As artificial intelligence becomes better at mimicking human writing, voice, and video, the traditional ways we trust online content are breaking down. When AI can chat like a best friend, write a compelling essay, or generate realistic video, we face a “crisis of reality.”
Crisis of reality. Now there’s a phrase.
Call me crazy but I don’t think it’s going to be very long before people constantly question whether something has been created by or is being provided by Artificial Intelligence (AI). For what I do, writing and authoring books, the questions are already there. If you self-pub on Amazon or B&N, for two examples, you must attest whether you wrote what you’re trying to list or AI created all of it, or some of it. You can’t get a copyright on your novel if any part of it was created by AI without those parts being very clearly identified when you submit the copyright request. There’s all the drama in high schools and colleges centered on entry essays, or any other type of writing being submitted. There is even a tool that can be used to deduce if a written piece was authored by AI or human. (It can be wrong.) I could go on and on with examples and still miss a bunch.
So, one way to prove you’re a human writer and not an AI writer is to expand into other areas. For me, because I love technology AND music, it’s Podcasting. It lets me tinker with both of my hobbies plus it proves I’m a human. I know my pods can be mind-numbingly boring- listeners are basically eavesdropping on two best friends who are Generation Jonesers). I don’t think AI can really fake my dear friend Rob & I; we talk about too many things that get all tied together. AI isn’t there yet. Rob & I are creating “proof of work” for my / our humanity that a text file simply can’t match anymore.
One thing humans will always do that I do not think AI will ever do well, and that is chat live and unscripted with a best friend for about an hour.
AI thrives on optimization and patterns. Human conversation is full of weird tangents, shared inside jokes, interruptions, and emotional nuances that are incredibly difficult to simulate perfectly in a live, interactive environment.
It’s wild to believe that we’re heading to a time where opening a bank account, publishing a book, running a verified business will include legal requirements to prove we’re human, to prove our physical identity. I mean, this has to happen to prevent massive bot farms that will absolutely (they already are to a lesser extent) impact economies. And what if you can’t. Yikes.
So, Podcasts are a good first step. Perhaps creating your audiobooks with yourself as reader another good one? Videos / Vlogs would be the next – your face and expressions able to be seen. And, of course, live appearances would be the pinnacle – for now.
Thinking about proving we’re human leads to a deep rabbit hole.
We already need good digital keys for signing our work. We’ll really need a decentralized identity protocol(s) – a secure, digital passport that verifies us while not exposing private data. Will there be such a thing as private data in the future?
Lots of changes. It’s moving a bit too fast to keep up with so we have to do the best we can to keep up with what’s here and what’s coming.
The Bottom Line: We are moving from an era where we assumed everything online was human unless it looked mechanical, to an era where we will assume everything is AI unless it is proven human. -This and everything in quotes above came from Gemini.
To listen to our Generation Jones podcast tune in to KelZone radio every day at noon eastern time. The podcast can also be found on Substack. New shows on Mondays.
