The Skeeter Daddle Diaries

That great promise of the internet, to give to all access to the knowledge of the universe, seems to have gotten lost in the shuffle between shopping, porn and, surprise, surprise, trolling. Give folks all the anonymity they require to hide behind and the bad imp will whisper ugly thoughts in their heads. Something about lacking fear of retribution gives these people license to spew lies and threats and the worst racist and misogynistic outpourings imaginable. What lurks beneath the surface suddenly has a megaphone. They’re only too happy to share their sewage with all the rest of us.

And of course AI. AI doesn’t really discriminate between truth and fiction, evil and good, philosophy and hate speech. It just sweeps up all the data, all the essays, all the books, all the articles, all the internet and all the bullshit available to every lucky one of us. So when you finally get around to asking your AI bot for some information or even, god forbid, an opinion regarding what you course of action you might take, given a set of circumstances you need help navigating, don’t be surprised if your way too smart companion drops a racist, homophobic, antisemitic or misogynistic screed on you. Sort of like Dear Abby with a propensity for trolling.

In this post-fact era we live in, folks pretty much believe what they read in their insular little bubble of information. Their president is a serial liar, hardly worth fact-checking anymore. Greatest this, worst that, everything like nothing you’ve ever seen or heard before. Numbers are made up, statistics are skewed, doesn’t matter, all part of the strange new world we live in now. It should come as no surprise that AI will take that ball and run with it, forming its own opinions based on all manner of misinformation and spitting it back at you. And the best part? Most of us will take it as gospel … but count on it, the machines are going to have the last best laugh.