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Just caught a 'NASA engineer' story that was actually an AI-generated hoax from Reddit
I saw this viral post about a NASA engineer who supposedly fixed the Hubble telescope with a paperclip, and I almost shared it with my buddy who works at Johnson Space Center. Then I ran the image through a detector and it was 100% AI generated, the whole thing was made up by a karma farming account. How do you guys even tell the difference anymore when these things look this real?
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hunt.quinn17d agoTop Commenter
Margaret at @margaret_gonzalez25 nailed it with the boring details thing. It's weird how this kind of fake stuff is popping up everywhere now, not just on Reddit but in forwarded chain emails and even on news feeds. A cousin of mine almost fell for a "government grant" scam that used the same perfect story tactic, and it took him a week to realize it was all made up. Makes you wonder how many wild, too-clean fixes we're all nodding at without a second thought.
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thomas.parker10d ago
Yeah @hunt.quinn, that's exactly why I double check EVERYTHING before hitting forward now.
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margaret_gonzalez2517d ago
Run the image through a reverse image search first. If it shows up attached to a different story or on some shady site, that is a big red flag. Also check the account that posted it - a brand new profile with no history and a weird username is almost always a bot. My rule of thumb is if the story sounds too clever or too perfect for a quick fix, it probably is fake. Real engineers usually talk about the boring details and the months of paperwork, not a miracle fix with office supplies.
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