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AI Obituary Pirates Are Exploiting Our Grief. I Tracked One Down to Find Out Why
Cnet ^ | June 17, 2025 | Joe Supan

Posted on 06/20/2025 1:06:05 PM PDT by Red Badger

click here to read article


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1 posted on 06/20/2025 1:06:05 PM PDT by Red Badger
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To: Red Badger

The big takeaway is don’t post things on social media.


2 posted on 06/20/2025 1:08:31 PM PDT by Disambiguator
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To: Disambiguator

Oh, there’s a bigger, sadder takeaway than that from this article.


3 posted on 06/20/2025 1:12:04 PM PDT by Frank Drebin (And don't ever let me catch you guys in America!)
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To: Disambiguator

The big takeaway is don’t post things on social media.

~~~

That’s like telling a junky not to smoke the crack


4 posted on 06/20/2025 1:13:27 PM PDT by z3n (Kakistocracy)
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To: Red Badger

“’We block billions of spammy pages from appearing in Search every day,’ a Google spokesperson tells me.”

It ain’t all they block...


5 posted on 06/20/2025 1:14:57 PM PDT by decal (They won't stop, so they'll have to be stopped)
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To: Red Badger

I’ve seen a lot of sites that purport to tell celebrities’ net worth, relationship status, etc.

They’re almost always full of obvious errors and silly fluff; for some reason I’ve gotten the feeling that a lot of them may originate with China.

(There are people sites, like ‘my life’, that are full of errors too.)


6 posted on 06/20/2025 1:16:17 PM PDT by Jamestown1630 ("A Republic, if you can keep it.")
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To: z3n

Don’t take the Brown Acid!.................


7 posted on 06/20/2025 1:17:16 PM PDT by Red Badger (Homeless veterans camp in the streets while illegals are put up in 5 Star hotels....................)
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To: Red Badger

I have NEVER used AI for anything, shall NEVER use AI for anything as long as I live, and the excuses that the person made, who wrote the article ( “he’s only trying to make a living” ) is the height of DISGUSTING!


8 posted on 06/20/2025 1:26:16 PM PDT by nopardons
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To: Red Badger
And people use the LLM even on FR like they are some sort of "trusted source".

It would be funny if it were not so stupid.

9 posted on 06/20/2025 1:26:52 PM PDT by Harmless Teddy Bear ( Not my circus. Not my monkeys. But I can pick out the clowns at 100 yards.)
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To: Disambiguator

Don’t post things on antisocial media!


10 posted on 06/20/2025 1:28:22 PM PDT by immadashell (Save Innocent Lives: Ban Gun Free Zones)
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To: Red Badger

You can fully believe it when my AI orbit says that I was so handsome beyond measure that tons of women in Ukraine were anxious to meet me.


11 posted on 06/20/2025 1:35:32 PM PDT by Tell It Right (1 Thessalonians 5:21 -- Put everything to the test, hold fast to that which is true.)
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To: Red Badger

“..he asked me if I’d be interested in working with him..
You get more traffic if someone in the US posts.”

The Writer should not be too surprised if in the future, he discovers that “Harry John”, the Nigerian decides to incorporate the Writer’s onscreen name and email anyway, whether approval was given or not.

It’s like dealing with a Poltergeist, any kind of direct contact can stalk and taint you, setting you up for some future, yet unannounced utility.


12 posted on 06/20/2025 1:40:14 PM PDT by lee martell
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To: Disambiguator

Complaining all over the internet that they don’t have any privacy.


13 posted on 06/20/2025 1:43:58 PM PDT by HartleyMBaldwin
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Jehovah's Witnesses have been doing a primitive form of this for decades. They search the obituaries for people in their area who have recently died, and within days they "coincidently" stop by the home of the deceased of their families. They enquire how things are going, "find out" that a loved one has died, then offer consolation, reading material, and an invitation to study the Bible with them.

I've seen this myself a number of times. Once, when the husband of an elderly Jewish neighbor of my in-laws passed away, they were at her door the next day after the funeral. She was expecting them and chased them down the street with a broom.

14 posted on 06/20/2025 1:45:13 PM PDT by fidelis (Ecce Crucem Domini! Fugite partes adversae! Vicit Leo de tribu Juda, Radix David! Alleluia!)
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To: fidelis

Now, that’s a Widow with plenty of chutzpah!


15 posted on 06/20/2025 1:51:39 PM PDT by lee martell
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To: nopardons

We use AI every day without knowing it.


16 posted on 06/20/2025 1:54:49 PM PDT by Jamestown1630 ("A Republic, if you can keep it.")
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To: Red Badger

Bookmark.


17 posted on 06/20/2025 1:55:34 PM PDT by Inyo-Mono
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To: Red Badger

When SlingTV buys an ad on youtube — does it have any control over content, or do they just get what they get?

I would think advertising on fake obituary videos would be counterproductive for them....not sure though...


18 posted on 06/20/2025 2:12:00 PM PDT by scrabblehack
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To: Red Badger

I’m old enough to have been taught how to write and would be humiliated if anything I wrote was alleged to have been written by some AI program, thank you very much.

But I love having google use AI to answer my casual questions, always keeping in mind that the answers could be dead wrong. But it’s a good first level cut on what the nutritional values are on a specific weight of food, or random questions about health issues. Those answers I’ll usually put through my primary care doctor in quotes if I’m seriously interested.

Wondering if these obit thieves scour FR as well, since we often get sad news posted here.

It’s not just content thieves in Nigeria and such. Whoever controls Wikipedia these days steals a great deal of content without the attribution that they used to give.


19 posted on 06/20/2025 2:13:57 PM PDT by mairdie
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To: Jamestown1630

Please elaborate.


20 posted on 06/20/2025 2:38:12 PM PDT by sonova (No money? You're free to go.)
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