Sometimes, when you open up the newspaper in the morning (information for anyone under 50 – the “newspaper” is a printed version of the news, generally shortened from what you can find on-line, and usually at least 24 hours out of date, which people over the age of 50 believe to contain the latest news), you see things that surprise you.

For example, the Post this morning reports that Joe Biden has become very concerned about his continuing low poll ratings. Art Hessel has been very concerned about Joe Biden’s low poll ratings for months. Why has it taken Joe Biden until now to become so concerned? Is it possibly because he has slowed down, and that this is also the reason that his poll numbers remain so low? I am not answering this question, just asking it. And Biden may remain quick on the uptake internally, even when so many look at him and conclude otherwise. I don’t know. But I do know, as someone – as I have long said – only one week younger than him, that I would not trust myself to be president of the United States for the next 5 years and I don’t know if anyone thinks that I have slowed down mentally. (Of course, I think that I have – otherwise why would I have spent so much time looking for a bagel to toast this morning before finding it in the toaster where I had put it 5 minutes earlier?) And maybe Joe Biden has been concerned about his polling for months and has just kept it to himself?

[Diversion: Mr. President: it isn’t too late to step aside. I am sure that the Booker/Whitmer (or Whitmer/Booker) ticket is ready to go. (I know many of you disagree with me, I know, and I respect your disagreement and will defend, but perhaps not to the death, your right to disagree.)]

But this is not the Post first page article that intrigued me the most. That article is “Flood of falsehoods; AI fake news surges online”. And I quote: 

“Since May, websites hosting AI-created false articles have increased by more than 1000 percent, ballooning from 40 sites to more than 600, according to Newsguard, an organization that tracks misinformation.”

The long article then goes on (and on) to discuss the type of misinformation that is being published all throughout the world, starting with an article about Benjamin Netanyahu being somehow involved in the mysterious death of his psychiatrist. The article is 100% false (so they say), but has been published as real news all around the world. Whether Netanyahu has a psychiatrist we don’t know (we do know that if he does, he needs a new one), and if he does, it isn’t the one who is described in the fake news article, and that the whole story about the death, much less Bibi’s involvement is fake news. Or is it?

Maybe it’s true and maybe Newsguard is a fake organization. Maybe Biden’s polling numbers aren’t bad, and all the polling data being reported is false. Maybe Biden is not 81, but is really 18 (and is too young to be president anyway).

In fact, we really don’t know anything, do we?

And that is what got me thinking…….

Yes, Donald Trump may be a major risk to American democracy. But 78 year old Donald Trump will fade away one day in the near future (just like Biden and Hessel). But AI won’t.

And maybe it’s AI that will spell the end of democracy everywhere. Because if you can’t trust the news you receive AT ALL, you can’t have elections that rely on your interpretation of the news you receive. And if the amount of fake news keeps accelerating (and why shouldn’t it?) and it is an international phenomenon that knows no boundaries, how can meaningful democratic elections occur anywhere?

I quote again: ”Well dressed, AI-generated news anchors are spewing pro-Chinese propaganda, amplified by bot networks sympathetic to Beijing. In Slovakia, politicians up for election have found that their voices have been cloned to say controversial things they have never uttered, days before voters went to the polls. A growing number of websites, with generic names such as iBusiness Day or Ireland Top News, are delivering fake news made to look genuine in languages from Arabic to Thai.”

I will stick to reliable news sources, myself. By the way, I heard this morning that the cow jumped over the moon, and the dish ran away with the spoon. Heard that on a major network. But then I heard on iBusiness Day that it wasn’t true, but Ireland Top News swears by it. I don’t know what to think.