---
publish: true
tags:
  - AI
  - art
  - tech
---
yesterday, my beautiful husband sent me a [video he saw online](https://fixupx.com/lepapillonblu2/status/2074621269534707943?s=46) that he swore "won the internet" for the day. it showed a single Patriot Front member running away from a group of protesters wearing full fursuits. the newscaster in the voiceover seemed to be rather excited about the whole thing, sounding a lot more like a race announcer than a newsreader. and for some reason, this was taking place on the streets of Washington, D.C., while throngs of people stood on the sidewalks just watching and recording with their phones. at first glance, a hilarious and somewhat cathartic video.

but it's a lie.

look closer at the lower-third graphics and you'll notice  the text begins to garble and distort. the smaller newsticker underneath is all gibberish and unrecognizable glyphs. then let the rest sink in: the improbability of the situation, the fluid movements of the runners, the helicopter shot the news team is giving us ... it all seems artificial when you really sit down and dissect it.

don't get me wrong, this world has morphed and changed in ways i could never have predicted. no one figured that a group of politicians would confuse *The Handmaid's Tale* and *Idiocracy* with instruction manuals.

i guess it does say *something* that someone earnestly wished for that to happen badly enough they felt compelled to make an AI model create a fake video of it. would've been so much nicer and more cathartic if it were true.