Transcript
Social media is about to drastically change. Definitely for the scarier, but we have the potential to make it for the better. This clip was generated from a single image plus an audio clip. And now you run a wellness business. Microsoft just unveiled their VASA-1 talking head AI, specialized in generating characters with visual effective skills, i.e. nuanced human-like facial expressions and head motions. Meanwhile, voice cloning is getting scarily good. Within the next year, any random Twitter troll in their basement will be able to make a video of me, carried on the back of four elephants being carried through space by a giant turtle. This is scary. But a teenager in their basement might also end up making a movie that wins an Oscar and brings an audience to tears. Because these tools can also act as a creativity amplifier. This is amazing. I've spent the last few years trying to stem the waterfall of misinformation using a little paper towel. It may be highly absorbent, but it's a losing battle. But it's still mostly coming from individuals who make confident claims based on a poor understanding of science. And then those videos get clicked and reposted everywhere and get millions of views. But at least there's a silver line. that if I make a bunch of videos debunking that one person, then next time you see them, you can know to take everything they say with a bit of a grain of salt. A dose of healthy skepticism. But soon it won't matter if a video features me or Elizabeth Holmes. If I'm not the one posting it, then you can't trust it. And there will be a bunch of that sort of trust based on verified accounts type of security. But there's another option, a better one. What if we start training kids from a young age to be wary of any argument from authority? What if every platform, like this one, forced any creator that's making a factual claim in their video to also include a source for that claim, alongside a feature where people can then rate the quality of that source and maybe have a little side discussion about it. I wish I had the resources to build a brand new platform based on this core feature. But for now, I at least want to start the conversation. Let's not just adapt to change, but direct it. Let's create a digital platform where truth is not just spoken, where trust is earned with transparency, and every voice validates its veracity.
Additional notes
Would you use a platform like i described? How would you tweak it? #socialmedia #science #truth #misinformation #ai