Tag Archives: technology

May 19, 2026 · 6:43 am

Blame Us (Not Netflix) For What Movies Are Becoming

In January 2026, Matt Damon recounted how Netflix, one of the biggest distributers of movies on the planet, wants filmmakers to restate plot multiple times for an audience. Their reason for doing this has nothing to do with the content or artistic vision of a film. It’s just Netflix accommodating the sizable chunk of their audience who stream movies while also looking at their phones or tablets.

For accomplished filmmakers, this probably feels like studios and executives tampering with their art. It’s people in offices completely detached from the creative process trying to micromanage a product for consumers. The mere idea of changing their vision to accommodate a studio may seem inherently dirty. Since few creatives have the same influence as Matt Damon or Ben Affleck, they would probably capitulate to these demands.

A lot has been made of these remarks. Filmmakers, movie buffs, and general audiences of all kinds recoil at the idea of Netflix making such demands. The idea of studios and profit-hungry executives undermining art in the name of shareholders feels wrong on so many levels. But let’s take a step back from those feelings and share a brief bit of introspection.

Say what you want about Netflix, their business model, and capitalism in general. But they are not to blame for making such demands of filmmakers.

We are to blame.

We are the reason for this ongoing trend in movies and TV.

We are actively making it worse and companies like Netflix are just responding to this.

This isn’t a matter of opinion or principle. This is a well-documented phenomenon among the average consumer. People don’t just watch a movie or TV show anymore. They turn it on, watch for a bit, and casually do things on their phones or tablets as it plays. It rarely has anything to do with the quality or coherence of a movie. It’s just what people do these days.

I freely admit I do this. There are times when I’ll turn on a movie or TV show and casually do things on my iPad. Most of the time, I do this with movies or shows I’ve already seen multiple times. I also do it frequently while watching live sports, mostly during commercials or breaks in the action. Sometimes, if something comes up, I’ll just pause it so I can focus. But that’s fairly rare.

There have even been times where I don’t really engage with what I’m watching at all. I’ll have a movie, show, or sport on while I’m actively playing a video game. But I only do this with certain types of content. For something like a baseball game in the early innings or stand-up comedy specials, you don’t need to be continually watching. You can do other things and people did so before smartphones. It’s just more common now because smartphones enable us to do more things.

And I know I’m not the only one who does this. I’ve observed this with friends, relatives, and even people in a movie theater. Call it what you want. Lament how our attention spans are shrinking and our appreciation for real art is faltering. But that’s overly simplistic. It’s just another way of whining about people using their phones all the time.

I don’t deny that can be a problem. But it also ignores the bigger picture. People who complain act like humans thought, acted, and felt differently in the past. I imagine if people had smartphones at Woodstock in 1969, they would’ve used them the same way. If the average movie-goer had smartphones in the 1980s, they probably would’ve casually scrolled their social media feeds while Indiana Jones outran a boulder. To claim otherwise is to just be out of touch and smug.

No matter how you feel about this phenomenon, it’s misguided to blame Netflix. They didn’t create the smartphone. They didn’t put the idea in our heads to just use movies and TV shows as background noise while doomscrolling. They’re just responding to what their customers’ behavior. That’s what capable, competent businesses do.

If you want them to do something else, then it’s on us, the customer, to give them new incentives. If we are unwilling or unable to do so in an organized manner, then that’s not the fault of Netflix. It’s our fault. We either acknowledge that or we continue to make it worse by whining.

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April 20, 2026 · 6:36 am

If YouTube Ads Are Bothering You, Use The Brave Browser

In general, I don’t overly recommend products that aren’t books I’ve written. Unless I ever get a legitimate sponsor, I will not just rave about certain products on this site in hopes of getting a share of the sales. That’s just not my style.

However, if I ever encounter a product that offers a genuinely useful service, I will single it out. I will give it my full recommendation. And I won’t ask for any money or commissions. That way, you can be certain that I’m not recommending it for selfish reasons.

