By Shamecca Brown-Granite State News Collaborative
Artificial intelligence is changing the internet faster than many people can emotionally process it, and honestly, that should concern all of us. What started as advanced technology designed to help society has also opened the door to deception, emotional manipulation and dangerous online behavior.
I remember scrolling online when a video suddenly appeared on my screen. It showed disturbing and violent scenes involving different racial groups, and for a moment my mouth dropped because it looked completely real. Before I could even react fully, my 13-year-old looked at me and said, “Mommy, don’t watch that. That’s fake.”
That moment stayed with me. Not just because the video was disturbing, but because artificial intelligence has become so advanced that many adults can no longer immediately tell the difference between reality and manipulation. At the same time, children growing up online are learning to question everything they see. Think about that for a second.
Social media was already a place where filters, edited lifestyles and online bullying affected mental health. Now artificial intelligence has added another layer of confusion and fear. People are beginning to question everything online. Is the video real? Is the voice real? Did that person actually say that? Was that image created to embarrass, manipulate or destroy someone?
What makes this even more disturbing is how some people are using artificial intelligence in violent and abusive ways. AI-generated sexual content, fake intimate images, online humiliation, harassment and manipulated videos are causing real emotional damage to real people. Women, teenagers and even children are being targeted, exposed and violated online.
Families are being scammed by fake voices cloned to sound like loved ones. Teenagers are being bullied with AI-generated images. Misinformation spreads online faster than many people can fact-check it. Some people are even becoming emotionally attached to artificial intelligence digital companions because loneliness and isolation have become so common in society.
Children are also growing up in a digital world where reality itself feels blurred. Many young people are constantly exposed to unrealistic beauty standards, fake influencers and manipulated content that can affect their self-esteem and understanding of truth. The pressure to keep up online is already damaging enough without artificial intelligence making deception even easier to create.
Artificial intelligence itself is not the enemy. AI has the potential to help people through education, accessibility, medicine, creativity and innovation. The real problem is what happens when human beings use powerful technology without ethics, accountability or compassion.
We are entering a dangerous time when technology is moving faster than human trust can keep up. If society does not start having serious conversations now about safety, consent, truth and responsibility online, we risk creating a world where nobody knows what is real anymore. Artificial intelligence may not have emotions, but the people being harmed by it do.
Shamecca Brown is a New Hampshire-based columnist who is family-oriented and passionate about serving underserved communities. These articles are being shared by partners in the Granite State News Collaborative. For more information, visit collaborativenh.org.