Hey folks, if you’re like me and have been out in public or tuned into the algorithms lately, you’ll notice an uptick in dialogue surrounding artificial intelligence (AI) taking over the world. I’m here to alert you while humans were panicking over AI becoming our masters, AI covertly took over our lives and society. It happened quick, maybe over the course of 4 to 5 years, but it’s here now and here to stay as long as the rational super-powered countries hold off on lobbing EMP bombs at one another in a fruitless show of force.

Let’s go back to the pre-internet era. Actually, that’s too far back. Let’s just go back to pre-social media era. You know what, that’s too far back too. Let’s just go back to not too long ago before algorithms were introduced to social media feeds. This was a time, less than a decade ago, where humans populated the internet and the majority of the social media landscape. This was the last time anybody said with confidence, “I don’t know.” Humanity desperately needs to get to back to this mindset because the vast majority of humans do not possess the critical thinking skills required to combat misinformation.

You see, nowadays the internet landscape has been bombarded with bots designed to feed the human’s never-ending quest for discovery. The algorithmic bots convince humans they know every fact and backstory to every piece of news or current affair. There used to be a well-deserved respect for experts. There was respect for those that dedicated their lives to studying a certain medical field or technological field or biology or any number of other specialized fields where experts are required. Nowadays, the culture of me answers only to me where I know more than a trained journalist, I know more than a practicing physician, I know more than historians, you kind of get the idea. Social media feeds us constant information designed to hit just the right parts of our brains convincing us nobody knows more than me. And, those that claim to be experts, well they’re all corrupt phonies. You know how I know, my research skills directed by the algorithms told me so.

Folks, human society came a long way before AI took over. Now, that we answer to AI, the algorithms rule the world. And, we didn’t do anything to stop them. Our so-called intelligence can only be affirmed after a superficial fact-check on our phones. Humans traded their trust of the human experience and history for the trust of an invisible algorithmic flow chart designed to give the user the exact feedback desired. There is no law governing algorithms requiring them to verify information as factual or truthful. But, somehow, AI tricked us into thinking it was telling us the truth this whole time.

The brainwashing of society is complete. Even if you attempt to live your life offline, there is no escaping a neighbor or friend or co-worker or clergyman who is plugged in and knows every fact about everything that’s ever happened in the world. And if they don’t know, you can be sure they’ll find out for you on their phone. War breaks out, now everyone is a geopolitical expert. Virus epidemic, now everyone is a decorated doctor. Mass shooting, now everyone is a psychiatrist.

But, please don’t misunderstand my disdain for access to information. I believe the availability and transparency of data is a progressive step for human evolution.

However, first thing’s first, humans have to stop being conned by their algorithms. The truth is factual information and/or events that happen in real time. The truth is not a manipulated internet article nor a cleverly edited video. In a world where humans have bowed down to the algorithms, the savior to uplift us is the truth. Except, the truth doesn’t exist at this moment in time.

So just remember that the next time you fact-check someone or some story, your intelligence is not real nor earned, it’s artificial and lazy.