[HN Gopher] Fake AI law firms are sending fake DMCA threats to g...
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Fake AI law firms are sending fake DMCA threats to generate fake
SEO gains
Author : rntn
Score : 71 points
Date : 2024-04-04 19:23 UTC (3 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (arstechnica.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (arstechnica.com)
| gentleman11 wrote:
| The root problem is that the legal system is completely
| inaccessible and non-existent to individuals or small companies.
| Even to medium companies. Only mega corps and law firms can
| afford to use the legal system. Even big tech often avoids it
| because of the expense, but if they do use it, they're going to
| win, 99.9% of the time because of their war chests
|
| So, people are semi defenceless when these things come up, and
| you can really abuse people in pretty epic and unending ways
| lupire wrote:
| There's no legal threat here. It's all fake.
| icedchai wrote:
| Sadly, many folks will assume an "official" sounding message
| or call is actually legitimate. Especially if it's from
| someone calling themselves a lawyer. Next the AI law firms
| will be requesting payment in iTunes gift cards...
| ryandrake wrote:
| I think there is a belief (right or wrong) among a lot of
| lay-people and non-lawyers that the legal system is an
| opaque minefield of "gotchas" where if you don't file form
| 27B/6 within 30 days, with a specific magical incantation X
| written on it, and then appear before a judge and speak
| magical incantation Y, then _gotcha!_ you lose! So any time
| something looks even remotely official, people panic and
| wonder which minefield they are going to inadvertently step
| on, even by ignoring it.
| pixl97 wrote:
| I mean the idea of 'default judgement' isn't something
| most people want to find out about. This said you
| typically get some severe and officially delivered
| warnings on that.
| datascienced wrote:
| You need to pay a lawyer to find that out!
| antonvs wrote:
| > completely inaccessible and non-existent to individuals or
| small companies. Even to medium companies. Only mega corps and
| law firms can afford to use the legal system.
|
| For individuals you have a point, but for small and medium
| companies this seems like an exaggeration.
|
| I've worked for several startups. The smallest was one that I
| co-founded with no outside funding - we maxed out at five
| employees, three of whom were co-founders, but nevertheless we
| registered and successfully defended trademarks and copyrights.
| That business ran until its main product became obsolete, for
| about 5 years.
|
| The funded startups I've worked for all used the legal system
| around IP in various ways: trademarks, patents, copyright.
|
| One of these bogus DMCA claims would be easily and cheaply
| dismissed by any competent lawyer. And really, probably doesn't
| even require a lawyer unless a hosting company acts on it and
| doesn't listen to any objections.
| datascienced wrote:
| The legal system is somewhat accessible to businesses and
| middle class people. Not sure about USA but in Australia there
| is plenty of things like free legal advice, plain english
| descriptions of laws including case studies, legal aid and
| small claims courts and other tribunal/arbitration
| jurisdictions designed to be used without a lawyer. While more
| money = better access to law, there is a lot for the non rich!
| lupire wrote:
| The article doesn't explain how the backlinks part of the scam
| works.
| ceejayoz wrote:
| The linked original article does.
| https://www.404media.co/a-law-firm-of-ai-generated-lawyers-i...
|
| > In this case, though, the email didn't demand that the photo
| be taken down or specifically threaten a lawsuit. Instead, it
| demanded that Smith place a "visible and clickable link"
| beneath the photo in question to a website called "tech4gods"
| or the law firm would "take action."
| leephillips wrote:
| Yes, it does: "the purported firm needed him to 'add a credit
| to our client immediately' through a link to Tech4Gods".
| lupire wrote:
| Oh! I that was Spamglish for "make a payment (credit) by
| following a link to their website"
| vineyardmike wrote:
| "Back links" are a critical part of SEO: if a lot of websites
| link to your website, then your website will rank higher.
|
| By mandating with "legal threat" that they link to a particular
| website, that website will rank higher.
| dudus wrote:
| I just signed up for this genAI summit but the lack of social
| buzz and the profile of the organizers give me a strange feeling.
|
| https://genaisummit.ai/#/
|
| I'm afraid this is might be a fake conference created by AI. Am I
| crazy? I paid $500 for tickets. I almost signed up for the booth.
|
| I'll have to start emailing speakers for confirmation because
| it's not passing the smell test.
| samename wrote:
| Instagram and Twitter links in footer don't work... I'd do a
| chargeback with your credit card
| motoxpro wrote:
| Same. This is the twitter link
| https://twitter.com/GPTDAOGLOBAL
|
| 30,000 attendees for a conference is MASSIVE. Like a GDC or
| SEMA or something. One of the biggest in the world. Unless
| it's happened before, then I have a hard time believing they
| just spun this up out of nowhere.
|
| Edit: Would also have more sponsors. 2k to sponsor that/get a
| booth is WAAAAAY to cheap.
