I really despise AI and whenever I see or sense some action that is trying to foist AI on me, I avoid ie, turn it off, delete anything that uses it. I got a notification of a new version of some software I use with the *hook* being that now this software includes AI. I haven’t checked it out thoroughly yet, IF I can turn it off, I might upgrade but if it’s something intrinsic in it’s operation, I won’t.
I do want to talk about the increasing struggle to tell whether something I’m watching is fake, probably created through AI, and how one would know the difference. On Reddit there is a subreddit called ‘Is it AI” in which users try go garner clues about whether real or fake. That just seems exhausting to me. I want to KNOW that anything that is generated that is not an original picture, there is a watermark or other marking to indicate that this is, like a photoshop, not authentically original and real. Related to this – AI-generated Iran images are widespread. How do we know what to believe?
I asked Clinch if it is reasonable for normal people to be responsible for doing this kind of digging.
He replied that it’s now an unfortunate fact of life for those who want to be well-informed and not become part of the ugly cycle of online misinformation and disinformation.
“For responsible citizens, these things are both unfair and necessary,” Clinch said.
What would be helpful would be to be able to trust government, taxpayer funded websites. I want to go to, for example, the White House or Department of Defense website and see straight facts and information, not non-serious, sometimes bigoted and racist memes including non-serious ones that look like they are game videos aimed at someone 10 years old, not to mention beating war drums. I happen to believe that the people running this country should, at the least, attempt to be thoughtful and serious and not actively seek to dumb down content or mislead the American public.
Because it seems like some 2 year olds are crapping all over what ought, again, to be a serious website representing government, I cannot not only rely on it as a legitimate source of news but cannot take it as a site to read that represents the entire American public and is factual. (I do not, of course, use other private social media sites as representing the government, like Truth Social, X, etc., that is, as a spokesman) Add to that the AI stuff that apparently seeks to trivialize and infantlize important issues, and I’m out. I do not want to have to consider whether something posted that shows stuff from the Iran War, for example, is actually showing something real or is AI. I don’t think there is anyone that doesn’t know that Trump is a pathological liar, even if some sycophants seem to enjoy that he is (I guess they just like con men) but I find it tiring to constantly try to figure out if I read stuff from him as a govt spokesman, whether what he says is just something that popped out of his head
Side note that I have read, but am not fully convinced of this yet based on facts, that the Dept of Defense may be using AI to target places in Iran and that that might be the reason that they murdered school children. I don’t use the word horrifying very often, at least I hope I don’t, but this falls into that category. I want actual poeple sitting around at a table discussing war and its effects as this is not simply some, as Trump said, *excursion*, not (also Trump said this yesterday “just for fun” when it involves genocide, murder and destruction. This is not a video game where no ones real lives are at stake and you can restart the game at any point. AI should not be a substitute for actual people with judgement who also believe, unlike Pete Hegseth, in “rules of engagement” and don’t want to be committing war crimes through AI.