This brings me directly to the Brave browser. Unless you’re tech savvy or work in IT, you probably haven’t heard of it. It’s a web browser in the same mold as Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox. It wasn’t made by some existing tech company and it’s not one of those products that you see advertised in the mold of AI or car insurance. It’s entirely open source, which in technical terms means it’s basically the opposite of Apple. It was made from the ground up using code that’s available and not subject to lawsuits by overpaid lawyers. That also means it’s completely free. You download it right now and it costs you nothing.

And you should download it.

You should use Brave.

That’s because Brave is coded to emphasize two important features, privacy and ad-blocking. Privacy, in general, should be important to you. Even if you’re not big on conspiracy theories about the government spying on you, you should still be concerned about tech companies using your data to sell you dumb shit. Your data is valuable. To give it away for free is akin to giving a burglar a spare key to your back door. Brave was created specifically for those who take privacy seriously. You can still permit companies to gather your data, but Brave helps make sure it’s not taken without your concent.

But it’s the ad-blocking feature that really makes Brave valuable. I’ve always found the ads on numerous sites annoying. A lot of the sites I go to for comic book news have become enshitified to oblivion. Use most browsers and you’ll get this annoying window that demands you disable the pop-up blocker. And in some cases, you can’t close that window. So, the site becomes useless. Brave blocks that. It makes some of my favorite sites usable again.

But it’s YouTube where Brave shines the brightest.

I get that YouTube needs to run ads to make money. But the enshitification process has been accelerating a lot more in recent years. It’s at a point where even simple, benign videos are hit with unskippable ads for toilet cleaner and car insurance every 10 minutes. It’s so annoying that it ruins the experience. It was bad enough when I could skip the ads. Now, that’s happening less and less. I can easily foresee a future where YouTube just removes the skip feature altogether.

But Brave utilizes a powerful adblocker that, as of the time of this post, stops those ads. I’ve tested it out. I can confirm that it does indeed eliminate ads. Sometimes, it means videos take a big longer to load or stall at certain points. But at no point is it interrupted with shitty Liberty Mutual ads. That ensures the YouTube experience remains consistent. I know there’s the option of buying YouTube Premium. However, the price for that service just went up. And I expect it to keep going up, especially as the option to skip ads is limited.

So, if you can’t afford another subscription service like that, give Brave a try. I can’t guarantee that it’ll always block every ad. Tech companies are very motivated to circumvent browsers like Brave. At least for now, it’s a solid solution to an escalating problem and it has my full recommendation and endorsement.

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March 17, 2026 · 6:09 am

A Chinese Company Is Teaching Robots Kung Fu (And Why We Shouldn’t Be Afraid)

The past six years have been a remarkable, exciting, and somewhat disconcerting time for Artificial Intelligence. Since the rise of ChatGPT, it’s no longer the realm of science fiction and doomsday scenarios. It’s here. It’s already a multi-billion-dollar industry. It’s likely to become a trillion-dollar industry by the end of the decade.

I’ve certainly done plenty to make my opinions on the present and future of AI apparent. At the moment, AI is not close to become as smart or as capable as an average human. I still don’t think that capability is likely until the 2030s at the earliest. However, AI doesn’t need to be superintelligent in order to be useful. It can still do many amazing things as it evolves to that state.

Now, we can officially add Kung Fu to that list. In a video posted by Unitree, a Chinese robotics company, we’ve actually created a robot with the dexterity and capabilities that allow it to do Kung Fu.

Thus far, there’s no indication that this is a hoax, CGI, or some guy in a suit. This is real. This is an actual robot doing Kung Fu.

Now, before you start making Terminator or Skynet jokes, take comfort in knowing that this robot is not running on pure AI. It’s more likely that it’s simply following a set of scripted moves that were pre-programmed. The fact that the video also has some obvious cuts for editing indicate that its operation was less than perfect.

Even so, let’s at least agree it’s inherently awesome, as a concept. Seriously, it’s a robot doing Kung Fu! If you can’t find any joy or astonishment in that, then you’re just being fatalistic.

Also, in terms of AI that should seriously concern you, this isn’t it. A robot like this has some serious limitations that aren’t going to be overcome anytime soon. Beyond the fact that it can only work on pre-programmed moves means it’s not a threat to anyone, regardless of their fighting experience. At most, it’s just a cool demonstration of how far robotics technology has progressed.

