AI: The real brain rot

Last month, I was looking around social networking websites one night when a headline on X, more famously known as Twitter, caught my eye. "Dale Earnhardt Sr. died from a skull fracture after crashing into a wall at the Daytona 500" As someone who remembers exactly where they were when they heard of Dale's death in 2001, I clicked the link. It was an artificial intelligence-generated headline because an account had been "live-posting" the 2001 Daytona 500 exactly 25 years later as if it were happening. This is becoming more common. I follow an account that posts "updates" from World War II, every single day, for all six years. And when the war "ends," they start over. The account is now in its third recounting of the war. There's an annual blow-by-blow for the '90s sci-fi movie "Independence Day" and the real April 1912 voyage of the Titanic. Point being, if X or Grok or whatever is creating these headlines through its artificial intelligence and thinking it's real, we seem a long way from Skynet and the machines taking over. And in case you're wondering, there's no "Terminator" social media account going blow for blow over those movies' events. And I think fans would be happy if they avoided being reminded of certain sequels. AI is proliferating its way into everyday life without us knowing. Any Google search has an AI summary. Most major websites have an AI that aims to "help" you. AI YouTube videos are being drummed up all the time, many with misspelled captions, spitting up chopped-up scenes from favorite shows of the past. See all those neat posters for events, some made by government officials, all over Facebook? Those are made using the same AI machines. Those AI machines are in facilities that are, at best, controversial. Yes, the ones that created a fundraiser image in no time and spat out a caricature of you sitting at your desk, overwhelmed with the work you're doing. Why? Because these computers, just like Bitcoin computers, can heat up. And like nuclear reactors (my dad is a nuclear engineer, so I have some insight), water is pumped through these data centers to cool down the computers so they don't melt. And all this takes place on land that was bought up because it was cheap and there were no regulations stopping them. In my opinion, using AI to create "art" exposes a lack of imagination. It's a means to a quicker end, and it strips the art out. A promotional image made by an aspiring artist or graphic designer using skills is way more impressive than AI slop. Art is not about a means to an end. Go to any art gallery, and while you might not "get" every piece, it's not about that. Art is about exploring and passion, not limited to a canvas. You don't "win" in art. Stories in a newspaper, written by humans with human emotions, are a form of art. Taking photos is art. Journalists are artists. I've seen AI-generated stories. The humanity is stripped away, and the passion is gone. And the stories are boring and often full of errors, like "breaking" the news in 2026 of Dale Earnhardt's death. Some of Silicon Valley's foremost AI enthusiasts have talked about how they hope it replaces people. Why? Because they think it'll be cheaper and they'll make more money. That's the endgame of AI and its cheerleaders. It's not about helping you. It's about control. Just remember, if something seems too good to be true, it's probably because it is. And if Dale was alive today, I feel he would have a few words to say about AI. And no AI language detector would be able to decipher those words. Thomas Sherrill is the editor of The Tomahawk in Mountain City. You can contact him at tsherrill@sixriversmedia.com or 423-727-6121, ext. 23.