AI has officially entered its villain era, and frankly, it’s doing the most. One minute you’re scrolling mindlessly, the next you’re staring at a video where a woman’s neck bends like it was designed by a PlayStation 2 graphics team.
The teeth don’t match the face vibes, the eyes look a little too shiny, and yet… people are sharing it like it’s gospel. Sins, people. Sins.
South African comedian Schalk Bezuidenhout says he’s right there in the confusion trenches with the rest of us.
“I’m becoming like my parents with AI, it’s getting out of hand,” he admits. And then, just to really drive the point home, he adds: “I’m seeing k*k that I don’t know is AI.”
Which feels like a national experience at this point.
To make matters worse, he’s crossed into that very dangerous territory we all fear: chain-message uncle status. You know the type. The ones who used to forward messages warning you that if you don’t send this to ten people, something tragic will happen before midnight.
Now it’s AI videos. “I’m now that oom. I’m that ballie,” he says. Those are just various ways of saying uncle energy has fully loaded.
Bezuidenhout explains that he sends these clips around with genuine excitement. “‘Hey, look how cool this is!’” he says. Except we all know what follows. It’s probably not cool because, honey, it’s not real.
Cue the replies: “People are like, ‘Schalk, that’s AI, you idiot!’”
The confusion gets even worse when celebrities are involved. According to the “Die Kantoor” actor, things really spiralled when he saw a video of Helen Zille doing the toyi-toyi.
“Mense, I just saw a video of Helen Ziller doing the toyi-toyi, and I sent it to someone (nogal) saying, ‘How embarrassing is this video of Helen dancing,’” he recalls.
Only to later find out. surprise surprise, it was fake too. Because sis won’t be able to pull off dance moves such as that. Let’s be candid about that.
The real panic, though, is existential. “Mense, I know I’m getting grey, but I didn’t think that I’m that grey that I now can’t distinguish AI from reality.”
But he has a solution, people. A warning label. Preferably, a five-second video before any AI content that says: “You are about to watch an AI video. Do not forward it to your friends and think it’s real. You’re going to look like a p**phol.”
Now listen, if that’s the case, he’s definitely giving full oom energy, and that’s okay. Because these AI videos have the entire world bamboozled. At this rate, we’re all going to be that person forwarding nonsense to the family group chat.
AI has blurred our reality, filtered it, added uncanny valley teeth and sent it straight to the family WhatsApp group. We’ve reached that point in life where reality needs subtitles.
And while you’re busy enjoying those “cute” 2016 throwback memories, word on conspiracy street is that it’s all training AI.
Just saying.
