With the power of A.I. how can you verify your loved ones are alive?
Sarah Jeong from The Verge:
The persistent cry of “Fake News!” from Trumpist quarters presaged the beginning of this era of unmitigated bullshit, in which the impact of the truth will be deadened by the firehose of lies. The next Abu Ghraib will be buried under a sea of AI-generated war crime snuff. The next George Floyd will go unnoticed and unvindicated….
We briefly lived in an era in which the photograph was a shortcut to reality, to knowing things, to having a smoking gun. It was an extraordinarily useful tool for navigating the world around us. We are now leaping headfirst into a future in which reality is simply less knowable. The lost Library of Alexandria could have fit onto the microSD card in my Nintendo Switch, and yet the cutting edge of technology is a handheld telephone that spews lies as a fun little bonus feature.
Having AI to alter photos is great for when you take a family photo so you can remove some inappropriately dressed people in the background.
Like all new technologies though, the most obvious danger that Sarah alludes to is using AI to start new wars, cause mass distrust from people, and just the overall mass speculation of society about anything.
Who can you trust, when any image can be created and altered to your narrative?
Here are some sample photos from the article, in order to avoid looking at some of the impermissible ones:
Could AI be the next thing that brings back old-school lifestyles, where people will cherish having the in-person experience, versus assuming a video or a person they are talking to is a real individual?
Will we reach a point where actually traveling to meet your loved ones will be the only way we can verify their existence?
With how false chatGPT can be in giving you answers about Islam, will you trust any AI source with your religion?
There are just so many questions that need to be answered, but no one can deny that living the experience will be something people will cherish more than anything.
Having a mufti that you study under will be more valuable than a remote experience.
Visiting family will be a reassurance that yes, they do still exist, and they are alive!
The wonders of technology will make us once again “regress” to old ways of in-person experiences, and perhaps to a certain degree, that may be a good thing.
The path to that point however, might not be so easy.