Images like the ones above are garnering social media “influencers” a lot of money pedaling the unreal. This is happening while real wildlife photographers are still spending days, weeks, months, to capture a real image they struggle more and more to get into the public eye. The images above are a cute “idea.” But it is like a cartoon and is simply not real. They should be clearly labelled as such.
The following OpEd by our founder, Laura Leigh
As an organization that has worked extremely hard as a frontline reporting outlet, worked to gain legal precedent in the extremely fact-based and language persnickety arena of the courtroom, navigated the complex maze of public lands management planning, the boom of Artificial Intelligence is creating a new nightmare.
Over the last couple of months AI generated content has exploded online.
Current legal frameworks in many jurisdictions offer limited liability for platforms hosting content created by AI, making it difficult to hold them accountable for the rapid spread of AI-generated misinformation. There are no clear regulations requiring AI content to be marked allowing it to blend in with authentic imagery and information. If an organization or news outlet uses AI to create all their content, there are no clear laws right now requiring them to tell you. BE CAREFUL what you share.
Above: For those of you worried about the horses captured in the unsanctioned roundup you might have seen on social media, don’t worry. We led the horses away. (No… it was not real to begin with and leading them out of the trap is not real either.)
Not only are we seeing “legal advice” circulate online among advocates (or posted on brand new “advocate websites”) generated by AI, people are sending it to us with derogatory emails making claims we are not “doing things right” because these AI generated pages say so. Or they are passing it off online as if they “wrote a lawsuit” and then someone forwards it to us… and we have to tell them no such suit exists and the claims in that suit are not actually allowed under current law.
So I took some of the subjects some of you are sending to us and had a chat with AI.
In one example AI was telling us to cite a Tenth Circuit case making false claims about how that suit was relevant… we had to tell AI it was wrong. AI “appreciated” the correction.
AI tried to simply quote from the BLM that an HMAP could not amend a Resource Management Plan. When pressed, AI changed it’s tune… saying we were correct due to a “nuance most people miss” (and apparently AI misses too). After it recognized the mistake in the screenshot below it course corrected and asked if we wanted the 5 legally mandatory requirements of the HMAP (we already know them so did not have to complete the thread).
Our chat continued after AI told me to cite a case that did not resolve the issue we were discussing and it had gone back to the Tenth Circuit case it had already stated was not the correct one… and we had to give it a new case number.
AI told me the main conflict at the Pryors was livestock grazing. When pressed it then claimed it made a general statement not specific to the Pryors (and it was not what AI had done: AI called it the “Gold Standard” in caselaw against livestock that was improperly interpreted).
So if I used AI to write a brief, would it be super easy to defeat it?
Did zebras get loose on public lands to mingle with wild horses causing an emergency roundup? That might make you laugh now, but what might someone not familiar with public lands believe?
The picture above might be a good illustration to point out that you might have to look really close and already be familiar with your subject to know what to believe.
You may need to already be educated on a subject to be able to feed AI all the necessary information, be able to correct AI when it is wrong, before it can ever be useful.
Foal rescued by Wolves! You might laugh now… but I bet you have seen images like this, or maybe even shared them, on social media. There are accounts now that are all AI generated videos/images portraying things like Veterans coming back home and seeing lost pets or finding pets after years in pounds (if you scroll to the fine print at the bottom of the videos they do need to disclose they were created with AI, but do not always do it and there is no enforcement).
The rapid construction of data centers places immense strain on energy resources, with costs often falling on the public. Just look at the cost of Greenlinks. The Greenlink West and North projects are designed to supply power to major tech companies, including Tesla, Google, and Switch (and more). Greenlinks infrastructure is primarily funded through increased utility rates charged to residential, commercial, and industrial customers. High-voltage lines, especially when traversing dry or forested regions, pose a risk of sparking wildfires due to equipment failures or contact with vegetation. Habitat fragmentation, increased invasive weeds, depletion of local groundwater resources are just a glimpse at the environmental cost. Many projections suggest that the electricity demand from new data centers will exceed even the capacity of the new lines, creating further strain on the grid and consumers.
AI is also having a massive impact on jobs. Entry level jobs are evaporating. People in creative fields involving art, music, movies, marketing, book illustration, advertising, are all losing jobs fast. If only they were considered important like the livestock industry on public lands (that only produces less than 3% of beef in the U.S., but an entire multi-million dollar subsidy program allows them to continue to keep their jobs while continuing to be the single largest cause of rangeland degradation) maybe our government would care about those jobs?
Did you know AI allowed our Facebook page to be hacked by another AI used in a targeted hack? Then AI made a decision that even though we proved the page was ours it would not be given back and there were no humans we could contact (unless we brought a lawsuit). We had to start a new page (as our funds are being used for wild horse and burro lawsuits). New page HERE if you do not already follow it.
What would AI infrastructure and continued environmental damage look like for wild horses in a few years? Maybe AI got this one right?
In closing I would ask you to please limit your use of AI to help conserve precious resources like water. Please be mindful of the content creators that use AI that you share, helping them make money on social media encouraging them to make more content, is drowning out authentic images and information.
Please be careful online. It is more important than ever to check sources and then recheck those sources.
Please remember that AI is NOT the same as critical thinking. AI scours the internet and grabs the most popular content and repeats it. AI will go only where you drive it. AI can lead you safely to a destination if driven with an existing level of expertise, like driving a car. But it can also drive right off a cliff.
AI is not an expert on a subject. It builds with what it is fed. You can try to file a lawsuit written by AI. We are going to stick with human critical thinkers.
And please, please, if you or your pet gets sick, go to a doctor… don’t use AI.
Yes, it was fun to play with AI for a few minutes. But I’ll stick with photographing the real world, creating my own drawings and artwork. I will definitely stick to doing my own research as we continue to advocate for our precious wild horses and burros.
Thank you for reading and I hope this article is “food for thought.”
Onward.
Every mile we travel to cover roundups or assess a herd, every court case we bring, every win, every action we take is only possible because of your support. Thank you for standing with us as we strive for justice, mercy and freedom. We cannot do this without you.
Categories: Wild Horse Education
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