AI is taking over, and could be writing this very post that you’re reading

The illusion is bigger than we realize, now that technology has made such huge strides forward in recent years. The ancient wisdom has always warned us about the world of Maya, this material world. But now the advent of AI has brought this illusory energy right into our homes and into this blog site. And that’s because some of the posts here on this blog could be written by AI, and you wouldn’t even know the difference.

This is where curation is so important. I came across this article written here three years ago already describing this very concept. When I came across the fact that Steemit is plagued by bidbots and all sorts of other bots, I couldn’t help but think that it’s possible AI could even be writing some of the comments and perhaps even the articles. And now my suspicions have been confirmed. They can.

I’m not saying they do or which articles look like AI generated them because it’s not that easily detectable to the untrained eye, but according to the post by @yogi.artist, who has since left Steemit some time ago already (I wonder why?) you simply write the title, and in 20 seconds your AI software will compose a 750 word article for you that fully passes the copyright parameters as original content.

That’s it – 20 seconds and you have your post. Most of us spend a few hours at a time writing something we feel is good enough to put our names to. On reading the AI-generated post in the article, one can tell that it is a bit generic and mediocre, but then so are numerous of the posts we see on this site all the time, so whose to say which are real and which are artificial, in the true sense of the word?

In other words, pun intended, one could churn out AI posts in 20 seconds all day long and post them til the coin rolls home, with no effort or Proof of Brain whatsoever. Traders do this when they use algorithmic trading bots to do their trading for them 24/7. Wall St is mostly fast trading bots now, since they can execute trades much faster, without the need for a break and thus scoop up profits like there’s no tomorrow. Thousands of trades can be executed in minutes, to such a degree that the stock market is now mostly AI-run. It’s mostly bots trading against each other all across the country from the east coast to the west, while the humans rake in the profits.

And now the truth is out that bots are writing posts too. In fact I heard a story of how bots write news articles too. And they are writing them based on what they pick up in the news. So a bot may find a news article written by another bot and then write its corresponding story, only to trigger still more. But what if that story was fake news, written by a maliciously programmed bot to insight social unrest or real fake news, if you get the oxymoron. This could trigger a cascade of fake stories that look legitimate because they have a valid reference to a report or story posted elsewhere. But that original post could be the red herring to begin with.

One fake post could lead to a cascade of further stories like a game of broken telephone, where the source deliberately distorts the initial information to deliberately disseminate lies or propaganda to incite something sinister. This is the world we are already living in, dominated by AI. Of course, the bots are run and programmed by people, so it’s not that AI is taking over, but it is overtaking. And we slow-thinking humans are being left behind.

Just imagine someone here on this social media platform has access to one of these bots or software, which some may actually have, since it’s probably not too expensive, may even be free. And they churn out some random, mediocre post in 20 seconds, publish it and then wait for the humans to curate it, and compliment the author, give them some upvotes and thus fill their bags with coin, all for free. I mean look at some of the stuff that comes out of some authors’ minds... There is nothing original under the sun – that is a reference from the Old Testament Bible by the way.

The implication is shocking when we really think about it, and the realization is that we need to be more discerning about what content we upvote. Online interaction could be with someone quite different from their profile picture and name, so don’t get too sentimental with who you are befriending online. I am not so naive. And now that AI is here, we can trust no one on the internet. It’s not a train smash when dealing with our little curation trails and blog posts here on our social media sights, but it can become a globally destructive force when this kind of AI is used to write news posts for publications that people think are truthful and legitimate because apparently the bot can come up with fake quotes from real people, what to speak of fake news about real places, which could incite social reactions of dire consequences.

In Bhagavad Gita Krishna speaks to Arjuna the mighty warrior, on the battlefield just before the war, and having explained the illusion and reality to him, asks

कच्च‍िदेतच्छ्रुतं पार्थ त्वयैकाग्रेण चेतसा ।
कच्च‍िदज्ञानसम्मोह: प्रणष्टस्ते धनञ्जय ॥ ७२ ॥

kaccid etac chrutaṁ pārtha
tvayaikāgreṇa cetasā
kaccid ajñāna-sammohaḥ
praṇaṣṭas te dhanañ-jaya

“O son of Pṛthā, O conqueror of wealth, have you heard this with an attentive mind? And are your ignorance and illusions now dispelled?”

Bhagavad Gita as it is ch 18:72 translated by Swami A. C. Bhaktivedanta

So to conclude, I’m saying that the illusion is bigger than we think today. Already the living entity is under the illusion that s/he is the mind and body in which s/he resides, thinking this material planet is the be all and end all, and develops sentimental attachment to the land and family of birth, when this too shall pass away at the end of life though the journey continues for the eternal living entity.

The illusion is all-pervading, like a giant Truman Show, or Vanilla Sky, or The Island, for those who have seen the Hollywood movies. Obviously the Matrix Trilogy is the most well known movie theme of our existence in the illusion of that name. And Elon Musk is already developing AI bots to write posts that are impossible to detect, though even he has held back on releasing them because they are too good and may be misused. The technology is out there guys, and it’s coming to video format too, where splicing and dicing can engineer a video of a real person appearing to say something they never said in a speech or otherwise. Hollywood has used such AI generated visuals already. So you cannot trust even video footage any more. The illusion is bigger than you imagine, we are surrounded by it.

The least we can do is be discerning with what we ourselves create and curate. Keep it real, keep it human. This may be the last chance for “Truthers” people who tell you who they are and what they look like in their profiles, to avoid obfuscation. Of course all of that can be artificial too, so trust no one, even if you yourself personally have to be disguised to protect yourself. Everyone has some reason to hide, which is not lying, just diplomacy. That’s not the problem. Anonymity is totally allowed and necessary sometimes, in this era of identity theft.

But don’t be fooled by the rise of AI and the powerful who wield it to keep us even more in illusion that ever. Soon immersive gaming will become the norm and we will enter the virtual reality like a dream within a dream, covering the truth with yet another layer of illusion, where the living entity can spend a lifetime in a state of bewildered unconsciousness as to their true identity, never awakening from the Matrix, but living entrapped within its grasp, providing the puppet masters with all the power they want from your surrender of your freedom and your conscious awareness of who you really are.