Which one of you was this?

[Dave Cundiff]

Bolder seemed to bounce more than I would expect also.
Almost like a foam or fiberglass prop made to look like a stone. Landscapers use these to save money.
Or maybe it is real.

If I was local I would be over kicking a few rocks to see what gives.

That was my first thought. The boulder's response to the impact, the Rivian's response to the impact, and the asphalt's non-response to the impact, suggests the boulder weighed maybe between 30 and 100 pounds (my guesstimate).

I'm always happy to be corrected -- @Donald Stanfield, were you able to go down there and tip it up yourself?

Best to all!

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[DuoRivian]

That was my first thought. The boulder's response to the impact, the Rivian's response to the impact, and the asphalt's non-response to the impact, suggests the boulder weighed maybe between 30 and 100 pounds (my guesstimate).

I'm always happy to be corrected -- @Donald Stanfield, were you able to go down there and tip it up yourself?

Best to all!

Would be a good idea but even if Donald did go down there and confirm it as a fake rock I am sure Alan would not accept local evidence and knowledge, as he didn’t before.

 

[Dark-Fx]

Would be a good idea but even if Donald did go down there and confirm it as a fake rock I am sure Alan would not accept local evidence and knowledge, as he didn’t before.

I mean, how can we know Donald isn't AI? I've never met him.

 

[Donald Stanfield]

This was supposed to be a fun joke post until it got ruined. I can go down there if I really need to, but I don’t see the point of doing so as this has happened before with this same landscape rock thing.

Maybe @Dark-Fx is right and I’m so AI I don’t even realize I am. The future is now.

 

[VandalSibs]

Some people just have to be right. I guess AI isn't the only thing that hallucinates in this thread.

This whole thread reminds me of a post on Reddit in the Visual Effects sub, right when the preview for the most recent Indiana Jones movie came out. A poster swore that he knew how the de-aging VFX were done, and kept talking as if he was right.... Even when a VFX Supervisor at Industrial Light and Magic (which did the work) told him in no uncertain terms that he was totally wrong.

It was glorious.

 

[Dave Cundiff]

Would be a good idea but even if Donald did go down there and confirm it as a fake rock I am sure Alan would not accept local evidence and knowledge, as he didn’t before.

It's not my business what would convince Alan. I'm talking about what I would like to know further.

Best to all!

 

[Alan in Tempe]

Would be a good idea but even if Donald did go down there and confirm it as a fake rock I am sure Alan would not accept local evidence and knowledge, as he didn’t before.

Your certainty about what I would not accept is wrong. I would appreciate a report from Donald regarding his direct contact with the boulder and his estimate of its weight and whether it is a man-made fake boulder. He has never said anything that causes me to doubt his truthfulness and integrity. I have only questioned/disputed his illogical conclusions regarding what constitutes valid evidence. If he reported that he could easily lift or tip the boulder well under 500 pound boulder and that it obviously was not a natural rock, that would settle it for me, as it would explain what I see in the video that led me to the likely conclusion it had been AI generated. I will also readily change my mind if another reasonable explanation is presented that better fits the video evidence.

As an engineer/scientist, I take all beliefs as tentative. Better evidence or reasoning will change my mind about virtually anything. Emotions and ignorance rarely generate better evidence.

 

[KBabione]

Thank you for the excellent demonstration of how easy it is to generate these fake videos. And, thanks for leaving in so many obvious clues that this is AI generated.

I instantly recognized this as fake because Alan Ruck wasn't driving.

 

[Oldsmobile_Mike]

I cared enough to look this up on StreetView, and sure enough, there it was in 2024. Original post also made a few other mentions of it being hit by other vehicles. This is still the dumbest thing though - I mean, what practical purpose can it serve?

Almost looks like some kind of sick joke - especially if they have a camera pointed right at it. Sort of like all those videos of "too short" bridges clipping the top of cars.

 

[Oldsmobile_Mike]

 

[Alan in Tempe]

<AI tool estimating boulder to be about 1000 pounds>

I find this estimate to be far more likely correct than my crude rough estimate which came out about 20% higher. I actually expected my estimate to be on the low side.

For those interested the technical overview of this AI estimate, it likely utilized five separate AI tools: an LLM text processor used to determine the output goal of the user's input request and plan the solution steps, an image analysis tool to identify and extract the boulder and estimate its size, a search engine to find rock density information, an expert system math tool to determine which formulas to use and to apply them, and a text generator to construct the final output. There are significant differences in each of these tools, and for such a request as this, the likelihood of any AI hallucinations across the sequential application of all these tools are pretty low. The user is not expected to be aware of these steps used to generate the answer. My experience covers to some extent the LLM input and the expert system math processing, and I am speculating on the rest from my general AI experiences. I also have image analysis experience, but very unrelated from what would be used here.

 

[Time2Roll]

That was my first thought. The boulder's response to the impact, the Rivian's response to the impact, and the asphalt's non-response to the impact, suggests the boulder weighed maybe between 30 and 100 pounds (my guesstimate).

I'm always happy to be corrected -- @Donald Stanfield, were you able to go down there and tip it up yourself?

Best to all!

After looking again the stone seemed to bounce forward with great force vs the low speed of the vehicle. In addition looks like the vehicle would have rode up on top of the stone the way the front bumper hit the top of it. The stone flew forward like it was hit underneath.

 

[Riviot]

Do I need to go drive down there?

 

[Ralph]

Illustrating again how important it is to have all relevant information included in the prompt. The prompt assumes this is a boulder/rock. Interesting to think about as it relates to the trust we are giving AI and the people that use it to make much more important "arguments".

A slightly different scenario: Faced with an emergency situation such as a child in a street, should an autonomous vehicle traveling 50 mph hit a tree on the left side of the road, the child, or this "boulder"?

Someone said (paraphrasing), "When your conclusions seem irrational, check your assumptions."

It seems irrational to me to insist it's a boulder if there are several prior dated reports of this being a landscape feature hit by vehicles.

 

[captainjp]

Wow, talk about going off on a tangent…

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