It’s also a technology that is likely to develop alongside artificial intelligence. We’ve had robots for decades, but their usage is limited to a narrow range of tasks. Pre-programming a robot, be it a human android or an arm, is not that difficult. There are robotics labs for high school students in some areas.

For now, that’s more than enough to make robots useful. They can function perfectly well in certain industries and even as toys for kids. They really don’t need advanced AI to be functional at the moment.

That is most likely to change in the coming years. A robot with the dexterity and reflexes to do Kung Fu would be very useful if it could also have a measure of general intelligence. Such a robot wouldn’t be restricted to one pre-programmed task. It could actually learn a whole host of tasks, which would make it useful in any number of industries, including a few in which robots have never ventured.

That time is likely coming in the near future, but it’s hard to say when. I still believe robots need a ChatGPT-like moment to really enter the mainstream. But with companies like Unitree pushing their capabilities to new lengths, it’s possible that moment will come sooner rather than later.

And when it does, we’ll have far more pressing concerns than a robot’s ability to do Kung Fu.

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January 10, 2026 · 7:29 am

Why Frustration With Subscription Services Will Enable (And Necessitate) Piracy

A while back, I looked into purchasing some new software that would help me make better videos for my YouTube channel, Jack’s World. I know that’s a common issue among aspiring content creators, finding the right software to help them make what they want to make at a certain quality. But over the course of this search, I came to two frustrating realizations.

First, there are an astonishing number of incredible and useful tools to make all kinds of content, be it videos, music, or images.

Second, every one of these tools require a regular subscription to use and the cost ads up a lot, especially if you want to utilize certain features.

Now, I’m very much aware of just how prevalent the subscription model has become for so many services. I concede that I have multiple subscriptions for streaming services, as well as a few web services that I prefer not to name. But I was not aware of just how much everything, from software tools to even features on certain cars, require a goddamn subscription.

I know I’m not the first person to complain about this. You don’t need to look hard to find consumers at all levels voicing their anger about how many subscription services are necessary these days, from broadband internet to streaming media that’s now more expensive than cable ever was. But none of that anger seems to be impacting anything.

Companies of all kinds are still looking for ways to turn a one-time purchase into a never-ending subscription. You can ascribe that to pure greed, annoying trends, or a dystopian manifestation of late-stage capitalism. It really doesn’t matter what’s driving it. It still sucks.

I quickly realized that I literally cannot upgrade my current video editing software without spending hundreds of dollars annually just to access that software. I can’t even walk into an electronics store, buy disk or access code, and download the software as a one-time purchase. I can only ever buy a limited subscription or a “free trial” version that is basically the most useless version of the software.

For someone like me, who doesn’t have the budget to pay hundreds of dollars every year for professional grade software, that’s not just frustrating. It’s infuriating. It’s effectively bars me from ever making content that’s polished beyond a certain point.

That’s not to say I’m completely devoid of options. There are open-source alternatives to certain software programs. I’ve even tried a few of them. But I’ve yet to find one that matches the functionality of the consumer-based versions I’ve used for years. Hopefully, that changes at some point. If I find an open-source software for editing videos that works just as well as what I’m using, I’ll jump at the chance to switch to it. But for now, I’m stuck with what I have.

In addition, I came across something else in my effort that’s worth sharing. In searching for a free or cheap alternative to video editing software, I also came across quite a few sites that basically pirate that software. Now, for reasons I hope are obvious, I’m not going to share the names of those sites or where I found them. But I imagine I’m not the only one who came across them while looking for better software.

And unless you’re really tech savvy and have some damn good anti-spyware software on your computer, I do not recommend using those sites to get pirated software. This is not like the days of Napster and Limewire. The kind of malware you’re likely to get from these sites is dangerous and not just in terms of flooding your computer with spam.

