This is going to sound flippant, but I'm serious: in a world of nonsense, something that generates nonsense (ai) is a fantastic tool. The issue is our acceptan

This is going to sound flippant, but I'm serious: in a world of nonsense, something that generates nonsense (ai) is a fantastic tool. The issue is our acceptance of information as if it were true, as if misleading ideas were not monetisable, as if we can outsource the basis for why we make decisions to an external authority. Hardly anyone verifies anything. Most simply accept whatever they are told. Deep skepticism and empiricism are used by very few - instead we have been taught to trust authoritative sources (media, academia) which can be both well meaning and wrong. Anyway, skepticism and personal verification is the best answer I have to the whole story saga of how to determine truth from lies. This issue is under an especially bright spotlight thanks to ai. I'm pessimistic over whether many will be prepared to 'verify better' in the future. Unfortunately, I suspect things will have to get a lot worse before we start to learn. It seems that ai can create compelling content, that will be tailored to each individual - who could resist 24/7 pandering to one's predilections and biases?