Brilliant. Scary. Crazy.
Meet Victoria Shi
She is a spokesperson for Ukraine’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs. But she’s not real. She’s AI-generated. In this clip, she introduces herself and explains how she was named, what her role is, and how future audiences can verify her identity.
What she doesn’t tell us is why she was created. And that, it seems to me, is obvious. What could be better in terms of presenting political positions, explaining them, and defending them than a being that is connected to AI? No mistakes. No misunderstandings. Everything programmed for maximum clarity and maximum rhetorical effect.
So, I believe there will be lots of “Victoria Shis” in all our lives in the future. The not-too-distant future. They will be speaking for governments – federal, state, and local. They will be representing non-profit groups and corporations, too. Eventually, they will be speaking for high profile individuals (e.g., movie stars, bestselling authors, and superstar athletes) that want a more “personal” connection to their fans.
We already know from dozens of experiments – not to mention billions of interactions with Siri and Alexa – that the general public will accept them. So there’s nothing to keep it from happening.
Welcome to a brave, new world!
Election Watch
Do You Know Who Kristi Noem Is?
She’s the good-looking governor of South Dakota, and has been a top contender for the Trump VP slot. And she’s just published a best-selling memoir – No Going Back: The Truth on What’s Wrong with Politics and How We Move America Forward.
I don’t read memoirs. But I do read reviews of memoirs. And I’m glad I read this one by Nellie Bowles in the May 3 issue of Free Press, because it contained this wonderful little vignette:
“In her memoir, [Noem] writes about her 14-month-old wirehaired pointer, Cricket.
“Cricket really annoyed her. She took Cricket out hunting, and Cricket was useless. ‘I hated that dog,’ she recalls. So when they got back from the not fun pheasant hunt, she took Cricket out back to a gravel pit and shot Cricket dead.
“Seemingly pleased with herself, she then went and found a particularly annoying goat, brought that one over to the gravel pit, and shot the goat dead too. She presents this as life on the farm.
“Now, I have family who farm, and honestly the main thing about their life is how much they love and care for animals. I swear to god they have ten stray cats they’re feeding, and if one of them bites it’s definitely your own fault.
“Farms are not special places where random wirehaired pointer puppy slaughter is approved. It’s not that squeamish city folk just don’t understand what it takes to maintain the heartland. The actual news from this is that ‘Trump insiders’ say Noem is definitely not the VP pick after this freaky little anecdote.”
What do you think?
Health Watch
Guess What? The Sun IS Good for You – Even for Your Skin!
Skin cancers are by far the most diagnosed cancers in the United States. And to prevent them, the public is constantly being told to avoid the sun.
I’ve written about this subject many times. In fact, about 20 years ago, a colleague and I – finding it impossible to believe that sunlight, which feels so good on the skin, can be deadly – investigated the scientific literature and published a report that, unfortunately, nobody paid attention to.
Now, decades later, an article by a doctor in Vigilant News corroborates many of the things we had discovered. A few examples:
* While the relatively benign skin cancers are caused by sun exposure, the ones responsible for most skin cancer deaths are due to a lack of sunlight.
* Sunlight is arguably the most important nutrient for the human body. Avoiding it doubles the rate of dying and significantly increases the risk of cancer.
You can read the entire Vigilant News article here.
