Stylometry-AIs unmask Q
Stylometry-AIs unmask Q
I will not buy 999 exquisitely filmed fragments of a detonated Lamborghini but someone will
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Zwei Teams aus forensischen Linguisten aus Schweiz und Frankreich haben mit Hilfe von AI-unterstützten Anwendungen die Erfinder von Qanon identifiziert. Die sogenannte Stylometrie ist ein zuverlässiges Verfahren um Urheber von Texten anhand von Grammatik und Stil zu ermitteln, vor ein paar Jahren bloggte ich über Stylometrie für den Code von Programmierern — man kann Hacker und Verschwörungsspacken an ihrem schlechten Stil erkennen.
Jedenfalls sind die Verschwörungsdeppen alte Bekannte, Ron Watkins nämlich, der schon seit Jahren als Haupt-Q-Verdächtiger gilt und dessen Vater der Besitzer von 8kun, dem Nachfolger des Imageboards für Möchtegern-Edgelords und Terroristen ist; und Paul Furber, einem ITler aus Südafrika, der von Frederick “Hotwheels” Brennan, dem ehemaligen Betreiber von 8chan, als Ursprung der Meta-Verschwörungstheorie benannt wurde.
Es passt alles wie Arsch auf Eimer und die Welt lässt sich von ein paar nichtskönnenden Ottos spielen wie auf einer Klaviatur, möglich gemacht durch das Internet und die grandiose Netzkultur darin. Es ist nur noch zum Davonlaufen, alles. Das einzige, das mir hier ein etwas schiefes Grinsen ins Gesicht zaubert ist der Gedanke daran, dass Qanon oder Edgelords im Internet sowas wie “Style” haben sollen. Haben sie nicht. Naja.
NYTimes: Who Is Behind QAnon? Linguistic Detectives Find Fingerprints (archive.today)
Sophisticated software broke down the Q texts into patterns of three-character sequences and tracked the recurrence of each possible combination. (…) The Swiss team said its accuracy rate was about 93 percent. The French team said its software correctly identified Mr. Watkins’s writing in 99 percent of tests and Mr. Furber’s in 98 percent.
The teams studying Q got in touch with each other after the Swiss scientists released an earlier, preliminary study showing that the writing had changed over time. Each team applied different techniques. The Swiss scientists used software to measure similarities in the three-character patterns across multiple texts while comparing the complexity of vocabulary and syntax. The French team used a form of artificial intelligence that learns the patterns of an author’s writing in roughly the same way that facial-recognition software learns human features.
The teams shared text samples, including more than 100,000 words by Q and at least 12,000 words by each of the 13 other writers they analyzed. (…)
An NBC news report (…) summer (2018) identified Q’s earliest boosters as Mr. Furber (known online as Baruch the Scribe) and three others. The report emphasized that the three others had possible financial motives for stoking the craze because they had solicited donations for Q “research.” (Mr. Furber did not.) The Swiss team studied writings by those four, as well as by Mr. Watkins and his father, who owns the message board.
In addition to examining those six potential authors, the French scientists added seven more to the mix. They tested tweets by another online Q booster close to the Watkinses as well as by Mr. Trump, his wife, Melania, his son Eric, and three others close to the former president who had publicly encouraged QAnon: Michael T. Flynn, his onetime national security adviser; the political consultant Roger Stone; and Dan Scavino, a Trump White House deputy chief of staff.
The guy who sold a blank GIF and a smashed toilet as NFTs is back, blew up a car and will sell the “999 exquisitely filmed fragments of a detonated Lamborghini Huracan“ as non fungible digital stuffthings.
Here’s two more exploding cars for you to enjoy:
Randi Zuckerberg who is totally the sister of Marc Wahlberg released an Adele-Parody with crypto-lyrics about blockchains. I actually listened to the whole thing and had to wash my brain for a whole hour after that. Yes, it’s still bleeding. What do you do for money, honey? (And speaking of good songs by well known but weird people if you know what I’m saying: Everybody’s favorite motivational speaker Jordan Peterson has a new song out. It’s called “Wake Up” and yeah, it’s bad.)
Seven Nation Army on “two electric toothbrushes, two credit card machines, two typewriters, and one steam iron”. The Vintage Technology Playing Popsongs-meme still going strong.
The Golden Age Of Wrestling: “The repository of Wrestling greats from the ‘80s and ‘90s rendered as toys for absolutely no good reason.” I like the “for no reason”-part very much.
I had no idea that Eli Roths History of Horror has an podcast featuring uncut interviews with Quentin Tarantino, Stephen King and Joe Hill, Meatloaf, Max Brooks and others. I’ll suck up the 4 hours of Tarantino talking about horror flicks.
For Monty Python- and Douglas Adams-completists, here’s “Out of the Trees” in a crappy lowrez copy on Youtube, a “legendarily ‘only semi-brilliant’ sketch show pilot written by Graham Chapman and Douglas Adams, and also Bernard McKenna but no-one cares about him. Broadcast once opposite Match of the Day and then thought lost for all eternity when the master tapes were wiped. Luckily it was only lost for some of eternity - Graham Chapman had an off-air recording which was restored in 2006.”
All is full of endless artificial nightmares scrolling into slimy demon eyes and teeth from beyond time and space. You know, just the usual stuff to get you going on a monday morning.