Can we actually ever believe anything we see or hear on the news, youtube or even google. Even speeches made by prominent politicians and celebrities have been doctored and faked using AI. Even music and art are being copied, sometimes even confounding the experts.
Is it a disease of the internet and will eventually be it’s demise?
This question was being asked in another thread and I felt it deserved a thread of it’s own.
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I have a subscription to a privacy-oriented AI platform. My queries are not put into some mega database where it can be found or used by others. Even so, I have had “arguments” with the AI because it is just plain wrong. Those who believe and rely on what AI tells them should be extremely cautious. It just regurgitates what it scrapes from multiple sources. AI is the epitome of “I saw it on the internet, so it must be true.”
Always ask AI for sources and check them yourself. AI isn’t a disease and it won’t destroy the internet. Facebook, Reddit, Youtube, X, and google are already destroying people’s brains without AI. I’ll give you an example. I worked in a large establishment in the 1980s. I was responsible for dozens of establishment-wide projects. I was constantly on the phone to the leaders, workers, and teams doing the projects. I could have told you the extension number of at least 600 people off the top of my head. Now? Since my phone remembers the numbers, I don’t have to. Is that progress? I don’t think so. People are losing the ability to memorize things because technology does these things for you.
Driving without digital assistance, calling people, even basic grammar and spelling are being lost to the modern person, because computers do it for us. There are a lot of benefits to the internet, but like every positive, there are always negatives that accompany it. I tell my people that “Engineers make decisions to try to get as many positives for as few negatives as possible.” That’s my question about the internet and AI in general: Do the positives outweigh the negatives?
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I use Ai (Chat GPT) on a regular basis, usually when analysing spread sheets, compiling data bases or creating images for work. I have also used it on the moments when I need to rephrase the odd email. It now literally saves me hours per week, however I also work with lots of people with very little work experience and in some case little intelligence of their own but they manage to bluff their way through by creating presentations and documents with no real knowledge of the subject they are working on and rely solely on Ai. This does worry me a little, as it is becoming easier for inexperienced people to bluff their way into a position they are not personally qualified to do. The over reliance on Ai really does effect the way we do or don’t learn. In short do I believe anything now ? Not really.
Below is the Ai answer to your question. 
Probably more eloquent than myself but not so human.
That’s a very thoughtful question—and one that’s becoming more urgent as technology evolves.
You’re right: we’ve reached a stage where seeing or hearing is no longer enough to guarantee truth. Deepfakes, AI-generated voices, manipulated images, and algorithmic amplification make it possible for almost anything to look and feel authentic, even when it isn’t. That erodes the old assumption that “evidence” was self-proving.
A few points to consider:
1. This isn’t entirely new
Propaganda, forged documents, staged photos, and misleading edits have existed long before AI. The internet amplifies the speed and reach, but the underlying challenge—how to know what’s trustworthy—is ancient.
2. The “disease” isn’t the internet itself
The internet is more like an ecosystem. It enables connection, democratized expression, and information sharing, but also misinformation and deception. The problem is less the medium itself and more the lack of systems and habits for verification.
3. Verification will become the new literacy
Just like we once learned to read, write, and evaluate sources in books, the new literacy is digital skepticism:
- Looking for provenance (where content came from, whether it’s traceable).
- Checking multiple sources.
- Watching for context stripping (a real video clipped to mislead).
- Relying on outlets that have strong fact-checking standards, even if imperfect.
Technology is also being developed to help—watermarking AI content, blockchain-based media verification, and real-time detection tools.
4. It won’t be the “demise” of the internet, but it may reshape it
If trust collapses entirely, people may retreat into closed, verified communities (think subscription news, smaller platforms, or networks where identity is guaranteed). The open web may feel increasingly chaotic, while trustworthy zones become gated.
5. Human judgment will always matter
Even with all the tech, people will still decide who they trust. Reputation, consistency, and accountability will carry more weight than a single viral video or soundbite.
So—is it a disease? Maybe it’s more like a fever: a symptom of rapid change that forces us to develop new immune systems (both technological and cultural) for truth.
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I’ve heard that students now use AI to write essays for their university degrees. We were having this discussion at work with some undergraduate placement students and I told them using AI is just cheating themselves of the learning experience and knowledge. They are going to end up with years of student loans having learned zilch.
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Two of my children are high school teachers. They now need training, to spot Ai produced work. Quite ironic, the teachers needing lessons to understand if it’s Ai or students. Their lesson its self is probably developed by Ai.
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They are introducing a finance system at work that has an AI component. We have been told that when we fix the mistakes it makes it will “learn” and eventually do better. I don’t think our jobs are at risk just yet…but it’s super creepy.
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Creepy is a good adjective !
