Zero Trust Internet

AI-generated content has gotten too good, and it happened faster than society can keep up with. A lack of media literacy which perpetuates misinformation is already a massive problem. It’s only going to get worse.

Images and videos and audio are too convincing. It’s easy to have anyone, even non-celebrities, say and do anything you want. Not surprisingly, even our dumb President and the official White House account have shared AI-slop, some of it depicting the president as a dark sith lord (red light saber) and the next pope. Cringe.

We are entering the don’t trust anything until you verify age. Soon, mark my words, major news outlets will issue retraction statements as they rush to report on something before verification.¹ No one will trust anything anymore.

This is email phishing at a massive global scale. We’ve all gotten that email from our “boss” asking to click a link. Many of us don’t fall for it, but many do. It wouldn’t keep happening if we were all more cautious than that.

What’s the backlash? How can we prevent it or shield ourselves?

I haven’t been active on Facebook for years. I check in occasionally. I’m off Twitter since Muck bought it. I have not gotten into Bluesky, Mastodon, of Threads. Its already all a cesspool and it is going to get worse.

Disengagement in most online media is my plan. Don’t trust until you verify for even the news outlets I have respect for.

I will continue to support the ones I respect. They need it now more than ever.

But in-person conversations, though they feel almost quaint, need to make a comeback. For now, we can at least trust those that are IRL talking to our face.