The internet has collapsed over the past two weeks after visitors to an immersive Willy Wonka experience in Glasgow found themselves in a run-down warehouse full of half-hearted decorations and embarrassed actors in ‘pound-shop’ costumes.
It’s easy to see the funny side, but attendees had paid £35 each to attend, only to find that, in what was billed as a ‘chocolate fantasy’, some of their children had only one jellybean and a third of a candy were handed over. cup of lemonade.
In reality, they discovered that they had been tricked into attending an event that didn’t even stock enough chocolate for the guests, and the police were eventually called.
The disastrous event in Glasgow was depicted as a ‘chocolate fantasy’ according to promotional material
Part of the reason for the event’s failure was that the advertisements for the event and even the actors’ scripts were generated using artificial intelligence.
This was undoubtedly used by the organizers to make the event look much more professional than it was – but you only had to scratch the surface to realize that the advertisements were full of errors and the scripts made no sense.
AI is also increasingly being used by scammers – and often in much more sophisticated ways – meaning it’s important to be able to spot the signals.
Laura Hendry Parsons, privacy attorney at internet security company ExpressVPN, said: ‘While we have seen false advertisements and ‘deepfake’ images and videos before, the recent developments in AI tools combined with their ease of access have produced incredibly realistic videos and videos. Images can now be created that resemble virtually identical versions of the real thing.”
We asked two experts how to spot the signs of an AI-generated scam and avoid falling into its trap.
The devil is in the details
At first an AI image may seem normal or even realistic, but pay attention to the finer details and you may start to notice that things aren’t quite right.
Joe Davies, founder of marketing agency FatJoe recommends that inspecting images of people or animals is your first port of call.
‘Pay close attention to your fingers. You may see extra fingers, missing fingers, abnormally long or short fingers, unnatural curves, or fingers blending together,” he says.
‘Other small features such as ears, eyes and toes may also be distorted. Odd body proportions are another warning sign of AI involvement.”
Faces in particular are difficult for AI to replicate accurately, says Hendry Parsons.
“Some visual cues include poor blending of facial features, such as the inconsistencies in skin color, shadows, or even blurred and distorted areas of the face,” she added.
Similarly, ordinary objects will often look strange or distorted: “AI can place a pen upside down in a hand, or you see a spoon floating on a bowl of soup,” she says.
“Jewelry is another small detail that AI can get wrong, such as earrings that don’t match or rings that don’t go all the way around the finger,” Davies added.
Joe Davies says AI detection tools can be used to remove AI ads
Backgrounds and lighting can be a giveaway
When it comes to backgrounds, “AI can become lazy,” Davies said.
‘Text in the background may look fine at first glance, but if you look closer you’ll notice that it’s complete nonsense.
‘Patterns in backgrounds, such as wallpaper or tiled floors, can also reveal AI. These may repeat unnaturally or abruptly change patterns for no reason. This happens because AI struggles to understand continuity.”
AI can also struggle to create accurate shadows, with dark spots not corresponding to light sources in the image, or a person’s face appearing brightly lit despite an otherwise dim environment.
Davies added that texture can also be difficult, with human skin looking too smooth, hair existing as a single mass rather than individual strands, and fabrics not flowing naturally.
Writing is not AI’s strong point
Another sign that an advertisement or communication is fake is that there are many errors in the text.
Punters at the Wonka event were greeted by a drab warehouse outfitted with scattered decorations – nothing like the AI-generated ad
“Unfortunately, AI can give power to bad actors by lowering the barrier to entry to create high-level scam content – but while AI text generation has advanced to incredible levels over the past year, the technology is still prone to errors,” Hendry told Parsons. Money.
‘Luckily, this can sometimes give away the game and expose the ad as a scam. People should look out for simple mistakes, whether they’re spelling mistakes, unusual phrases, or a tone not found in a typical ad.
“This may alert you that the ad is in fact a scam and was created by a computer to imitate a real brand.”
If you had taken the time to scroll to the bottom of the ‘Willy’s Chocolate Experience’ website, a promotional image would have appeared promising ‘Catgacating’. Live performances. Scanty barrels, exarserdray lollipops, a pasadise of sweet teats.’
When they stopped reading the ad, it might have become clear to visitors that they were not about to receive the advertised “Encherining Entertainment.”
How can I check if the ad is a scam?
If the ad doesn’t appear on a regular website, or on a website with an unusual URL and lots of pop-up ads and links, warning lights should flash.
To check this, Hendry Parsons suggests a reverse image search, especially if something seems too good to be true.
‘To the untrained eye, these ads usually look safe, but a reverse image search may help you see if the ad, and especially the image within it, has appeared elsewhere or on more prominent sites – meaning it’s more likely to be real.’ She said.
FatJoe’s Davies added that AI detection tools, such as the ‘Is it AI?’ and ‘AI or not’ can be used to authenticate content online.
“These tools use sophisticated algorithms to look for inconsistencies and giveaways typical of AI creations,” he says. “They are not infallible, however, so don’t take the outcome as 100 percent fact.”
The mock-immersive experience seemed to capitalize on the success of ‘Wonka’ starring Timothee Chalamet
What can I do if I think I have been scammed?
Even if you take precautions, you may still be caught for a scam.
If you paid for something you don’t think is real, or if you gave away your personal or credit card information to someone you don’t think you should, there are still ways to get your money back.
“Call your bank or credit card company’s fraud number immediately and report a scam,” Hendry Parsons told This is Money. ‘If it involves a third-party payment application such as PayPal, contact them immediately as well. That increases the chance that you will get the money back.’
‘If you have entered any account details on the fake site, such as your email address or banking details, please change the passwords of the affected accounts as soon as possible and enable two-factor authentication to ensure no one else has access to these accounts.’
She added that you should report the scam to the police or Action Fraud.
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