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Conspirador Norteño Profile picture
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19 Apr, 7 tweets, 6 min read
Meet @JaredLCarter (permanent ID 150677979), a "Cyber Security PhD" with a GAN-generated profile pic and a blue verification checkmark.

(GAN = "generative adversarial network", the AI technology behind the fake face pics generated by thispersondoesnotexist.com)

cc: @ZellaQuixote
This video shows the process of blending @JaredLCarter's profile pic with 9 pictures generated by thispersondoesnotexist.com, demonstrating that the major facial features (particularly the eyes) are in the exact same place, a fingerprint of unmodified GAN-generated face pics.
(more threads on the use of GAN-generated images and how to detect them here: )
The @JaredLCarter account has been around since 2010, but appears to have deleted all tweets prior to 2020 (sadly, we found no archives). Based on existing replies, it tweeted at least 695 times between 2010 and 2017, and was likely dormant in 2018 and 2019.
Based on other accounts' tweets tagging @JaredLCarter, we believe that this account originally belonged to former @kcmotalkradio host/producer Jared Carter (who, per his LinkedIn, does not appear to be a "Cyber Security PhD", despite the claim on the account's current profile.)
The current incarnation of @JaredLCarter mostly tweets about cryptocurrency topics and anime. (Based on replies to its deleted tweets, the previous incarnation did not discuss these topics and mostly tweeted about the original account owner's radio show).
Update: the @JaredLCarter account described in this thread (ID 150677979) has self-deactivated, at least for now.

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More from @conspirator0

Conspirador Norteño Profile picture
17 Apr
One of the accounts that @DrunkAlexJones was forced to follow by the "Round Year Fun" app is @drago1171, an account created in 2009 with a GAN-generated face pic that follows several other old accounts with GAN-generated face pics. #SaturdayShenaniGANs

cc: @ZellaQuixote Image
By recursively exploring the followers/followees of these accounts, we found a network of 54 accounts created in 2009 or 2010 with GAN-generated faces. All were dormant from late 2012 until April 2021, when all 54 began tweeting via the Twitter Web App. ImageImageImageImage
Here's an animated visualization of blending all 54 profile pics together, showing the identical facial feature placement that is a fingerprint of GAN-generated pics such as those created by thispersondoesnotexist.com. (GAN = "generative adversarial network", the AI technique used.)
Read 6 tweets
Conspirador Norteño Profile picture
17 Apr
PSA: These "fun" apps from roundyear(dot)fun ("My Twitter Family" etc) have a downside: they gain near-total control of your account and (at the very least) use it to follow other accounts without your knowledge. #FunAllYearRoundUntilYourAccountGetsCompromised

cc: @ZellaQuixote Image
We had @DrunkAlexJones test some of the Round Year Fun apps. The list of permissions the apps request is extensive and encompasses pretty much every action one could possibly take with one's Twitter account. The apps produced the expected "My Twitter Crush" etc tweets. ImageImage
Less expectedly, the Round Year Fun apps caused @DrunkAlexJones to follow six accounts:: @GeoRebekah, @ai3____, @zkerravala, @firefireband, @drago1171, and @MunaTaji. The apps also muted each of the accounts they followed. Image
Read 11 tweets
Conspirador Norteño Profile picture
15 Apr
Meet @An_mal11, @An_mal12, @An_mal13, @An_mal14, @An_mal15, @An_mal16, @an_mal17, and @An_mal18. This collection of similarly-named tiny Twitter accounts could be yours for $71, but you should probably save your money.

cc: @ZellaQuixote
These eight accounts were all created on either February 18th or February 21st, 2021. Thus far, they have tweeted very little (only 58 tweets), and have sent all their tweets via the Twitter Android app. Two of them (@An_mal12 and @An_mal14) currently have identical biographies.
The majority of these accounts' tweets so far are extremely brief replies to each other (and sometimes replies to each other's replies to each other, and so on). They have also posted a few follower growth tweets, including retweets of a tweet that contains a likely malware link.
Read 7 tweets
Conspirador Norteño Profile picture
13 Apr
Did a whole bunch of identical-looking people join Twitter back in 2016? (Spoiler: nope, it's yet another botnet.) #MondayMotivation

cc: @ZellaQuixote
This botnet is comprised of 4959 accounts created between January 7th and January 28th, 2016 (with a mid-month break). All of them follow between 35 and 40 accounts, and have never liked a tweet. Account names consist of English first names followed by four random letters.
This network only uses 23 unique profile pictures (22 photos and the default pic) across 4959 accounts, resulting in each non-default pic appearing on over 200 accounts. Reverse image searches indicate that the same images may have been used for spam networks on Facebook as well.
Read 5 tweets
Conspirador Norteño Profile picture
10 Apr
None of these cats exist. All are GAN-generated images obtained from thiscatdoesnotexist.com. Can we come up with a way to detect GAN-generated cat pics? #CaturdayShenaniGANs

(GAN = "generative adversarial network", the AI technique used to create the images)

cc: @ZellaQuixote
For this project, we used the following datasets (all images 512x512):

• 2000 GAN-generated cats from thiscatdoesnotexist.com
• 1195 real cat faces, cropped from images at kaggle.com/crawford/cat-d…
• a test set of 1000 GAN-generated and 1000 real cats (same sources as above)
Unlike the GAN-generated human face pics provided by thispersondoesnotexist.com etc, the placement of the major facial features on the GAN-generated cat pics from thiscatdoesnotexist.com varies from image to image. There are other anomalies in the fake cat pics, however. . .
Read 9 tweets
Conspirador Norteño Profile picture
9 Apr
Do you want to pay complete strangers on the Internet (whose qualifications and skills you know nothing about) to do your homework for you? There's a spam network for that. #FridayFeeling

cc: @ZellaQuixote
By searching for the repeated "Hire us to do your <list of homework topics>" tweets shown in the previous collage and exploring the networks of the resulting accounts, we found 300 accounts posting repetitive tweets offering homework/essay writing services for hire.
The accounts in the network (allegedly) send the majority of their tweets via the Twitter Android app, although a number of other apps show up as well. Most tweets are either original tweets or replies (very few retweets or quote tweets).
Read 7 tweets

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