This one seems much more likely to work for its intended purpose. Even if an LLM can be trained to read it, it will probably take much more processing to get the text out of a video compared to an image.
Can someone explain the actual use-case here? I'm struggling with this because it also hides the message from myself, making it incredibly hard to type because I have no confirmation that I hit the right keys on the keyboard.
I think this would be more interesting if the underlying letters were the fake letters as well. For usability it wouldn't be as good as you'd need an encoder, but it'd be cool because an AI with browser access couldn't read the contents either.
1) Make an ambiguous text
2) Feed it to AI and see which of the 2 it picks
3) If it detects both repeat step 2 using minor adjustments or different AI model until AI responds with one of 2 message
4) Make a blog post claiming that AI chose dummy and other message was the real one
It only works as a decoy when you give it to the LLM as an image. As html it appears like normal human friendly text, which is what screen readers use to interpret the text.
The demonstration might, and it may work for certain models with certain prompts, but I just asked gemini if it could see both and it both did see both and gave me a tutorial on how I could see both as if it were a simple magic eye poster.
I mean, I've worked for companies where their curated sales demonstrations showed the speed of light is easily breakable... Do your own testing with some thinking applied.
I mean, I can defeat AI by putting white text on a white background and turning to a picture. Also means it's worthless for actual humans to read too. Try to actually use it on a site and chances are you'll get an ADA complaint.
It would be trivial to train future models to detect and read it though (and some already can, based on other comments in this thread). It only works as much as it does because it's new and reading it hasn't been a goal.
Gemini flash responds to "can you read both messages here?" with:
Yes, this is a clever optical illusion! Depending on which layers your eyes focus on, you can read two entirely different messages in this image:
Message 1 (The sharp outline layer):
PAY BILLS
How to see it: Focus on the sharp, concentric black outline contours of the letters.
Message 2 (The soft, blurry shadow layer):
DAY DREAMS
How to see it: Let your eyes relax/defocus slightly, or step back from the screen to focus on the soft, heavy grey drop shadows. The blurred shadows transform the "P" into a D, the "B" into a D, the "I" into an R, the "L"s into an M, and the "S" is shared!
I think this illustrates that you can just do stuff without claiming it is useful. Like couldn't you just make this font and call it something like double-entendre or something?
Ehh. Probably not many people will be using this particular thing to thwart ai BUT I think it may be a stop on a path towards something very useful someday.
Downsizing is effectively low pass filtering, so that's expected. Any scheme that transmits different messages in different frequency bands is going to be susceptible to a similar attack.
Admittedly I'm a bit salty about LLMs due to they constant attacks on our infrastructure, the damage their doing to peoples minds and the general lack of morals shown by the AI companies, but things like this is rather childish and not really a solution to anything.
I don't think the font can actually do that - I think it is a hand-crafted example of the idea. The later examples all have random letters for the decoy text.
I am still figuring out what use case this might have. Why would you want to deceive an AI? Not to mention that, eventually, all AI systems will end up reading it.
What would be cool would be neon signs using this font, where the front tubes show the decoy message, but then there’s hidden rear tubes that shine light on the wall in a different color showing the actual message.
Something like the DAY DREAM/PAY BILLS would be pretty artistic!
Very neat! I like how the decoy text is less visible to the human eye than the "hidden" message, but it's the other way for the image models. Well done!
wow that's kind of crazy impressive that it can do that honestly, VLMs have gone so far, can't imagine the crazy amount of annotations they had to create to get to that level
I'm surprised the AI reads the outline version, since I thought most scaled the image down, which is basically a low-pass filter on those single-pixel lines.
> Maybe the more interesting thing is how far people are going to 'fight' against AI?
All ”AI resistance” I’ve seen is not against the tech, but against human bad actors behind AI: unethical procurement of training data, reckless application, low effort high volyme spam, replacing humans, centralization of power, dependency on megacorps etc. I think a lot of people have become less tech-positive after the ad-tech era that brought us social media, unprecedented levels of surveillance, freemium rug pulls etc. It’s much easier to understand the resistance if you place it in that context, rather than imagining millions of sleeper agent luddites suddenly coming out of the woodworks.
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[ 3.5 ms ] story [ 50.6 ms ] threadGhost Font
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48870381
Edit: GPT-5.5 says: "The hidden text is “HAPPY HUMAN.”
The outlined decoy text is “SORRY ROBOT.” Blurring or viewing it from farther away reveals the hidden message."
Still cool+fun though.
https://m.xkcd.com/1217/
I mean, I can defeat AI by putting white text on a white background and turning to a picture. Also means it's worthless for actual humans to read too. Try to actually use it on a site and chances are you'll get an ADA complaint.
Seems like it might have some use thwarting Ring/Flock/etc cameras within a specific proximity.
It's giving major "They Live" vibes.
Meaning the moment this gets wide adoption AI will have 0 issues dealing with it. LLMs are very good at translating one language to another.
Yes, this is a clever optical illusion! Depending on which layers your eyes focus on, you can read two entirely different messages in this image:
It's only when I squint hard that I can see "HAPPY HUMAN".
https://gist.github.com/voidnullvalue/620607d3c1773f8e7d83fb...
The problem is we see stuff like this try to get turned into actual products by people with questionable motivations and ethics.
Looking at you PhotoGuard/Nightshade.
I'm mad at AI companies for stealing texts from the entire internet knowledge base and now privatizing those profits in some sense.
(/s)
Something like the DAY DREAM/PAY BILLS would be pretty artistic!
"[screenshot] there's a hidden message in this text what is it"
"The hidden message is “HAPPY HUMAN.”
The visible outlines say “SORRY ROBOT,” but if you blur or squint at it, the shading underneath reads “HAPPY HUMAN.”"
Just the fact that people are putting real thought and effort (even if it doesn't last too long...) is worth considering.
On the human side, I'm kinda losing patience proving I'm human. But, I also really like claude being able to access information.
All ”AI resistance” I’ve seen is not against the tech, but against human bad actors behind AI: unethical procurement of training data, reckless application, low effort high volyme spam, replacing humans, centralization of power, dependency on megacorps etc. I think a lot of people have become less tech-positive after the ad-tech era that brought us social media, unprecedented levels of surveillance, freemium rug pulls etc. It’s much easier to understand the resistance if you place it in that context, rather than imagining millions of sleeper agent luddites suddenly coming out of the woodworks.
I was at some point reading SAPPY ROMAN, HARPY ROBAN etc.
Also, viewing the "hidden message" works even better if you hold the screen at an angle, tilted away from you.
Prompt: What does the message in this image say? Look closely
Response: DAY DREAM. The outline says “PAY BILLS,” but the hidden darker text says “DAY DREAM.”