|
| Edit2: Also one of the sessions is. "... text2video,
| text2audio, text2multimodal, text2richcontent" Sounds like a
| ChatGPT thing. Wild that they used, like you said, Ai, to
| generate an AI conference and genAI. Very meta
| bainganbharta wrote:
| Could have avoided this if you hadn't drank the AI kool-aid.
| seabass-labrax wrote:
| That's a needlessly harsh judgement! To use an analogy, one
| should reasonably be able to attend a forensics conference
| without ending up as a forensics case themselves. Also,
| generative AI isn't _just_ for creating fakes.
| antonvs wrote:
| It says "Sponsored by Microsoft AI Co-Innovation Lab".
|
| You could try emailing them (aiotlabs@microsoft.com, from their
| website) and asking whether they're really sponsoring that
| conference.
| StevenHarlow wrote:
| https://www.palaceoffinearts.org/event/genai-summit Has the
| event listed
| nickff wrote:
| Why did you sign up for a conference if you're so uncertain as
| to its credibility and content? Is this an employer-sponsored
| outing?
| soganess wrote:
| Apparently, it happened in 2023[1] (with a much more modest
| 1500 people claimed in attendance) but I can't find any photos.
|
| Good luck with the charge-back. I'm sure your bank will
| eventually be accommodating after you explain what happened and
| jump through enough hoops.
|
| [1] https://sv2023.genaisummit.ai/
|
| EDIT: I found these photos, but don't have a linkedin, so I
| can't verify anything about the presenter:
|
| https://images.app.goo.gl/UaVfRUAU8YnQrmek6
|
| https://images.app.goo.gl/yszbyq8fhEvoHcfi6
|
| https://images.app.goo.gl/1ybWTJ4wPhuHt5R16
|
| EDIT 2: It seems to be this person, who appears to have worked
| at microsoft last year :
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VMSu0gmlD3w
|
| Maybe it is fine after all?
| nvy wrote:
| This is what A16Z's vaunted techno-optimism movement has
| produced. A more efficient way of scamming and generating
| disinformation. Hooray.
| antonvs wrote:
| Good grief. I just looked that up. What a day to have eyes.
|
| I want a list of everyone who worked on that manifesto so I can
| put them on a list of "people to never interact with at any
| cost."
| camillomiller wrote:
| Well it's just, like, the biggest VC in the world for
| investments and popularity? And yes, that is extremely sad.
| antonvs wrote:
| I mean, the biggest firms are generally just shitshows of
| FOMO and so on.
|
| The second biggest, Sequoia, was all in on FTX and Sam
| Bankman-Fried right up until the collapse.
| mycologos wrote:
| Sequoia put out a PR piece about SBF [1] a few months
| before it all blew up, and it's pretty amazing, and has
| made it a lot easier for me to believe that VC partners
| are maybe not necessarily that smart:
|
| > [Sequoia partner Michelle] Bailhe remembers it the same
| way: "We had a great meeting with Sam, but the last
| question, which I remember Alfred asking, was, 'So,
| everything you're building is great, but what is your
| long-term vision for FTX?'" That's when SBF told Sequoia
| about the so-called super-app: "I want FTX to be a place
| where you can do anything you want with your next dollar.
| You can buy bitcoin. You can send money in whatever
| currency to any friend anywhere in the world. You can buy
| a banana. You can do anything you want with your money
| from inside FTX." Suddenly, the chat window on Sequoia's
| side of the Zoom lights up with partners freaking out. "I
| LOVE THIS FOUNDER," typed one partner. "I am a 10 out of
| 10," pinged another. "YES!!!" exclaimed a third. What
| Sequoia was reacting to was the scale of SBF's vision. It
| wasn't a story about how we might use fintech in the
| future, or crypto, or a new kind of bank. It was a vision
| about the future of money itself--with a total
| addressable market of every person on the entire planet.
| "I sit ten feet from him, and I walked over, thinking,
| Oh, shit, that was really good," remembers Arora. "And it
| turns out that that fucker was playing League of Legends
| through the entire meeting." "We were incredibly
| impressed," Bailhe says. "It was one of those your-hair-
| is-blown-back type of meetings."
|
| There's plenty of other stuff in there. It's not just
| pumping up a promising bet that went bad, it's
| hagiography on a scale that is almost impossible to
| believe, approved by an organization that is really
| supposed to know better.
|
| [1] https://archive.ph/GQkCp
| blobbers wrote:
| There are few truths; some say only one. Unfortunately there
| are many many ways to lie.
| seabass-labrax wrote:
| What is the relationship between A16Z (Andreessen Horowitz,
| presumably) and this article? Is there in fact any?
| add-sub-mul-div wrote:
| I wonder if there's something common between crypto and AI
| leading to the cloud of grift and predation around the ecosystems
| and common uses of the respective technologies. Or if this is
| where society is at now and it will happen with any new
| technology regardless.
| nine_zeros wrote:
| There are enough people desperate enough that they will take
| unusual risks. Some of these people will become successful.
| Others are the suckers who will spend their lives chasing gold
| but never reach it.
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(page generated 2024-04-04 23:00 UTC)