The opinion piece that was shared about how fake tanning was cultural appropriatation is cleverly crafted ragebait. The picture of themselves the ‘author’ provides mid article (for no apparent reason) is AI generated. Check out the eyes, either it’s a fake or they have a serious medical condition.

Also, isn’t it convenient that they’re a pale, slighly chubby, blue haired stereotype?

We have to be careful to look at media critically from all angles.

29 comments

  1. You know, I had a hunch a while back about AI. I started to notice that bots all across Twitter were using those AI generated portraits of people. They were absolutely convincing, until you focused in on the backround details, and also if they had glasses or some sort of headwear. Now it’s everywhere

  4. It is weird that they have absolutely no social media presence… Do you think someone at the Irish Times asked AI to generate a picture of a typical woke liberal? That’s both hilarious and unsettling

  5. Hang on, I heard the journalist in question on Newstalk this morning talking about the article. She was utterly fucking insufferable BTW.

  6. Had that hunch yesterday too

    [https://www.reddit.com/r/ireland/comments/13elgs0/irish_womens_obsession_with_fake_tan_is/jjqn5q1/?context=3](https://www.reddit.com/r/ireland/comments/13elgs0/irish_womens_obsession_with_fake_tan_is/jjqn5q1/?context=3)

    I think the opinion piece editor needs to called out on it.

    I think the IT are just dipping their toes in the water. How long before the likes of Fintan O’Toole get the boot in favour of ChatGPT? I have a feeling this is going to kick off in a big way soon.

    As people submit unsolicited opinion articles to the IT, the IT use an algorithm to select the ones to publish. Somebody is taking the piss here and getting paid. At bet the IT didn’t do due diligence, at worst they are knowingly replacing writers with machines and not telling anyone.

  8. There’s no way that someone who would write a braindead piece suggesting using fake tan is racist would ***not*** have a significant presence on social media. Someone like that would love the smell of their own farts and *need* a platform to shout their nonsense.

    The ‘photo’ is almost pitch perfect satire of a modern leftist- fat, dyed hair, smug expression, and wearing fake tan herself (exposing the hypocracy of her article argument). Even the nod to AOC made me chuckle I admit.

  10. Crazy conspiracy theory, this is a sock puppet from the Irish times used to stir up controversy.

    They know it’ll get hate clicks, while also painting actual anti racism beliefs as irrational and overzealous.

  11. [There also appear to be no other photos of her on a Google image search](https://www.google.com/search?q=%22Adriana+acosta+cortez%22&tbm=isch&ved=2ahUKEwjh7-ao3-_-AhWYTEEAHTQmC5gQ2-cCegQIABAC&oq=%22Adriana+acosta+cortez%22&gs_lcp=ChJtb2JpbGUtZ3dzLXdpei1pbWcQAzIECAAQAzIFCAAQogQ6BAgjECc6BAgeEApQ5wxYp0hg9kloAHAAeACAAVGIAdMDkgEBN5gBAKABAcABAQ&sclient=mobile-gws-wiz-img&ei=JSxeZKHJCJiZhbIPtMyswAk&bih=833&biw=424&client=ms-android-huawei-rev1&prmd=inv) (mine at least!) and I just noticed that her name appears eerily similar to the American politician Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez who is absolutely despised by the right side of their political aisle.

  14. So what was the aim of the article then? Was it an experiment by the IT to see if we’d notice? Or a real opinion piece but with a fake writer profile?

  15. If I was a hack writer creating nonsensical outrage clickbait for a news or media outlet I would be getting very worried about my career.

  16. I think you’re spot on. I just asked chat GPT to write an article on the same topic and it’s very, very close in output. I wonder what the objective of the I.T is here?

  20. What’s the chances the IT will come out with a big gotcha article next week explaining that this is a commentary on the dangers of AI? Or the editor is just lazy

  21. It really, really looks like AI. The iris is 2 different sizes in each eye, the collar of the blouse has been conveniently cropped but I can see it doesn’t join properly and the left side doesn’t seem to have one at all. The nose is odd to the right hand side and the eyelid on the left sort of disappears. The hair is blurry in parts and focused in others that don’t align to a camera’s depth of field but that can sometimes happen due to JPG artifacts.

    I’d even hazard a guess that the article was written by AI and edited to read better. I’ve yet to meet a Latino person who uses Latinx. In my experience they all hate that term as it’s a US thing.

    I might agree that some Irish people overdo it with the fake tan but I turn darker than that photo in summer and I’m white.

  22. Well spotted OP, it’s definitely very suspicious. I expect this to be pretty big news over the next few days. The irish times will also have to do an investigation into it and probably apologise.

  24. I actually googled her name to see if there was a linkedin, twitter, facebook or instagram and there was nothing to be found, it seems she only exists in this article and isn’t a real person

  25. Class post. Irish Times should clarify if this is the case. Surely there is some journalism ethics watchdog but I guess opinion pieces aren’t covered?

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