Summary
- A recent TikTok trend saw ads for geode mugs, which appeared to be made from actual geodes
- The advertisers used AI-generated videos, making the mugs look authentic, but not all those who purchased the product expecting it to look like the videos were satisfied with what they received.
- The mugs themselves look reasonable, but they are nothing like the ads, with cheap plastic details and a metal lining rather than being able to drink from the actual mug.
- This has highlighted how easy it is to be taken in by AI-generated scams, but the anomaly here is that the hype took so long to catch on, and people still purchased the product even though the videos were evidently not real.
- This will not always be the case, and AI-generated scams are only going to become more sophisticated and harder to spot.
Therefore, the author recommends remaining cautious of advertisements that look too good to be true, not getting caught up in the hype of social media trends, and remaining critical of emails and messages that land in your inboxes, no matter how real they appear.
Ultimately, the message is that we should all be careful in an era of increasingly sophisticated deepfakes and AI-generated scams.