All my friends are AI

My late uncle Joe started it. Before he died, he commissioned a deepfake avatar that was trained on all his tiktoks and podcasts. He even sat for some video interviews with Dead Poets Studios, who captured his mannerisms and expressions, along with his life story.

After uncle Joe passed on, AI-Joe joined our WhatsApp group and Facebook family page. It was uncanny at first, but we soon got used to the fact that he could joke about current events as well as recall fishing trips and safaris we’d been on together, right down to the smallest detail. And his roasts of politicians are the best!

And then old classmates, previous co-workers, and distant cousins started doing it, outsourcing their chats and posts to their avatars. With the hyper realistic ones, it’s nearly impossible to tell who’s talking, the friend or the bot.

Look, I understand, I’ve barely got enough time to read everyone’s quips, never mind post my own videos. Getting the AI to do it for you saves a lot of time. Especially if you’re trying to build up a professional following or establish yourself in a community. There are times I’ve been tempted to bring in the bots.

But there’s no substitute for authenticity. Spammers and scammers are easy to spot. In fact, the filters do it for you. But when you’re unsure if your best buddy is genuinely concerned about your issues, or if that hot date is really warming to your banter, it can get a little disconcerting. Finding out that you’ve been strung along by GPeteT feels like a betrayal.

Life can be weird, when all your friends are AI.