We have unofficially entered the time of the fake AI generated content. It's not perfect yet, but it's good enough to fool many people. I use a YouTube alternative, which means I have more time to watch videos across a wide range. In the last few weeks, I've noticed an increase in AI generated product that is fake. One standout is the Got Talent franchise where people have grafted AI generated acts with cuts from responses from the panel. They look great, like a woman transforming into a lion, but it's all fake. Even some of those cute animal videos are now fake. Why? More clicks so more income all based on fabricated videos.
- This means that from now on if you want to know if something is real or not, you will need to independently verify it in some way. This also starts the age of greater manipulation of audiences through video. The phrase "seeing is believing" becomes less relevant. Gone are the six fingers and strange ears that immediately flagged a fake, and a much closer look for anomalies is required for detection. Synchronisation of the mouth and speech is one such area, but I predict that all of these anomalies will be gone in the next six months, and you won't be able to trust anything you see. Also, regular real contributors sometimes get the sound sync issue wrong. They can easily simulate voices so that Joe Rogan fake clips are now circulating, as one example. Soon, unless you are watching the actual shows, you won't be able to tell if it's real or fake.
- In the instant gratification stage society finds itself in, a good fake can trigger outrage, riots and as we have seen, attempts on a person's life. This manipulation increases if content can be generated at will, indistinguishable from the real thing and of course lacking verifiable facts and data. Some TV hosts already propagate this from their live shows and it's only a few that bother to check on anything that is said. Luckily many of these shows are rapidly losing viewers and soon may vanish altogether. It's the online and streaming services that are taking over. Of course some of these are just as bad as the mainstream TV shows.
- I recently tried to send a picture of a meme to my sister using Yahoo! Mail. It was blocked as a "high probability of spam". The noose is slowly tightening on free communications, apparently driven by major providers. When I switched to Proton Mail, it was passed to my local mail server that promptly blocked it for the same reason. There is an increasing number of restrictions being placed on digital users, all based on the stated principle of "protecting us". The systems are deciding more and more what is best for us, despite it not being the best at all. BitDefender keeps blocking files just because it doesn't like the name. Worse, it takes a few minutes to get around to letting you reverse its decision. There is no whitelist *text* facility, so now I tend to have that part of the program switched off defeating the whole purpose of the facility. It's only going to get worse.
- Alibaba has announced that it will partner with Manus' AI to add agent-like capability to its own recently released AI model. I know that Manus is working to improve on the capability to actually place orders and make bookings for its users. To date, this capability has been varied in success, but I expect it will expand. Manus also needs to speed up processing. This has been hobbled by the US not allowing the export of the more powerful NVIDIA chips. China still lags in chip manufacturing, but that balance could easily shift in the next few years. Nvidia itself has just also announced that it will move all of its AI chip manufacturing back to the US over the next four years, indicating that the Trump tariff ploy may have worked.
- I've been a Path Of Exile fan and player for some time now. I'm no expert but I have fun. I've also started POE2, which has a better graphics experience, new character classes and is still in development. The last iteration is more difficult than the original and relies, for me at least, on help from my guild players to get past some bosses. They are continually adjusting the game but so far, I die all the time when facing the early Act bosses. Yes, there is a learning curve and Google helps with tips. Did I mention that it's free?
- When it comes to networking and communication, Microsoft is the worst. An earlier update removed my Windows PC visibility from the network. Nothing I did could bring it back. After the most recent update, suddenly it was back and I could access shared files from other devices. Microsoft has also been hopeless with USB since its inception. Normally they fix things by version 3 but no luck with these.
James Hein is an IT professional with over 30 years' standing. You can contact him at jclhein@gmail.com.