But those same sites, some of which had domains located outside the United States and Europe, probably provide a much easier method towards obtaining software or media of any kind. There’s no need for credit cards or creating accounts. And if you ever do need to pay for something, it’s often done in cryptocurrencies. But even with the risk that comes from that, the price is far lower than what most software companies are charging.

I found one particular well-known software that was 1/5th the price from the retail version. And they accepted crypto as payment.

Even if you’re not good at math or finance, you can still understand the concept of price gouging. And when it comes to software and media, it feels exceedingly egregious. It’s not like making these products requires rare Earth metals or some kind of expensive manufacturing process. They’re lines of computer code stored on computers, easily copied for pennies and distributed for pennies more. So, having to pay more than $100 a year just to access them feels like a bad deal.

And if that gap continues to grow, then you can assume piracy won’t just become more tempting to the average consumer. It’ll become preferable. If people feel like they’re getting gouged, then they’re not going to feel bad from stealing from a company, especially if they don’t even sell you something physical. I don’t doubt companies will fight this, as they’ve always fought piracy. But take it from someone who remembers the days of Napster. That’s a losing battle in the long run.

But that battle is still playing out. And in the meantime, I still find myself stuck with software that’s becoming increasingly outdated. I’ll still make the most of what I have. But I’m already at a point where I will go to any length to avoid another subscription to my monthly bill. And if the situation continues getting worse, then that’ll just be another middle finger to customers and a never-ending gift to piracy.

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December 12, 2025 · 8:15 am

Personal Robots Are Now (Sort Of) Available

It’s a common futuristic trope. At some point, humanity develops robots that are capable of performing everyday household tasks. From Rosie in “The Jetsons” to the units in “I Robot,” they offer an enticing premise. They’re essentially a maid who doesn’t get tired, doesn’t have a bad attitude, and doesn’t inspire any guilt that may come from relegating certain people to service roles.

There’s a lot more to be said about why this trope exists. Some of it has implications that I’d rather not dwell on. But let’s not lie to ourselves. The idea of having a personal robot maid is appealing to many. That appeal extends beyond the possibility of sex robots, which are also a notable trope.

While the current state of sex robots is a different conversation, the concept of a personal robot is very relevant. The rise of artificial intelligence has already impacted robotics. It’s not enough to just create robots with the dexterity and nimbleness of a human. Companies like Boston Dynamics have been doing that for years.

But those robots are mostly just autonomous puppets. Their movements are either pre-programmed or controlled by a human. It’s still a critical component in the development of personal robots. But it’s not enough to make them viable.

Now, we may be at a point where such robots can be a real product. Earlier this year, a company called 1X introduced the first commercial personal robot.

They call it Neo. And it’s currently available for pre-order and the cost is steep at $20,000. Whether or not those orders are fulfilled remains to be seen. It’s possible this could be another Elon Musk style vaporware grift. However, it’s still relevant in that it marks another step.

This robot is certainly no Rosie. It’s also not the kind of robot you might see working in an Amazon warehouse. It feels like a first effort in creating a viable personal robot. Like the first cell phones of the 1980s, it’s a clunky novelty with limited function. This robot doesn’t have an AI that allows it to act independently. It’s actually teleoperated.

That means if or when you get one, it will have to connect remotely to a human operator to help it learn tasks. In a sense, Neo is like an entry level employee that requires extensive training. But it does have a measure of programming that allows it to learn, like your typical narrow AI. And once it learns well enough, it can perform tasks independently.

Those tasks can’t be overly complex. Things like doing the dishes, folding laundry, and cleaning a home is not all that complicated. With some learning, it can probably carry out those tasks about as well as a young teenager. But Neo also has some additional functionality. It can engage in conversations like a typical chatbot.

Couple this with its small stature and non-threatening look and this robot can be a companion, as well as a helper. Again, it’s not a sex robot. Expecting it to be that intimate is like expecting one of those bulky 80s cell phones to take dick pics. I still don’t doubt that will enter the equation at some point in this market. But this added element of connection is another step in the process.

Assuming these robots do actually get sold, it’ll open the doors to a new market. And whichever company gains that initial foothold will be primed to make billions. Say what you will about the current state of the AI industry and there is a lot to say. But it’s an industry full of potential profits for any company that’s capable of realizing them. Doing so will require a great deal of time, money, and investment.

