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We have arrived, the time is now to accept the fact that we have the ability to create not only fake images but fake video, too, and to do so in a way that makes it completely indistinguishable from reality. Long gone are the days of noticing someone has six fingers and their head is on backwards.

My social media feeds are plumb full of people who have been snookered and are now reposting completely made up video clips as if they were the God’s honest truth. The problem is, they are fake. They were made on a computer. They aren’t real. No such thing ever happened. They are like a cartoon, except with really sharp and exceptional graphics that appear real.

Also long gone, our ability to trust the media. They too keep falling victim to AI slop.

Some people are generating these things like a joke or as a meme. Some are creating them as a social commentary, kind of a fictional statement piece. Still others are creating them for more nefarious reasons, slander or to make someone look bad, or in order to generate an emotional response, to outrage people for a desired purpose, for manipulation. Businesses are doing it for advertising purposes, as are political movements. And most likely, unsavory characters have gotten in on the game, too.

The other day there was some fake video from an alleged 2026 protest and when I tried to use AI to fact check it, they got it wrong too. It actually took a bit of work to chase down the origins of this video clip, but in the end I was right. Even AI sometimes has trouble spotting fake video.

Nobody will listen to me of course and when you try to gently mention that something isn’t real it tends to really make people mad….at you. I become the one who is clearly just trying to suppress, repress, or oppress certain views and keep the public from seeing them. My motivations are called into question long before any video ever gets guestioned. People like to believe their own lying eyes, especially if it validates any preconceived notions they have emotionally invested themselves in.

Ha! Since it’s a bit foolish to subject myself to heaps of abuse just trying to enlighten each and every person who doesn’t seem to realize their favorite dancing squirrel video was artificially generated, this post is going to be my general, all purpose warning. One and done! We can all laugh at dancing squirrels, but I’ve also seen numerous altered, fake clips from Minnesota used for the purpose of amping protesters up and causing outrage.

It’s kind of interesting, my entire life I have hated cameras and refused to trust anything I’ve seen on video or in photos. I’ve had a heck of a time emotionally dealing with stupid security cameras and cell phones when they started to become the norm. These days everyone just wants to video every dumb interaction. I honestly have no idea where these feelings of mine came from, but it’s part of the reason why I am so skeptical about video, cameras, and photographs. I do not believe my lying eyes, not ever.

Sometimes there’s a generation gap going on here, too. Many people just a few years older than me perceive the news as some kind of trusted authority. That stands in such stark contrast to my own mindset, sometimes I have to try not to laugh. You see a similar division on the internet, video is perceived as evidence, proof, and it never really occurs to people that it can easily be faked these days.

Anyway, don’t let people yank your chain. Try not to get pulled in emotionally. I’m not even very good at it and yet even I can put together some pretty convincing fake video evidence showing whatever I want it too. Famous people are especially vulnerable on account of the fact that so many of their pictures and video are available online which makes it really easy to copy.