Musings: Reality slips away as AI learns our cues
Actor Adam Sandler . . . or is it? Credit: AP/Netflix, Inc.
In a three-day span, my Facebook feed recently displayed three ads for Type 2 diabetes cures using AI-generated videos of celebrities touting different supplements. I wouldn’t have known that they were fake if I hadn’t tried to find more information online about the first one, which was by an award-winning Japanese endocrinologist.
I couldn’t find any references to his claim about being sued by the pharmaceutical firm that makes a certain diabetes medication.
It turns out that the name in the ad was in fact a respected doctor, but the person in the video was someone else and likely generated by AI.
The next day, I saw another ad for a diabetes cure. This time it was Adam Sandler touting a supplement. Next, an ad featuring Sen. Bernie Sanders talking about a different cure.
In all three cases, viewers’ comments were disabled. What’s terrifying about this was that all three videos were completely believable. The voices, the images, and movements all looked as though the real people were selling these products. Federal laws are needed to prevent this misuse of AI.
— William Yovino, Rockville Centre
Where is AI taking us? It’s no longer science fiction to imagine that soon we’ll have the ability to create our own digital companion — one who appears on screen, flawlessly lip-synching its words and expressing genuine human emotion, empathy, and nuance in real time. It will move, look, and feel just like we’re FaceTiming a real person.
With just a few taps on a digital menu, we’ll be able to customize every detail — its gender, age, voice, appearance, nationality, environment, and personality traits. We could even upload a photo of someone we’d like it to resemble.
It’ll be our always-available confidant — an ever-present BFF whose emotional connection to us may feel more real than human interaction itself.
— Martin Geller, Manhasset
WE ENCOURAGE YOU TO JOIN OUR DAILY CONVERSATION. Just go to newsday.com/submitaletter and follow the prompts. Or email your opinion to letters@newsday.com. Submissions should be no more than 200 words. Please provide your full name, hometown, phone number and any relevant expertise or affiliation. Include the headline and date of the article you are responding to. Letters become the property of Newsday and are edited for all media. Due to volume, readers are limited to one letter in print every 45 days. Published letters reflect the ratio received on each topic.
