I think this is a fun project, but I'm not sure I'd leave this up for much longer.

MPs can be litigious. Especially if this is seen to be enabling things like ID fraud.

Also, there are only 650 constituencies. I would pre-populate the list so when entering a new postcode, it doesn't stall waiting for AI.

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crinkly 5 days ago | parent | next [-]

MPs will be immediately trying to hang the civil service for telling them this was a good idea. Don't expect legal action. Do expect buck passing.

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travisgriggs 5 days ago | parent | next [-]

I wish there was a modern day version of "Yes, [Prime] Minister" for this kind of stuff. It's like the episodes could write themselves by the week.

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averageRoyalty 5 days ago | parent | next [-]

In Australia we have a show called "Utopia" that does fill this gap reasonably well. Australian politics are close enough to the UK that it'd probably translate well enough to be enjoyable.

I've heard many government workers say that it's funny but they can't watch it, as it's so accurate it's depressing.

	▲	k1t 4 days ago \| parent [-]
		Just seconding a vote for Utopia (2014), and also its (better!) predecessor The Hollowmen (2008).

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crinkly 5 days ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Well having worked for the government in an ancillary security role about 20 years ago on contract, I don't think they could produce a parody notably worse than reality to use as a contrast. Today, I suspect it is worse.

Hire an expert they said. From the pool of experts they had heard about through contacts in the civil service. None of whom have any industry or real world experience. At best, someone was on an industry eating and drinking with the right people panel. I was there for 3 months and crawled back to my previous job cap in hand, bruised and educated.

It was long enough ago that I can away with rounding errors of months on my CV thank goodness...

	▲	btilly 5 days ago \| parent [-]
		It is worthy of note that most of the incidents in Yes, Minister were based on things that really happened. At some level it was more curation than invention.

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pjc50 4 days ago | parent | prev [-]

"The Thick Of It", but even that's quite old now.

Political satire is kind of dead in an age of unironic stupidity.

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edent 5 days ago | parent | prev [-]

Not really. I was a civil servant and gave advice on this.

Civil servants aren't there to say whether a policy is good, sensible, or a vote-winner. The CS policy profeasion is there, in part, to advise on risks. Ministers decide whether to accept those risks.

There were plenty of people (like me) who would have pointed out the various risks and problems. Some of which caused policy to change, and some were accepted.

I don't think I've ever seen in recent years the CS be blamed for something like this.

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arrowsmith 5 days ago | parent | prev | next [-]

The generated images are very obviously AI fakes. I don't think anyone is going to be seriously fooled by this.

> I would pre-populate the list so when entering a new postcode, it doesn't stall waiting for AI.

It looks like it already works like this? It was slow the first time I searched for my postcode, subsequent times have been very fast.

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FabHK 5 days ago | parent | next [-]

> I don't think anyone is going to be seriously fooled by this.

Do you think porn sites are more interested in a) correctly preventing unauthorized people from accessing their site, or b) selling as many subscriptions as they can while nominally complying with the law?

	▲	DonHopkins 4 days ago \| parent [-]
		The AI should generate nude photos festooned in kink accessories, brown noses, pearl necklaces, and dripping facials.

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guessmyname 5 days ago | parent | prev [-]

I wouldn't say they’re “obviously” AI fakes.

I’m not from the UK, so I’m not familiar with what their IDs are supposed to look like.

I was suspicious, though—the hands holding the ID cards looked kind of “crispy.” But at the same time, I thought, “woah, where did the website owner even get these photos?” It wasn’t until I read the Hacker News post that I realized they were all AI-generated (and now cached).

And here’s the thing: I’m an engineer at Apple with decades of experience in the tech industry—I’m not exactly new to this stuff. If I got fooled even for a couple of seconds, imagine how easy it would be to trick someone who isn’t technical.

	▲	arrowsmith 5 days ago \| parent \| next [-]
		The text is slightly misaligned and weird-looking; it screams "AI". The hand holding the ID looks like CGI. And the photos don't look anything like the actual MP, at least for the ones that I tried. There's also some obvious tells if you know what UK driving licenses look like: the layout is wrong, the background is too plain, and all the anti-forgery features are missing. Real licenses have much more detail: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Driving_licence_in_the_United_...
	▲	KomoD 4 days ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		> I wouldn't say they’re “obviously” AI fakes. I'd say they're obviously AI fakes, just trying a few: B249AL (it made her bald), SA487AB (different shape, hair color and hair), TN248DF (it grew his hair back), HA26ND (bald, again) and NG166QE (I don't even need to explain)...

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Spivak 5 days ago | parent | prev [-]

You want a different photo each time to avoid easy filter lists.

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Titan2189 5 days ago | parent [-]

Sure, if you offer to pay the bill for the Image generation, I'm sure they would love to implement this feature

	▲	tyingq 4 days ago \| parent [-]
		A little random crop, tilt/pan, defocus, noise, etc, would be free-ish.