I love technology, and if you’re reading this, I bet you do too. Watching TV shows and movies, scrolling on TikTok, and shopping from the comfort of my bed, with the ease of using my iPhone’s Face ID feature for Apple Pay, are just a few of my favorite pastimes. Technology gives us so many great things. However, good things can often also come with a lot of bad. Recently, I’ve been thinking about how harmful AI can be.

AI is Impersonating Us

AI is becoming increasingly integrated into our society. I love using AI for writing purposes, in fact, this very blog post will be checked for spelling and grammar thanks to the AI platform Grammarly. I also find myself asking Chat GPT all kinds of questions or getting assistance with brainstorming. This kind of technology is very helpful but it can also be used for harm. One of my friends sent me a video message on Instagram telling me all about how she earned so much money online. I sent her a text because it was a very odd video and she told me she had been logged out of her Instagram and definitely didn’t send me this video. It turned out my friend’s account had been hacked and the hacker was sending these videos out. The scariest part of this is how real the video seemed. The AI-generated person in this video looked and sounded exactly like my friend. Luckily, I knew better, but it’s still concerning how accurately AI can impersonate us.

AI Can Impact Big Issues

The US has a presidential election approaching this year, and with many important issues at stake, researching and voting is more crucial than ever. Recently, Donald Trump shared an image of popstar Taylor Swift endorsing him. This image turned out to be AI, and afterward Swift shared on social media that she’s endorsing Trump’s opponent, Kamala Harris. Swift encouraged her followers to register to vote in her endorsement post. An NPR article discussing this situation stated that the voter registration site received more than 35,000 new registrations after Swift’s post. Although I don’t believe in basing your politics on what celebrities think, it’s clear that when a celebrity makes an endorsement or encourages people to vote it has an impact. This is why Trump sharing an AI image of Swift is so dangerous because young, impressionable fans can be misled. Along with that, I would assume that Swift, just like my friend who was hacked, doesn’t want content with their face out there that isn’t real.