Cycling UK Forum

Maybe.

There’s a lot of this sort of stuff floating about on social media, and a lot of it is either falsely-labelled, wrong date or place, or out-and-out AI-generated falsity, so I’d want to understand the source of the image before believing it all.

There is one country in Africa where “bikes” like that are commonly used nowadays, to transport heavy loads, sort-of scooter-carts that the pusher hops aboard on the downhill sections.

No idea what those pedals are meant to do, and various bits of the frame are not going to survive... so I'm erring on the AI side as well.

Though I can find references that are a couple of years old:
https://www.reddit.com/r/bicycling/comm ... _a_wooden/

https://escapecollective.com/the-boy-wi ... oden-bike/

Looks like we might both be more cynical than necessary?

Exactly as cynical as is necessary now, I’m afraid.

Thats my father, he won the 1913 tour de Estonia 1913. To this he still rides a 1000 mile a day his name Donald Trump.

Image sent to me by stepdaughter. When asked for provenance she replied 'Facebook' - so y''all correct; it isn't genuine.

ncutler wrote: 21 Sep 2024, 12:09pm Image sent to me by stepdaughter. When asked for provenance she replied 'Facebook' - so y''all correct; it isn't genuine.

Not everything on faeces book is fake.

There are a couple of sources I found further up this thread.

On the assumption it is AI created, why do people bother about getting AI's to create this; and then waste their time uploading and posting it. Is it so they can smirk to themselves when other people believe the fraud? Do they think it clever? Is it to get clicks on their Social Media? Does getting clicks on Social Media through daft meaningless twaddle mean anything?

Ian

Looking a little futher... the Estonian National Museum, which it's suggested has the photo in it's archives, is selling canvas prints of the photo:

https://erm.ee/en/shop/tarvastu-jalgrat ... 60-x-85-cm

Whilst not a documented image of the original it's about as close as I'm going to get without emailing the museum directly.

Yes, this one does indeed seem to be genuine.

As to why people create fakes using AI, the two broad answers seem to be:

- to make money (often as simple as getting “clicks” on their page, which carries adverts, which advertisers “pay per click”; or,

- political advantage, which comes in all shapes and sizes, and is often levered by working people up
Into a frenzy, or into a slough of despond, by using fake images ….. its the propaganda medium de nos jour, with troll and bot farms used to amplify and feed forward comments of the desired kind.

Usually, whenever a new communication technology is invented, it gets used for advertising, political manipulation, religion, betting, and pornography, and this one is no different in that sense, just more potent.

What an erudite and intelligent discussion. I had to check I was on the www!

Thank you guys, this goes some way to reassuring me the internet is not ENTIRELY full of idiots and fraudsters.

Steve