Marilyn Monroe in a Broadway play? Humphrey Bogart in a thrilling sci-mi movie? DJT lauding the policies of Biden in an ad on CNN? Biden admitting that Carlson’s right about Hunter on Fox? The NASA chief acknowledging to Russian media that Americans have a military base on the far side of the moon that’s developing the high tech superweapons once stored at Area 51?
All that can be done with AI now…and almost by anyone! AI is now the dream-tool of liars, swindlers, conspiracy theorists, and con artists. The X-Files theorem “Trust no one!” now must have the added corollary “Trust nothing you hear or see” (and soon maybe “or touch”?).
The audio part is clear: AI software can duplicate the voices of any dead actor, Trump le Chump, Old Joe Biden, or other VIPs. You say, maybe not the accents? A recent CNN segment had a reporter with an Irish brogue fool his relatives in Ireland. This makes sense. Voices are like fingerprints—they’re unique to individuals, and AI software just needs to duplicate an individual’s voiceprint. Piece of cake!
The video part was once somewhat more difficult, but no longer. Those imitated voices can now be accompanied by a visual record that looks just like the person who owns that voice is speaking and going through the motions one might expect. CGI has long made animals talk, ETs walk, and dead humans come to life, while holograms can provide 3D if necessary. (“Real to the touch” will come next, but true androids that clone humans and are contolled by AI software, of course, are just around the corner.)
All of this can be done now using AI. It’s a brave new world for reasons Aldous Huxley could never have imagined, although some later sci-fi writers (myself included) have come close, just as they imagined cellphones and Tasers (Star Trek’s communicators and phasers—yes, Tasers, like phasers, can be lethal). And by being a keen observer of human behavior like I am, I can guarantee that the good, the bad, and the ugly we see in human beings will all appear among our AIs’ creations. Even a widow or widower deeply mourning the loss of a spouse will be able to ask an AI to create a simulcram allowing comforting chats between the two spouses, something that will undoubtedly give rise to new challenges for psychologists and psychiatrists. (Now there’s a story someone should write!) The possibilities are endless as the technology continues to improve, but the basics already exist.
Whether we will all be motivated to participate in creating these alternate realities and using them, we’re undoubtedly going to see a lot more from AI. Fasten your seatbelts, people!
Now excuse me. I’m going to pinch myself to see if I’m real. Maybe I’m just an AI’s creation, and the damn software is writing this article, copying my style I once thought was inimitable?