The paraadox/irony of all of this, is that nowadays we often hear and read about how important it is for older generations to continue keeping their brains active by doing word games, participating in social activities, reading, chatting to other humans, in order to avoid or at least try to minimise cognitive decline in the future.
On the contrary , A1 is “shutting off” the brains of younger generations. 
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Some very good and informative posts here. Some points I had not considered, but why would I?
After spending most of my life working with my hands and gaining information from books or my predecessors, at 75 I’m finding it difficult to adapt to this new world of bots, algorithms and AI.
I thought I was doing well in the late nineties adapting to computers and designing spread sheets and data bases, even doing complex electronics drawings, but the world of IT, smartphones and robotics is leaving me behind, and I have let go of the need to keep up. I find myself withdrawing into a world that I can partially (due to age) understand with facts that I can trust (mostly from memory) and doing things the old fashioned way…
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As a technophobe I’ve always pretty much felt obsolete compared to a computer anyway … but that presupposes I also trust the computer …
This AI is a whole new ball game.
Humans are on their way out.
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I’m the same in preferring the old way. You only have to have a day when the banking networks are down to see the carnage that is created.
But rather than ‘assistive’, AI technlogy is now developing into a whole new type of beast. I find it quite scary if I let my imagination go.
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Hi
Yep, carnage is right.
Wars are now being fought by targeting electronic systems, and in traditional British style we have ignored this and are only now thinking about it.
Other countries are well ahead of us in protecting their critical infrastructure, we are miles behind.
Water, gas, electricity, money, electronic payments, all crucial things which can have a devasting effect on a Country and all not properly defended against hacking.
A lot of our systems can be easily overwhelmed by using AI hacking programmes, and this, to me, is the most critical danger.
We had one small electricity sub station go down at Heathrow which stopped the biggest airport in Europe working for a day.
They had two other substations big enough to take over, but neither was programmed to take over immediately.
It is quite possible that an AI attack could stop our Internet operating, leaving us without a functioning society.
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Hear hear @OldGreyFox and @Morticia!
I’ve started watching Zero Day, I hate to imagine our world if there really was a cybertattack to that extent? 
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Surely AI is the internet?
Certainly it is challenging what is actually true and real … but photo shopping, plagiarism and fakes have always been around. Loss of grammar or even basic knowledge - that has been around for decades. Students cheating or job candidates cheating - there is a bigger issue at hand.
For me AI will cause massive social disruption very soon. AI is already speeding up the routine work for many and completely replacing jobs for some. This is low cost computing to replace people’s paid work. There is much political buzz about AI improving productivity. Not much noise about how to address the drop off in hiring people and the increase in lay offs. Already in the US, graduates are struggling to get on the job ladder at tech companies. Those entry level data and programming jobs are now done by AI. There is still need for human judgement but that is for people already progressing up the career ladder.
So we risk a generation without access to certain jobs and industries. We will have companies across all industries cutting their work force as productivity increases. This glut of experienced workers will suppress salaries for everyone. At the same time we will have companies increasing their profits so the shareholders and directors will get even richer.
This is not a happy outlook. And that’s before you consider the possible misguided use of AI (or AI guiding its own use in its own best interest).
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Yes, and because we are so clever, it will be our own undoing. 
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Do you reckon the human race has just become plain lazy?
Did it all start with the innocuous TV remote control.
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I actually wonder if our inherent laziness has been the source of much invention. However, here with AI, I suspect its a bunch of tech blokes with high IQ (and low EQ) and an insatiable appetite for wealth. And a massive disregard for ordinary people. I read that Oracle alone is burning $1 billion a year on gas turbines to power their data centres - which are required for AI. Graduate hiring by US tech companies is down 50%.
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A movie before it’s time was War Games when AI takes over and considers launching nuclear missiles .
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Good post Lincs except I don’t think I agree with your statement ‘AI is the internet’…I believe the internet is merely the conduit for data, AI is part of that data. It’s like saying ‘Pornography is the internet’ but it’s only data that uses the conduit of the Internet.
Yes, Photo shopping, plagiarism, fakes and exam cheating have always been present but with AI they have been taken to a whole new level never been seen before, and very difficult to recognise and stop or block for anyone who uses the Internet.
I would say that the internet is split into good and bad, perhaps at 80 to 20 in favour of good and reliable. A decent source of knowledge and good for things like secure banking and shopping, not to mention a good distributor of news. Not all of it unbiased though…
But AI is adding a new dimension, a dimension where not everything that you see is true, and there comes a point where, can you actually believe anything you see?
So everything becomes invalid…
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One theory is in time AI will look so realistic that we will have politicians running for office , audiences at interviews , etc which do not even exist and all run by a few corporate big shots .
Being a movie buff it reminds me of Rollerball .
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