It’s a gray one today, we’ve had some snow, but I think it turned to rain because the snow on the ground is mostly gone. Oddly, underneath, some of the grass was bright green.
Ah, Chicago.
Before we go anywhere, I will stick with my rule of only using the name the person uses publicly, so thank you SO MUCH Bears Instead of Humans (WINK) for the coffees! Which, as you know, I threatened to chug all once given my dragginess yesterday. I am so gratified to give form to the thoughts you are also having, it’s what makes me sit down here, day after day. Thank you.
And now on to Wednesday.
Yesterday, you might have seen a very gratifying video in which a woman behind the counter at a restaurant shooed out ICE. It’s very short:
Well today, someone over on Spoutible informed me that this video is AI generated, with examples of why.
Here’s that post. I have trouble embedding Spoutible posts here, so it’s a screenshot, and if you click it, a link to the spout over there:
Granted, it’s possible that they’re wrong, but the evidence is pretty persuasive, especially the nonsense sign and the hand in the presumably at safe-to-hold temperature sauce.
I was absolutely had.
These videos have gotten so realistic, if you’re not vigilant you can miss it. And it’s such a short clip, it’s hard to focus on detail.
As the person who let us know pointed out, someone is making money from these videos, and without any disclosure that it’s presumably not real, it feels a little deceptive.
It’s up to you whether you want to watch the video; I accidentally watched it a bunch of times, and can’t help but think of my fraction of cents going to the person who made it with intentions unknown.
But this is where we are. We can no longer trust what we see with our eyes and hear with our ears, at least if it comes through a screen. More than ever, we have to focus on the small things to know what exists and what does not.
Too bad that’s not a metaphor.
Reality has escaped us.
Thank goodness for people who let us know when we’ve been led astray. But we cannot rely on a kind stranger to gently lead us back.
We need to look for the signs, recognize the signs. It’s a weird place we’ve stumbled to, but here we are.
Have a great Wednesday, and thank you again to ChrisADED for pointing it out.
A Bit to Read 
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