But the incentives are in place. The technology is developing and improving. Fully capable personal robots won’t arrive all at once. Like any other technology, it has to go through a maturation process. But with Neo, that process might have officially begun.

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December 2, 2025 · 5:29 am

How AI Slop Will Evolve For Better AND For Worse

This is a video from my YouTube channel, Jack’s World.

The development of artificial intelligence has incurred many consequences. But the most visible to date has been the emergence of “AI Slop.” It has flooded social media, including YouTube. And as generative AI continues to improve, the nature of this slop will evolve.

There are plenty of strong opinions about AI Slop, most of which are negative. I do share some of those opinions, but I also try to approach it with a balanced perspective in this video. Enjoy!

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October 2, 2025 · 7:01 am

The First (But Not Last) AI Actress Is A Thing

Have you heard of Tilly Norwood? She’s a beautiful young actress who is just starting to make her presence felt in Hollywood. She hasn’t been in much, but she’s already negotiating with talent agents to get bigger roles.

There’s just one major issue. Tilly Norwood isn’t a real person. She’s an entirely AI-generated persona.

Naturally, that doesn’t sit well with real life actors and unions. There is already a concerted effort to prevent Tilly Norwood from being cast in anything beyond your typical AI slop content. I completely understand this sentiment. I don’t blame anyone who works in Hollywood for being concerned about this. However, having covered the rise in AI for years, I’m comfortable making this prediction.

Tilly Norwood will eventually be cast in major movies and TV shows.

Other AI actors like her will be cast, as well.

Traditional actors and actresses will hate it. A sizable chunk of the audience will hate it as well. But this is going to happen. It was always going to happen the moment generative AI reached a certain level of refinement. A big reason for that involves money, as tends to be the case in Hollywood and most other industries. But there’s another reason that’s worth highlighting.

Dollar for dollar, movies and TV shows are getting more expensive to produce. This isn’t just due to inflation, unions, and the “personalities” that tend to comes with Hollywood. The logistics involved with making media has become bloated and inefficient. We’re no longer in an era in which media can only go through certain channels, be it TV and movie theaters. Thanks to streaming media, as well as online content like YouTube and Tiktok, the competition for eyeballs has never been greater.

Unless you’re a big budget blockbuster with a massive distribution network, such as Disney or Warner Bros., it’s harder to make content that turns a profit. The scale, resources, and personnel required to produce a movie or show is such that it’s limiting. Add to that the general enshitification of streaming media and the current model for producing content just isn’t sustainable.

Generative AI, as much as it is derided, offers a significant cost advantage. On top of that, an AI actor or actress is less likely to get accused of harassment, arrested for public intoxication, or go on some anti-sematic rant during a routine traffic stop. And for certain Hollywood agents, you can’t put a price on that kind of assurance.

But the question remains. Will audiences accept AI actors? Will the content they produce actually be worth watching?

A lot of people will probably refuse to watch anything with Tilly Norwood or anything like her out of principle. But what happens when AI gets to a point where it’s hard to tell if a person is AI generated? There are already AI tools like SORA and Veo3 that make extremely realistic videos of people who look and sound real. This is one element of AI that is not in the distant future. It’s here and it’s evolving fast.

It’s not yet clear what kind of career Tilly Norwood will have. She may never show up in anything mainstream. But like it or not, she marks the first step in a new trend with AI. We don’t know where it will lead. Hollywood is already undergoing significant change. Technology like this is only going to accelerate that change in ways we can’t imagine.

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September 23, 2025 · 6:18 am

A Message Regarding Teachers, Students, And ChatGPT

When I was a student in high school, the internet was just starting to mature. More and more people were able to access it. Teachers and students alike began using it. Initially, it was a novelty. But once certain sites and programs emerged, namely Wikipedia, it garnered serious concern among teachers and administrators.

I still remember multiple teachers advising us to not use Wikipedia for any assignment. A few even warned us that, if they found out we just copied text from it, then that would result in an immediate failing grade.

