Posted on 12/30/2025 5:13:55 AM PST by MtnClimber
A warning from Victor Davis Hanson warning from Victor Davis Hanson: somebody has been producing and posting elaborate and well-made AI-generated videos purporting to originate from Prof. Hanson himself. They have been posted on both YouTube and X, and perhaps elsewhere. They’re very convincing at first glance, and appear to have been filmed in the same book-lined setting that VDH uses for his Daily Signal videos. (I actually watched one of these last week, and a minute or two passed before I was certain that this was not Victor David Hanson.)
The producers of the videos are as yet unknown. Hanson speculates that they could be leftist, a faction within conservatism, or entrepreneurs seeking to make a buck off Hanson’s popularity. I strongly suspect that the last is the most likely. There exists a similar run of videos claiming to originate from historian Dr. Susan Paine, who has released a successful series of YouTube lectures in collaboration with podcaster Dwarkesh Patel. Paine is clearly no conservative – she is dismissive of Donald Trump, MAGA, and Elon Musk, just to start with. Yet this new run of “Paine” videos shares distinct similarities with the Hanson fakes: no source, overlong, and with slight but unquestionable anomalies arising not from particular items but the overall gestalt – a kind of intellectual version of the uncanny valley effect.
Two particular elements appear to have annoyed Prof. Hanson: a vulgarity in tone and various political stances that Hanson would never take.
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
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FYI on VDH
VDH has also announced that he is scheduled for major surgery.
I see this stuff heading in two directions. I expect to see both:
1) Video of President Trump receiving a bribe from Israel to commit crimes against humanity. Leftist US media will believe it, express outrage and demand violence in the streets.
2) Video of Bill Clinton and friends doing terrible things to underage girls. Leftist US media will laugh it off as cheap and phony and nothing will be done.
These AI videos are becoming commonplace. I’ve recently heard of a fake Michio Kaku video saying comet 3I/Atlas has been detected sending and receiving comms of some sort, with satellites seen docking and pulling away again. Youtube is flooded with them, and if you accidentally watch one, perhaps out of curiosity — a rhinoceros covered in barnacles — you’ll be fed dozens more.
No worries, I’m sure they will empower AI to investigate and police AI !
( Mark my words )
The dilemma of our age: what is “real”? Not being able to trust that something is real (be it pictures, videos or audio) brings forth may persistent doubts and questions on many levels.
Perhaps we should use this to teach a broader lesson. No one should trust what any strangers say, not even “the experts”, unless they show us their data collection methods and their findings are reproducible. Otherwise it’s just empty noise masquerading as knowledge.
A staggering amount of "science" is not reproducible and a great many scientists suck at data collection and do not understand statistical analysis.
The world would be better off if we mostly stopped trusting all of the "experts".
AI is very good at spotting AI.
My son has been involved in this computer field since its infancy. It is called machine learning. The sci-fi fanatics labeled it AI. It is only an advanced machine learning what it is being taught.
People expect it to think for them, instead, they will allow it to rule over them as a proxy.
EC
If you can't refute the argument - contaminate the source with calumny appearing to come from the source himself.
Thanks for posting. Very interesting. Thanks, guy.
AI is looking to be straight from Satan the Great Deceiver.
People on various sites like Pinterest are putting up pics of AI clothing and selling them to people. When they get those clothes, if at all, they are cheesy junk that looks like one of those boxed Halloween costumes.
AI has now created another very dangerous level of fraud.
I hate it, and we are also paying for it in our power bills.
For decades I have never even thought of asking strangers the time, as they might lie to me. Not kidding....
I have seen the videos and it’s easy to tell they are not real but, this is absolutely something that calls for laws to be made.
The other day someone here suggested that intellectual property like this needs something like a digital version of a ‘watermark’.
I don’t know how that would be done - maybe some kind of multi-factor confirmation? - but I’m sure someone will come up with something.
“Youtube is flooded with them...”
They have infected Gardening videos, Cooking videos and Home Decor/How To videos as well.
Totally annoying. I can tell within a minute and I back right out of it. Ugh!
I saw an AI generated Thomas Sowell “video” and immediately clicked “Don’t recommend channel” If it is not their own channel, it is like AI anymore.
Artificial intelligence is being used to steal voices, faces, and reputations. Victor Davis Hanson knows this firsthand.
Hanson explains the growing problem of AI-generated deepfake videos that falsely use his image, voice, and setting to promote ideas he has never expressed and often strongly disagrees with. He breaks down this dishonest and unethical practice and why it’s harmful to public discourse on today’s episode of “Victor Davis Hanson: In a Few Words."
Fake long podcasts generated by AI, starting with Prof Hanson and a couple of others. It has already started, so beware!
FR Index of his articles: Victor Davis Hanson on FR
Town Hall: Victor Davis Hanson on Town Hall
American Greatness: Victor Davis Hanson on American Greatness
His website: Victor Davis Hanson The Sword of Perseus
One of his sponsors' website: The Daily Signal
Please let me know if you want on or off this new VDH ping list.
As a reminder, Professor Hanson has asked that we do not post the full article of his writings. Thank you for following the link to finish his article.
Content created by the Center for American Greatness, Inc. is available without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a significant audience.
I am super scared of woke programmers. I know AI is doing lots of programming now, who is monitoring what they’re doing?
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