Who the fuck bothers to post fake images on birding websites?
The whole fucking point of birding is enjoying seeing the birds. Taking photos of birds is difficult and satisfying.
Posting fake bird photos is fucking stupid.
There’s a weird level of brain rot going on with AI. My wife recently had some troubles trying to research who owned our home in the past (it was built in the 1880s); she posted to a local forum asking for some specific information about who & where they were buried and so on and was getting replies from somebody that were seemingly plausible but just had no basis in reality when she looked into it further. After pressing him several times for his sources the guy finally admitted it was ChatGPT.
Just… why the fuck? Why would anybody do that? They wasted not only my wife’s time but their own as well, they contributed nothing useful (and if anything, their “contribution” was purely negative).
It’s baffling behavior.
At least in that case they could be stupid enough to think ChatGPT magically knows everything (lord knows a lot of people seem to think that) and be genuinely trying to help. I can kind of forgive being incredibly stupid and not realizing it if your intentions are good.
Posting fake bird photos requires making or pretending you made them. Either case is shitty.