As I get older my birthdays become less of a celebratory event and more of a marker of how much closer I am getting to the median age of death for people in the United States. Is that bleak? Yea. But in a way it’s a nice reminder that pushes me to love life and accomplish as much as I can/want before my time here on earth comes to an end.

Luckily for me, I look my age (42) and maybe, on occasion, a couple years younger. I don’t know how much longer that will last, but I’m going to keep up my skin care routine in the morning just in case.

I wrote this blog because as I get older I’ve been thinking about something that concerns me. Artificial Intelligence, or rather the misuse of it. Unexpected subject shift huh? But I mean think about the older people in your life, shit even yourself and ask yourself: Have I or someone I know ever fallen for an email or phone scam. The answer is most likely yes and none of those kinds of scams used AI.

Recently, I’ve had older family members, friends my age, and even myself see a photo, or video that is AI generated and think it’s real. It’s pretty insane. It has me starting to question most of the things I see online and double check if there is corresponding evidence to prove its authenticity. Which is probably a good habit to have regardless, but still worrying.

I just have a fear of the intended and unintended consequences that may occur when people see videos of shit and think it’s real because AI has gotten to the point where it’s indistinguishable from reality. I want to stay vigilant. As I get older though I know my brain will get older (in a different kind of way) as well. So catching those kind of things may become more difficult for my aging mind. Regardless of the knowledge I have at the time.

I implore you to do the same. For yourself, your family and your friends. And if it’s currently like the year 2045 and I’m much older and AI has taken over on some matrix shit, disregard all of this. AI is awesome and I love you please don’t hurt me robots from the year 2045.

Thanks for reading.

Your Fav Bday boy

Bucky