Reflections: AI versus Virtual Community

2025-03-13T15:48:57

With whom are we interacting, when we are choosing to invest our time into building what is often referred to as a community online?

^{Source: Creator susan-lu4esm on Pixabay}

As I begin my day, I am typically taking a glance at all the various streams of information, ~~pouring into~~ washing over lives, like a tsunami wave.

^{Source: Creator lazarosv on Pixabay}

^{It is inconceivable to me that readers of this post will not have a similar thought process about this overwhelming amount of information. All around us. All the time.}

As the wave carries you along, what stands out? What catches your attention enough to look into it more? For me, a very sobering post is what lies behind my choice of what to write about today.

Back Story
Reality

Think of having a vision of some new enterprise into which you invest all your hopes and dreams for the future. For most, one of the essential aspects of moving forward would be finding workers to help you achieve them, right?

Here is the story of what one such enterprise encountered:

"A full-remote security startup nearly hired a backend engineer who doesn’t exist, after a candidate used an AI filter as an on-screen disguise in video interviews."

[Source: "AI fakers exposed in tech dev recruitment: postmortem"]

^{Source: Post on "The Pragmatic Engineer"}

AI combined with the growing power of virtual reality. A key takeaway:

"Later, you discover that two imposters hiding behind deepfake avatars almost succeeded in tricking your startup into hiring them."

Two quick follow-on thoughts came to me, upon reading this post:

Programming code. Remote employees working from home. Is there a better environment for at least the first efforts of this type? If so, it did not come to mind.

Trust. Deep learning, etc. applied to writing code. Who will be watching over future segments of code, to ensure no malignant segment survives their audit? How will they manage to do this, with what deep learning represents?

We may wish to think something like this is just not real. Surely the story itself is suspect, right?

________________________

You may want to read it and judge for yourself. For me, I had no problem believing it whatsoever.

Artificial, Virtual,
Reality

Do all three of these words go together? How much time do we spend even thinking about anything like this? Is blurring them all together, as though there is "nothing to see here, move along!" a good idea?

________________________

More and more, any bright , "new" ideas may not have originated with a person.

^{Source: Creator MaabHasanLENS on Pixabay}

At least not unaided by the relentlessly advancing AI tools which are competing with each other for supremacy. That would include people writing on a blockchain as their contribution to building on online community.

Look at my lead image. What a cute little harmless creature, right? Combined with deep learning focused on creating content that was affirming, positive, etc. Published in any online community today, what could possibly go wrong?

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Yes, I am well aware this is not some new revelation or idea. Given all the many challenges flowing from this indisputable new "reality," the first generation of these new AI tools have been identified as being just that. Artificial. Fairly easily discernible, right?

What about tomorrow?

Looking into the
Future

As we take a hard look into our future ...

^{Source: Creator NickyPe on Pixabay}

... and give any thought to how quickly our reality is changing, I hope we will all be reflecting on what is true. And what is not. What is real. And what is not.

"Resistance is futile." Hmmm ...

[Source: The Borg on Star Trek: First Contact]

And what is at stake, in even thinking about it.

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From my post on "Virtual community. Reality?" to this one, this topic is often on my mind. With my memories of life growing up as a child versus what we see around us of children's experiences of today taking center stage.

How about you? What are your thoughts about this aspect of our future?

Best wishes, until we meet again,
QT