I saw a video yesterday featuring a famous person making outrageous statements. The only problem was… it wasn’t real. It was a deepfake generated by AI.
It looked like the person.
It sounded like the person.
It even moved like the person.
If you haven’t encountered Sora yet, it’s an AI model that can create realistic and imaginative scenes from text instructions. Creating special effects and videos of this quality used to be out of reach for the average person. Well, that’s no longer true.
Even if you don’t work in tech, I’m sure you’re hearing about generative AI and seeing its output all over the web and social media.
People are writing articles using AI.
Comments on social media are being created with AI.
Photographs that look like real people are being generated with AI and used for social media profiles.
Deep fake videos are cropping up that are hard to distinguish from reality.
As one CEO put it today, the web as we know it is dying. All the content we used to trust — somewhat — is now questionable.
How can you tell what is real when anything can be faked and look, feel, and sound real? For example, scammers are already simulating people’s voices and using them to trick family members into sending thousands of dollars to save a loved one.
If you look at my background and career, I'm clearly not a Luddite. I believe AI is like any useful tool — just like fire. It can warm your home and cook a meal, or it can burn you terribly if it gets out of control.
Used appropriately as a clever tool, AI can save us time. It can do some heavy lifting for us.
But, used maliciously, it will create a web full of fake and harmful content. Sadly, that’s already happening.
The internet is on the cusp of massive change and disruption. For most of us to get value from it and not be duped by con artists and manipulators, we will have to rely on a smaller graph of trusted sources and personal connections.
I’m already doing that by creating my own smaller, trusted communities on Discord. For example, I want to create a community for my Invincible Life subscribers (let me know if you’re interested).
I’m tired of faceless strangers trying to con me and sell me garbage. I’m tired of fakes and lies. I’d rather spend my time online with people I know and trust.
Unfortunately, the broader internet will become a web of illusory people and content that can never be trusted again. It’s inevitable.
➡️ By the way, registration for my upcoming Job Search workshop closes tomorrow! So, sign up if you’re interested, or wait until next year when I host it again.
I’m Larry Cornett, a Freedom Coach who can work with you to optimize your career, business, and life. My mission is to help you take complete control of your work and life so you can become a more “Invincible You.” I live in Northern California near Lake Tahoe with my wife and our Great Dane.