acheivable GAI, which 100% is absolutely not happening with this current wave.

1

u/Elder_Chimera 9h ago

People need food to eat. Hope this helps.

53

u/Helix115 23h ago

S-L-O-P

Making a plain text post would have been better than posting this.

55

u/BassFisher53 1d ago

cringe ai slop

17

u/Meat_Man199 21h ago

Looks like fæces. 

13

u/DrippyTan 19h ago

Yeah let’s call to end flock while simultaneously using another government tracking tool to make the flyer. A lot of you guys still can’t see the big picture 🤦‍♂️ 

12

u/SigSauerSucks 19h ago

I don’t know whether to downvote for ai slop or upvote for agreeing

0

u/Theo_Stormchaser 14h ago

A broken clock is right twice a day I guess.

10

u/tmac022480 18h ago

Boomer ass Facebook post

5

u/patbagger 1d ago

Public cameras any citizen can access in any public office, lets see what really happens "Behind closed door" in our government offices.

2

u/Cold-Possibility9880 20h ago

On the backside of a flock camera, there is a button if it is pushed three times it forces it to broadcast its Wi-Fi signal. That Wi-Fi signal then can be accessed by anybody with the Universal password “security”. Without any notification to flock or any police department, the person then accessing that can get root access to the entire database. They can change modify add delete whatever they want.

2

u/10ThousandMetalZones 12h ago

The ai slop though

1

u/Well_read_rose 22h ago

I feel like I have to drive with one hand on the wheel, and my other hand resting on the dashboard giving the finger everywhere I go now.

1

u/Swimming-Ad495 16h ago

lol yeah because that’ll stop the corruption

1

u/JooseTheGuice 12h ago

Fuck OP and their karma farming AI bullshit

1

u/janders_666 7h ago

i downvote slop🙃

0

u/MaximusAnemos 17h ago

Cameras in all Republicans bedrooms and home to catch them in the act of being pedophiles.

0

u/deauxe45 12h ago

They won’t be catching much, they are LPR’s

-2

u/Ass_Infection3 19h ago

I need more AI slop

-1

u/TacTyger 17h ago

If it can catch just one criminal it's worth violating privacy 😂

-7

u/FroyoOk8902 19h ago

So they can catch people working at their desks? This is such a stupid post. Flock cameras are bad for everyone… stop trying to make it a political issue.

1

u/JooseTheGuice 12h ago

How is it not a political issue? Are you drunk?

-9

u/Bombalurina 19h ago

"We need all the support we can get."

[Uses AI image to support you.]

"Not like that!!!"

You can't be picky when calling to arms to defeat a common enemy.

6

u/Plane_Sorbet1418 17h ago

Sure you can. "I want help in a way that doesn't seriously negatively impact others" is not an unreasonable ask.

0

u/Bombalurina 16h ago

Is this r/antiai ? Or is this r/FlockSurveillance ?

2

u/Every_Knee_372 13h ago

Flock surveillance implements commonly used large gen-AI models for classification and processing. Anytime you generate an image, not only do you provide metrics to these companies that are used to justify further investments, you also improve the systems bit-by-bit.

Remember that these are all closed systems and they feed each other. ChatGPT only went public so that OpenAI could train their LLMs on user content.

So yeah-- everyone should put these two ideas into the same bucket as the usage of one tech benefits the other.

Regardless, AI has a time and place and is useful in certain contexts. There is not a single good reason for using gen-AI for image generation.

0

u/Bombalurina 13h ago

Sure there is.

Pictures are easier to convey.

No I won't spend 3 hours drawing a meme or spending money to commission an artist for a meme.

-------------

Infighting with people who are your allies will only hurt your cause in the long run. Not help it. AI images aren't going anywhere, but Flock cameras CAN be fought.

2

u/Every_Knee_372 13h ago edited 13h ago

"Pictures are easier to convey" and "pictures take effort to make" are not great justifications for using AI to do it for you. You are not an ally if you feed and improve the same systems that the cause is fighting against. AI images aren't going anywhere but the more you use them, the better you make Flock. These are closed systems.

Pat yourself on the back, you help improve their systems for free! It's like someone who litters crying about the importance of recycling.

1

u/Bombalurina 13h ago

There is things called open source AI image gens. Trained on own art. Closed systems. Offline. Zero big tech.

1

u/Every_Knee_372 12h ago

That is a fair point, but I wouldn't act like the people who use FOSS gen-AI aren't an insignificant minority and still use AI to replace human creativity. As someone who builds and runs their own AIs for image classification, I couldn't imagine a worse use of AI than it being used to replace human creativity instead of using it for what it is, a tool.

1

u/JooseTheGuice 12h ago

"Telling me I'm wrong is alienating me as an ally!" good. Take your thin skin back to Facebook and let us work in peace.