Maybe 12 years ago or so, I enjoyed newsgroup-like mailing list thing with three other guys who were all former co-workers of mine. Basically, we just swapped funny current events (what we'd now call memes) we would write profane limericks, and generally share offensive, NSFW nuggets that weren't really acceptable to post on social media.
It was a super smart group, and the whole thing was a lot of fun.
Suddenly, it seemed, one day, one of the guys seemed to go nuts. He became extremely trollish, and just argued with everything and expressed completely false "facts" almost exclusively. Eventually, we kicked him out of the group.
Since then, I've seen many people suddenly "flip" and become a completely different person. Many have become die-hard Trump supporters, conspiracy theorists, or born-again Christians, who not only fully embrace these communities with cult-like devotion, they never stop talking about it. It becomes their identity entirely.
All this is well understood, and not that new. But lately I've seen people become similarly captured by AI chatbots or AI slop or both.
If feels like we live in the "Age of Capture," where previously reasonable, well balanced people become completely sucked in by something they feel is "the answer" to everything.
I have the idea that the number of people captured by AI will only keep growing, and I'm not looking forward to that future.
I just want to tell all my friends: AI isn't the answer to everything. Please hold on to your individuality, perspective and sanity. Don't be captured.