As for the administrators, their concern was that it would completely undermine the traditional process for doing research. That usually involved going to a library, searching for the relevant books, sifting through those books, and taking detailed notes on the information within.

Yes, that process was cumbersome and archaic.

Yes, I regularly utilized that process.

Yes, it sucked as much as you think.

Eventually, the attitude shifted. When I was in my second year of college, more and more of my professors changed their attitude towards using sites like Wikipedia. They saw the value in using it to teach a subject. They still advised students to avoid using it as a sole reference point. But they didn’t actively deter or punish students from using it.

I bring this up because it seems a new generation of students and teachers is dealing with a similar situation with AI. And even though I’m not in school anymore, I can already surmise that this will be far more impactful than Wikipedia ever was. AI has already changed the way students and schools approach homework. It’s also changing the way teachers are approaching teaching, in general.

Now, it’s still too early to know whether AI will be a net benefit or a net negative with respect to educating students. But the overall sentiment towards AI, at least among teachers, is mostly negative. The reasons for this attitude vary, but it’s not that different from the reasons my old teachers gave for discouraging Wikipedia.

It’s doing too much of the work for the students. It’s essentially doing the thinking for them in terms summarizing the material, producing essays, or answering questions. The concern is that it’ll hinder students’ ability to develop critical thinking skills. Because if they can just let the AI do the work for them, why bother? The AI can do what they otherwise would’ve done in seconds.

I certainly don’t doubt that this concern is sincere. I have family members and close relatives who work as teachers. This is going to affect them, regardless of their attitudes towards AI. I imagine numerous teachers, schools, and administrators are going to resist utilizing this technology at every turn. Others will embrace it to the utmost because it could potentially make their jobs easier. Given the inherent stresses of teaching children at any age, could you honestly blame them?

To both those groups of educators, as well as the students currently coming of age, I have a message that I’d like to impart. And should I ever have kids of my own, I suspect this message will affect them too.

Embracing AI will ultimately be more productive than resisting it.

It’s not a warning or advice. It’s just a simple statement. I’m not just saying it because I generally support the development of AI. I’m simply speaking from experience.

That experience is heavily influenced by the fact that I was generally miserable in school. I did not care much for middle school or high school. And I certainly wouldn’t say that I learned as much as I’d hoped during that experience. If anything, the way school went about teaching me just didn’t work. The only thing I ever “learned” in school was how to pass tests. That’s not the same as learning something.

In college, things were different. Yes, there were still tests and exams to study for. However, there was more freedom and flexibility to learn about the things that interested me. That helped make college an overall better experience while helping me develop skills that served me well in my adult life.

But in any case, I can also say without reservation that if ChatGPT had been available to me, I definitely would’ve used it. It would’ve been very helpful in terms of summarizing notes, chapters in a textbook, or breaking down certain concepts I didn’t understand. And yes, I probably would’ve used it to help me with my homework, polish my essays, or study for exams. Would that have made me less knowledgeable? Would I have ended up learning less, as a result?

I honestly don’t think so. Because if I’m interested in something, I’ll seek out more information that’s beyond the assignment. I’ll look for things outside the textbook or the syllabus. And if that ends up helping me with an exam or a lecture, then that’s just a bonus.

I suspect there are plenty of other kids like that. Kids, in general, are pretty curious. If they’re interested in something, they’ll pursue it. Sometimes, teachers don’t have the time, energy, or willingness to teach them beyond what the school allows or assigns. Other times, parents aren’t able to teach them because they either don’t know enough about it or just don’t have the time.

AI can fill that gap that will only widen as more schools struggle to find capable teachers. Given how bureaucratic the education system is, especially in America, there aren’t many feasible options outside of AI. Resisting it won’t work in the long run. Resisting technology of any kind rarely works.

It may even get to a point where students primarily learn major skills through AI. It’s already happening on a small scale in some areas. That trend is likely to accelerate as AI continues to improve. The incentives are in place. The need is certainly there. There may be those who don’t like the idea of kids being taught primarily by a non-human AI. They may have concerns that are entirely warranted.

