I have a new love-hate relationship in my life and it's not with a person. It's with a machine with the initials AI.
Artificial intelligence and machine learning have rapidly inserted itself into our lives. Almost every cloud program I use at work now has AI built into it making my life easier. If I'm designing a flyer, Canva knows exactly how I want to line up elements on the page.
Bing Copilot is my new best friend. If I need some ideas for an interactive exercise to do at a trade booth on recycling or emergency preparedness, I just ask my trusty copilot to come up with some creative ideas.
It wasn't always this way. I remember my first few run-ins with snarky chatbots (check out my 2019 post, How to make friends with the bots).
But now it seems like we have crossed over to the dark side of AI. Last week, I listened to a webinar featuring Alex Sevigny, Associate Professor of Communications Management and Communication Studies at McMaster University. He said AI adds automation and scale to the digital world we already live in but now "we are moving into a world of machine-learning persuasion and it's terrifying."
This world of persuasion includes thieves, virtual influencers created to sell us products, and deepfakes.
Kingston Police recently issued an advisory about a deepfake deception scam, where scammers faked an entire video call. The scammers were able to steal over 200 million Hong Kong dollars by emailing an employee and pretending to be their Chief Financial Officer.
An Air Canada chatbot recently gave a passenger wrong information about a bereavement fare. This in and of itself is not newsworthy (humans give wrong answers all the time). What was newsworthy and concerning was Air Canada said it wasn't responsible for the information the chatbot gave out. Air Canada argued that its AI-fueled chatbot was "responsible for its own actions" and that the airline can't be held responsible for what it tells passengers.
Let's pause for a moment to let that one sink in. A company that programmed a machine is claiming it's not responsible for the machine anymore because it has a mind of its own.
Even more disturbing to me was seeing the whole new crop of virtual online influencers who are trying to persuade us where to shop, what to wear and how to live your lives.
Here's Bermuda, one of the older virtual influencers. She made her debut online in December 2016 and identifies as a robot woman who wants to motivate young entrepreneurs to go after their business goals and is pursuing a music career, recently releasing a cover of Under the Bridge by the Red Hot Chilli Peppers on Spotify.
Thalasya here travels across Indonesia where she was created exploring its sites and shops. Since travelling is expensive, she funds her hobby advertising for hotels, restaurants and even health pills and has her own clothing store, Yipiiiii.
What the absolutely f**k?
We are officially now living in a world where we can no longer trust what or who we see in the online world.
The ethics of AI will be our next big albatross to slay, but at least we have some giants taking up the fight.
This month, Taylor Swift took legal action against the AI beast after sexually explicit AI graphic-generated images of her were published on Twitter/X and later taken down. Even the White House commented on the story as governments grapple with how to protect basic human rights like privacy and copyright.
We are at the infancy of understanding how AI will impact our society. I'm glad I'm nearing the end of my professional career in communications, but there is one thing I know for certain.
When it comes to my personal life, my default will be to live in the real world where I know people are real and genuine.
Ed note: The above image of myself was generated using an AI image program called Facet AI. I did a quick frame around my face and asked it to make me look 30 years younger. This was the result. I should add just as I was about to publish this week's post, my handy AI Assistant in WordPress asked me if I wanted to check my spelling and tone before publishing.
Next week: Check back for Part 2: The one skill you'll need to succeed living in a world of AI
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