Tom Hanks Warns Against Malevolent AI Coming for Your Money, Your Vote, and Your Self-Esteem
How AI Is Stealing Identities, Black Communities Are Heat Prisons, DeSantis Pal Gets $1 Million to Run Small College, Aaron Rodgers Won't Grow Up, Marvin Gaye Sings
What I’m Discussing Today:
Kareem’s Daily Quote: W.B. Yeats explains the dangerous problem with the best of us and the worst of us—and why neither is good for us.
Tom Hanks Warns Against AI Identity Theft: This new variant has no vaccine. Not only can it steal your face, it can change society and politics.
Discrimination Is Causing Heat Prisons that Kill More Blacks: Record-breaking heat affects the Black Community much worse than other communities.
Kareem’s Video Break: One of the most dynamic displays of table tennis athleticism and concentration I’ve ever seen. With a cool ending.
DeSantis Pays $1 Million to Crony to Run a Small College: Did I say run? I meant ruin.
Aaron Rodgers Mocks Travis Kelce: Despite overwhelming evidence of the millions of lives saved by the COVID-19 vaccine, Rodgers is still taunting those supporting vaccines.
Trump Rants That He Has No Jury: The problem with his rant: His attorneys did not ask for a jury.
Marvin Gaye Sings “Inner City Blues (Make Me Wanna Holler)”: The lyrics are pure poetry—and a testament to how little has changed.
Kareem’s Daily Quote
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.
from “The Second Coming” by William Butler Yeats
Yeats’ “The Second Coming” may be the most sampled poem in the English language. It’s referenced and quoted almost as much as any work of Shakespeare. Phrases from the poem have been chosen as titles for some of our most famous works, from Joan Didion’s book Slouching Toward Bethlehem to Robert B. Parker’s mystery novel The Widening Gyre.
These two lines have always stood out to me as a warning to remember that all my principles need to be rigorously—and continuously—examined to make sure they haven’t been contaminated by personal prejudice, greed, ambition, laziness, fear, or social pressure. And that advocating principles is not the same as acting on them. Talking ain’t the same as walking.
“The best lack all conviction” is one of the scariest phrases I’ve ever read. To me, the “the best” refers to those who have had the best education, the best jobs, and who profess themselves to be the embodiment of what our society offers. And yet, though they may mouth all the patriotic platitudes of our culture, they hold no real convictions except for their own advancement and enrichment. They justify their “hollow men” status with cliches such as, “It’s not personal, it’s just business.” They claim that everything they do is for their family because, in their mind, that excuses ruthlessness.
“The worst are full of passionate intensity” condemns those whose actions are fueled by ill-formed self-righteousness that they exalt as “passionate intensity.” I often hear people excuse bad behavior by claiming with pride that they are passionate. Child abusers are passionate. Criminals are passionate. Passion without reason is just childish emotion.
Joni Mitchel adapted this poem into a song, “Slouching Toward Bethlehem,” and amazingly actually improved Yeats’ lines:
The best lack conviction
Given some time to think
And the worst are full of passion
Without mercy
The addition of “given some time to think” clearly expresses how we can justify our lack of conviction by claiming we are looking at all sides of an issue and, therefore, never have to commit to any path of action.
The addition of “without mercy” is a much better explanation of how blind passion born out of unquestioned tradition and unexamined teachings leads to actions meant to signal virtue rather than solve a problem. The passion isn’t really for the issue at hand but is from the need of the person to belong to a group and to demonstrate fierce loyalty in order to remain. Such passionate need has no room for mercy.
Between “the best” and “the worst” are the rest of us, struggling daily to do the right thing based on reason, empathy, and compassion. These lines help remind me of that.
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AI Is Coming for Your Money, Your Vote, and Your Self-Esteem
Tom Hanks says AI version of him used in dental plan ad without his consent (The Guardian)
SUMMARY: Tom Hanks has warned fans that an ad for a dental plan that appears to use his image is in fact fake and was created using artificial intelligence.
In a message posted to his 9.5 million Instagram followers, the actor said his image was used without his permission. “BEWARE!! There’s a video out there promoting some dental plan with an AI version of me. I have nothing to do with it,” Hanks wrote over a screenshot of a computer-generated image of himself from the clip.
MY TAKE: At first glance, this story might not seem very consequential. Rich movie stars whining about unauthorized use of their image may seem like Disney sending a thousand lawyers after a kid selling homemade Goofy t-shirts at a swap meet. But the issue is much bigger and is more like the implanted creature from Alien waiting to burst through our chests, leaving the host dead on the ground. Our culture and our democracy are hosting this creature—and we are at risk.
Let’s start with culture. The fact that AI can replace actors has so many cringy ramifications. Aside from replicating existing actors, we can give birth to a whole generation of actors that don’t exist in real life but are made up of stolen physical characteristics of real actors. The complexity of human love, grief, joy, and regret is reduced to zeroes and ones.
One side-effect that’s not been widely discussed is how this technology furthers our cultural obsession with youth, which results in a greater marginalization and devaluation of aging and the elderly. Hanks warns, “Right now if I wanted to, I could get together and pitch a series of seven movies that would star me in them in which I would be 32 years old from now until kingdom come. Anybody can now recreate themselves at any age they are by way of AI or deepfake technology.”
Instead of appreciating actors aging into new roles, we can freeze them in amber at the age we find them most attractive. They will forever be young, forever ready for their close-up, Mr. DeMille.
We already have a history of technically enhancing models’ faces and bodies for maximum “attractiveness.” The concept of attractiveness is self-perpetuating: We’re programmed by manipulated photos, favorable lighting, and make-up artists to have a narrow view of what is attractive. This chasing of an unachievable beauty ideal has resulted in massive low self-esteem issues for many young women (“Girls Have Much Lower Self-Esteem During Their Teen Years, According To New Study”) and an obsession with plastic surgery, de-aging treatments, and more that generates billions of dollars. We get it: aging is actual death—but it’s also being treated like you’re already dead.
We might also worry that if actors can be reproduced to promote commercial products, they can also be used to endorse political candidates or promote social issues that the actual person does not endorse or promote. The problem is that finding the culprits isn’t always that easy since it’s being done online. And even if these bogus ads keep getting taken down, they can still pop up again. Besides, the damage will already have been done because the targets of these ads aren’t people who would read exposes about these fake ads, they are people who just accept what they see as real without question. And that’s a lot of people who spend money—and vote.
I have written often in my column in praise of many of the benefits of AI technology. But we have already seen the damage from misinformation on social media perpetrated by China, Russia, and North Korea in an effort to influence our elections and political policies. This relentless onslaught will only become more effective with the use of deepfake recreations of celebrities and politicians.
If all those people obsessed with the Second Amendment would understand that if “a well regulated Militia” is “necessary to the security of a free State,” so is a well-read populace necessary to the security of a free State.
Feel free to open-carry a newspaper or book.