The power of AI to manipulate us is increasing every day. We don’t even know it’s happening. I discuss the challenges and potentials in my October Newsletter, Is AI Manipulation Impacting You?

Is there a full proof method for protecting yourself against AI and its manipulation?”

I wish I could give you a resounding and simple “Yes.”

I can’t.

We spend far too much time on social and digital platforms where AI can and will monitor and learn our behaviors.

We also share information and insights about ourselves everywhere, as we browse for that perfect sweater, seek our new homes, look for work, educate ourselves, play games, buy tickets and more. Not to mention our commentary on social media that can be used by AI to learn a lot about our preferences…

As long as we continue our unsuspecting digital lives in pursuit of our information addiction, we are at risk. At least until laws are created to protect us.

Even that won’t stop the less than scrupulous characters from using the power of AI.

Which means we need to learn to be much more thoughtful about the digital footprints we leave for all to see.

Protecting Ourselves in Our Digital World

I’ll admit it, I miss the days when social was actually, well, social. When social media was all about real people having real time conversations. Before the bots and automation took over our feeds and streams.

Those days are long gone, and we all need to respect that reality. And adapt to it.

Which means we must become more thoughtful about our social media interactions, not to mention being very thoughtful about which sites and sources we trust on the internet.

I’ve finally come to believe that there isn’t a single source of “truth” out there. Everything is spun based on the author or site’ owners perceptions. And we all have our own unique perceptions thanks to our unique mind programming from our personal experiences.

That means the onus is upon us as individuals to be thoughtful, a bit suspicious and to be sure we carefully check any and all information. We also need to consciously train our minds to stop accepting everything we read or hear as facts, regardless of the sources.

MINDSHIFT 1: Prove yourself wrong.

In today’s world, and even more so as AI expands, we need to become suspicious - very suspicious.

Yes, the information out on the internet is questionable in many cases. It goes beyond that.

Our minds are wired to believe we are right when we come to a conclusion. That means that when we decide something is true, or false, we KNOW we are right. Which is often not the case. In fact, we tend to make decisions and conclude facts based on our own past experiences. All too often, those experiences do NOT bring us to the truth. Anything but. In this way, our minds fuel our continuing self-fulfilling prophecies that are often based on old old news.

For decades I’ve encouraged my tech and coaching clients to focus on proving themselves, and the facts around them, wrong. At first, I did it to expand their thinking. After all, we all get stuck in the status quo bias of what we know to be true based on our deep experience. We make a conclusion and hang onto it for dear life. Because we know we are right, and we have the evidence from our past to prove it.

The challenge is that what we knew or experienced in the past may have nothing to do with our present and future experiences. More than likely, it has little to do with the current reality. Especially when it comes to the new and current events. Who the heck can predict those based on the past? NOt a good idea.

Here’s a simple way to clear any bias in your conclusions about what you read or hear on the net.

Instead of researching to prove yourself right, focus on proving yourself wrong.

This approach flips the way your mind is thinking and working. You find better information and insights because you expand your perspectives to look for broader info. You also have a much better opportunity to find and ingest a diversity of “facts” that collide with the certainty you’re checking.

You learn more, create more evidence-based perceptions and have the opportunity to define a well informed balanced perspective.

By shifting our perspectives, we create the space to disconnect from the anxiety, anger, overwhelm, and depression that some information triggers. Instead, we’d calmly review all of the perceptions we can find and then make a rational, informed response

Mindshift 2: Question everything you read, see or hear

We’ve been trained to assume that information from known sources is true. That’s no longer the case in our digital world. Far from it,

Which means the onus is on us as individuals to provide our minds with a well balanced flow of information. Our minds can then make highly informed and relevant decisions, instead of being triggered by sensationalism and mistruths maliciously designed to misinform and mislead us.

Here are a few simple steps that I take to get a 360 degree flow of information.

Following a diverse group of people and perspectives. If you only ingest information shared by like-minded people and information sources, you’re going to limit the perceptions and insights you gain. Obviously, this increases the odds that you may believe less than accurate information. As humans, we are wired to believe we are right - which is why it’s so important to continue to evaluate information contrary to our beliefs so that we retain a balanced perspective. Given the level of mistruths in our digital world, following a diversity of perspectives isn’t perfect, but it does cause your mind to constantly reevaluate your “knowns.” Yes, I read and listen to opinions that make my blood boil at times. And yes, I look for insights within those opinions that help me form my own more rounded takeaways and insights. It’s hard. It’s also necessary.

Being skeptical about news sources. In case you haven’t noticed, the media has transformed from sharing the facts to promoting sensationalized headlines that drive clicks (known as clickbait. Yes, Wlater Cronkite is rolling in his grave daily. Such headlines trigger a mental reaction to know more, often in survival mode so you’re more likely to believe what’s beneath that headline. You have to keep your guard up and understand that not everything you read is accurate, with far too many digital sites specializing in false news. Learning how to judge news sites and protect yourself from inaccurate information is a high priority in this digital age.

Fact-checking before you share. When consuming your news online, make sure you know how trustworthy the source is—or whether it’s not trustworthy at all. Double-check stories from other sources with low biases and high fact ratings to find out who, and what, you can actually trust.
Standing up against false information. If you see that someone has posted a story that is false, say something. When people chime in on a post that is false, it signals that sharing misinformation is frowned upon. By allowing misinformation to spread, you are condoning the false information.

Mindshift 3: CHECK EVERYTHING

Here’s the rub. Our minds are designed to believe that what we decide, what we know to be true, the actions we choose to take, are RIGHT. Even when we’re wrong.

This design came along back in the day when cavepeople were taking spears to hunt wooly mammoths. Think about it, what cave person is going to go hunt a mammoth with a stick unless they know they are right to do it?

Unfortunately, that programming gets in the way in our modern world - in so many ways.

I’ve already talked about proving yourself wrong, seeking new resources and insights, literally changing the information you ingest in full blown attempts to find other answers.

Luckily- organizations have sprung up in our digital world to help us check our information.

I didn’t think I needed to fact check when the internet first arrived. Not too long after I started using social media, I told my investors that we were about to unless a barrage of poor behaviors and crappy facts from humans hiding behind avatars.

They laughed at me - then.

Today, I fact check almost everything before I decide what to believe, and what to throw to the wind.

My favorite sites are:

Yes, it takes a bit of time. But would you rather base your life on propaganda, or the truth??

The Bottom Line

AI offers so much upside and value to humanity. Which is why it hurts my soul that it is being used in such just plain wrong ways. Humans are humans, and as with all great innovations, when the wrong humans get them, they can and will do bad things. Sadly.

It is critical that we all become aware of the potentials and types of manipulation by AI… and take conscious, personal steps to prevent its impacts on ourselves and those around us.

We must push our leaders and AI vendors to develop AI ethically and with the safeties around use that protect all of us from manipulation and worse.

We can control the AI and how it can be used by those who would own our world. OR, we can play ostrich, and Skynet will look like some old fashioned war game as tomorrow’s AI controls our minds, our lives and our world.