The arrival of AI has effectively pushed humanity forward in ways our ancestors could not have imagined. It’s created new forms of opportunities, communications, companies, and structural changes in society, largely for the better. The dawn of the 21st century witnessed an unprecedented rise in the forms of technology, specifically the beginnings of artificial intelligence. But today, Artificial Intelligence has progressed tremendously, to an extent where one must question if it poses a danger to human society.
Intelligent Misgivings:
Artificial Intelligence has created multiple new variants of sub-technologies that are undoubtedly helpful. It has created digital assistants such as Siri and Cortana, and it tremendously reduces human error, while maintaining a round-the-clock availability, which human beings are unable to do. It has created chatbots such as ChatGPT and ChatPDF, which have helped a lot of users but have now posed a threat to the authenticity of work and privacy.
Pop Culture and Artificial Intelligence
Most recently, Artificial Intelligence has been used a lot in the pop culture world, to generate music remixes, alternative film posters, or even simple edits as well. It has been used to create images of Taylor Swift’s Lover Fest tour which was supposed to take place in 2020, but was cancelled due to COVID.
Wedding images of Prabhas and co-star Anushka Shetty recently surfaced on the web, where they were dressed in traditional wedding gear, as well as an image of them with what appears to be their young child. It has since gone viral online with multiple netizens speculating about their marriage and so on.
It was only very recently that it was revealed to be artificially generated, which begs the question: if Artificial Intelligence can successfully fool multiple dedicated fans, how far can it be used in the form of deliberate misinformation and deception?
Prabhas and Anushka
The successful actors were once speculated to be a couple, after they grew to extreme stardom via their work on Bahubali. Their titular chemistry and on-screen romance sparked numerous rumours among fans of the series and the actors themselves of their supposed off-screen romance. While being asked about it quite frequently, both Prabhas and Anushka maintain a professional and platonic relationship.
When this was smacked down, and the arrival of these images, fans were quick to hope for a potential return of the artists to the big screen, hopefully in a romantic setting as well. Anushka commented on these rumours by saying that while it’s not in her hands, should she and Prabhas receive a compelling script, nothing would be off the table.
AI: Friend or Foe?
It is indeed quite hard at this particular point in time to accurately map the progression of Artificial Intelligence and its potential impact on human society. Speculations can be made about how much it could replace humanity as a whole, but as of now, they are simply rumours and speculative narratives.
However, what needs to be heeded at this point in time, is the role Artificial Intelligence could play in misinformation and deception. For now, it’s being used largely in a light-hearted pop culture sense. Whether it will grow more nefarious is something only time will tell.
