Asking an AI to make a portrait is not a self portrait.
this post was submitted on 26 Oct 2026
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More of a digital homunculus.
How is this in any way related to the post?
Did you even read the article?
The AI memory then uses this to build a detailed profile of the user, a mechanism researchers in a study published earlier this year call “the algorithmic self-portrait.”
Well technically it's not even a portrait, it's what is commonly known as a profile, which is also clearly stated first. And it's definitely not a "self" profile either.
It's very Stupid language to use by the researchers.
I would argue that if you’re being pedantic about the language being used, then why are you implying anyone asked an AI to make a portrait of anyone?
Obviously, yes, it’s not a self-portrait by the dictionary definitions of “self” and “portrait” but people use “self-portrait” to refer to a description of a person all the time, particularly in settings where emotional intelligence is discussed.
Yes, I’m being pedantic, but so were you, so it feels fair game. But nothing in the article actually makes it seem as if a portrait is being illustrated other than the metaphorical portrait
I would argue that if you’re being pedantic about the language being used, then why are you implying anyone asked an AI to make a portrait of anyone?
I didn't I just used the semantics of the article and headline. Obviously it's not a literal "portrait" you'd have to be pretty stupid to read it like that.
Asking an AI to make a portrait…
This phrase doesn’t imply that someone asked an AI to make a portrait?
Normally it would, but In accordance with the content of the article, the "portrait" is a semaphore.
Don't blame me, blame the researchers that thought it was a good idea to use this stupid wording for what is really profiling.
If we can't be pedantic in the comments of an aggregated story where is there left!
Well, look to your left and there it is!
well it is a direct reference to the title, so maybe that?
Nobody asked an AI to make a portrait, not even in the title. They observed a profile being created by AI agents and used common psychology language to describe the behavior
you’re missing the point that op was making. it is not a SELF portrait unless is it’s made by the subject. when someone (or something) else makes the portrait, it’s just a portrait.
you’re also being the tiniest bit belligerent about it.
If only there were a word for a self-portrait painted by someone else...
I guess they're trying to get at that it's painted by the user in part...
This was my take, but it makes it feel creepier somehow.
Ideally it would be a personal assistant. In reality, it's a corporate snitch, reporting everything back to the company who will know everything about how to manipulate you into giving up all the power and value of your life.
Yeah then just imagine what happens when the wrong sort of government asks for the keys to this dashboard.
This technology must be opposed.
Yeah, what I've been saying since the early days of data collection. This is the most extreme version, so far. With neurolink, that's going to be even more detailed version of knowing our minds. With that one, they don't need to know each of us as individuals to learn what is common to all of us just from studying the brain data they get from a small group of people.
We are things to them. Not people. Just things. Just a resource. Like trees or fish or cobalt. Treated no different. This stuff grants more control and deeper value extraction than they already have. These ppl are psychopaths and it's infuriating watching people empower them further without zero concerns.
Leaving this mess behind:
- 100€ x99 dual Xeon motherboard, 3€ cpus
- Add in 4 x MI50 32GB and 128GB of ddr4 (~800€ before the hikes of 2025)
Load up deepseek v4.1 flash q2 and you get opus 4.6 Intelligence at home at good speeds. No snitching.
Or, if you don't mind moving slow, just use your brain ig.
Or, if you don't mind moving slow, just use your brain ig.
use it or lose it
Strata is a good runner for that. It also can run Qwen3.8-flash-next which is also great
Well.. not me specifically, they're not.
"Facebook Shadow Profiles"
https://ideas.repec.org/p/hal/wpaper/hal-04495641.html
... build shadow profiles by tracking individuals across the web, irrespective of whether they are users ... is able to track about 40 percent of the browsing time of both users and non-users ... users impose a data externality on non-users by allowing Facebook to infer their personal information.
Yeah, the mechanism discussed in this paper is via Facebook 'share' content frames and cookies, not relevant for anyone who disables JavaScript via NoScript or blocks third-party cookies.
Which I'm guessing based on past comments is 80%+ of Lemmy users. Including me.
Pikachu is shocked 😲
social networks have been doing that since their inception
Is using something like duck.ai doing the same here or does this only affect sign in accounts for the services?
Probably not if what they say is true that they anonymize your queries. Not sure if they themselves keep a log though. A VPN and using a container tab or incognito can help you with that, assuming you don’t use a logged in account.
Also interested if Yahoo! Mail will be doing this with their "pay for non-personalised adverts" thing - are they going to be giving all these profiles to advertisers (e.g. foreign intelligence agencies) as part of the "bid for an advertising slot" process? (even if your adblocker then hides that advert)
No shit. Every social media company does also.
So, surveillance capitalism with extra steps? The steps are your queries and comments? Seems like it's been done before without as much planet burning.
I wonder what it looks like given it can't seem to remember much over time.
Mark Zuckerberg: “You are like a little baby”