But in the end, AI is here to stay. It’s capable of filling an important need at a time when knowledge, education, and critical thinking skills have never been more important. If the current education system cannot meet that demand, then we’ll need tools like AI. Without it, the students will ultimately pay the price.

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July 7, 2025 · 5:36 am

Jack’s CreepyPastas: God Talked To Me Through An AI Chatbot

This is a video from my YouTube channel, Jack’s World.

This video is a CreepyPasta story I wrote and narrated myself about an AI with a direct connection to the Almighty. Enjoy!

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June 24, 2025 · 6:42 am

Google Just Created An AI That Makes Videos And The World Will Never Be The Same

In recent years, it has become routine for tech companies to overhype up their latest artificial intelligence technology. Ever since the rise of ChatGPT, the market for this technology has expanded faster than anything I’ve ever seen in my lifetime. It’s not unreasonable to surmise that AI will be a multi-trillion-dollar industry in the coming decades.

But I’m also old enough to remember the dot-com bubble. I haven’t forgotten what happens when hype exceeds capabilities. And, as remarkable as these emerging AI systems are, their capabilities are still limited. Whether it’s large language models or image generators, these AI systems are a long way from becoming Skynet. They’re certainly part of the ongoing development to create Artificial General Intelligence, but that leap is not imminent. That would be like jumping from rotary phones to iPhones.

However, AI is different from the dot-com bubble or any other overhyped product for that matter. I’ve said before that AI has the potential to change the world in ways we literally cannot imagine. That potential is far from being realized, but there’s a good chance people my age will live long enough to see it play out.

Well, recently a bit more of that potential was realized. Google, a company that is very active in the development of AI, released a new generative AI tool called Veo3. Like other generative AI tools, this particular tool specializes in creating full videos from text prompts. It’s not the first tool of its kind. However, based on some of the videos that have come out from Veo3, it’s definitely a step forward in terms of quality. If you need proof, check these videos out.

Remember, the content in this video is entirely AI. It never happened.

I’m not gonna lie. I did not expect these videos to look this realistic. With other AI video generators, you can usually tell it’s not real. Between the glitchy movements and the uncanny valley effect, not many people would mistake those videos as real.

But Veo3 has taken it to another level. If I didn’t know ahead of time that this content was fake, I might have just shrugged and accepted it. And that’s a major threshold that we cannot uncross with this technology. Because when it suddenly becomes possible to create videos that look as real as anything taken in real life, how can we trust any video?

Make no mistake. This won’t just be used to flood the internet with advertisements and mindless entertainment. Someone is going to use this technology maliciously. There’s a good chance someone is already doing so as we speak.

At this very moment, you can use Veo3. It is expensive, as many advanced AI tools tend to be. But if you’re determined to make a certain video for a certain purpose, be it malicious or altruistic, is $250 really that high a price? I know people who have spent more on skins in Fortnite.

And Veo3 is not the apex of generative AI. It’s going to keep improving. The incentives are too strong. Google might have the best video generator now, but other multi-billion-dollar companies who want a piece of that AI market will fight to take that title.

Maybe OpenAI will upgrade Sora.

Maybe Microsoft will upgrade its Copilot AI.

Maybe a company like Apple will make a big leap, just like they did with smartphones years ago.

But no matter which company makes the next best AI video generator, the technology will improve. It’s going to become increasingly difficult to tell when something is real or fake. There are likely going to be laws and policies that attempt to regulate this kind of AI. But governments have been historically slow at keeping up with technology. And the advancement of AI is likely to accelerate.

I certainly don’t claim to know what kind of impact Veo3 will have in the short-term. I already make YouTube videos on my own. Will my kind of content become obsolete or unable to compete? Will video sites everywhere become overwhelmed or bloated because of content generated by Veo3?

Then, there’s the long-term impact. What happens to major studios once this technology allows them to make movies and shows faster, cheaper, and without paying actual people? That’s an issue I once thought was decades away. Now, it might be relevant within a few years.

Only time will tell what sort of changes this technology will incur. But if what Veo3 has demonstrated is any indication, these changes are coming a lot sooner than expected.

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