As the renowned lyricists Norman Whitfield and Barrett Strong wrote for Motown in 1966 —People say, “Believe half of what you see Son, and none of what you hear But I can't help but be confused If it’s true, please, tell me, dear
A public service, Eric. I know someone who ordered a supplement endorsed in a convincing video by the CNN medical correspondent Sanjay Gupta. Only it was totally AI. I also saw a video of Steve Martin hawking a product. The voice wasn't totally Martinesque, but close, and the technology only gets better. More to the point, I get 3 or 4 emails a day like the ones your friend Lee gets. Some are from "authors," both famous and unknown, who just want to talk shop with another author. Others are from marketing experts who praise one of my books to the skies and offer to help me reach more readers. They all sound as if they've read the book in question and love it to death, and the descriptions of the books' contents are quite accurate. All obviously AI generated from whatever is online about the books--press releases, reviews, maybe even the books themselves. If I wasn't old and jaded, I might have fallen for one of them, and I'm sure new authors, especially self-published ones, are susceptible.
Eric... This is one of your best and knowing posts.
Like you, I am annoyed and occasionally entertained by these keyboard criminals seeking to misinform or sell you something. Why can't they just get a life?
Often, they toil under the mistaken impression they're just being clever. This morning I found a pile of excreta on Facebook claiming police in Pima County Arizona found the remains of Savannah Guthrie's mother and showing pictures of Savannah's sister and brother in law in cuffs as a result. NOT ONE SYLLABLE of this is true.
Your friend Goldberg has the best approach... and the wisdom of Motown holds firm.
The most recent scammers to come my way — and there have been three of them in the past week — pretend to be moderators of online book clubs with thousands of readers who want to introduce my books to a wider audience. For the very low fee of $250 …
A public service, Eric. I know someone who ordered a supplement endorsed in a convincing video by the CNN medical correspondent Sanjay Gupta. Only it was totally AI. I also saw a video of Steve Martin hawking a product. The voice wasn't totally Martinesque, but close, and the technology only gets better. More to the point, I get 3 or 4 emails a day like the ones your friend Lee gets. Some are from "authors," both famous and unknown, who just want to talk shop with another author. Others are from marketing experts who praise one of my books to the skies and offer to help me reach more readers. They all sound as if they've read the book in question and love it to death, and the descriptions of the books' contents are quite accurate. All obviously AI generated from whatever is online about the books--press releases, reviews, maybe even the books themselves. If I wasn't old and jaded, I might have fallen for one of them, and I'm sure new authors, especially self-published ones, are susceptible.
Maybe there's a special target on authors named Goldberg.
But no, the whole thing is very scary. We have to learn to use AI to combat the AI that's using US. Thanks for adding your perspective.
Love this! It’s really astounding what I see now. And I’ve come to not believe anything. :(
Sad, but yeah, that's the price we all pay.
Eric... This is one of your best and knowing posts.
Like you, I am annoyed and occasionally entertained by these keyboard criminals seeking to misinform or sell you something. Why can't they just get a life?
Often, they toil under the mistaken impression they're just being clever. This morning I found a pile of excreta on Facebook claiming police in Pima County Arizona found the remains of Savannah Guthrie's mother and showing pictures of Savannah's sister and brother in law in cuffs as a result. NOT ONE SYLLABLE of this is true.
Your friend Goldberg has the best approach... and the wisdom of Motown holds firm.
As with seemingly everything else, they just keep getting more crass.
The most recent scammers to come my way — and there have been three of them in the past week — pretend to be moderators of online book clubs with thousands of readers who want to introduce my books to a wider audience. For the very low fee of $250 …
A corollary of the Goldberg scam. You may be hearing from the famous authors soon.
That's the kind of thing I get everyday, as per my comment above (or below).
fun read as always. I get a kick out of Lee's posts--and yours too!
He’s quite entertaining. Good thing his scammers don’t have sense of humor or he’d get more of them.