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For decades, Blenderthe open-source 3D software toolhad a quirk that distinguished it from other animation software on the market. Instead of clicking to select with the mouse or trackpads left button, it required users to right-click selections. It was a small but strange defiance of usability norms, and it was illustrative of Blenders unconventional approach to design software. For years after launching in 1994, Blender was considered an under-the-radar tool. Its challenging UX and open-source nature meant it was used primarily by designers and animators who had no money to spend on five-figure professional 3D software licenses. Then in 2019, things changed. Blender rolled out a wholesale redesign, including switching right-select to left-select. It updated its interface to be easier to use and introduced new features that could compete with bigger-budget software packages like Cinema 4D and Autodesk’s Maya. Data from Blender shows that download numbers jumped from tens of thousands of downloads per month to nearly 1 million after the relaunch, and since then user numbers have continued to grow. Today, Blender has become a go-to tool for creatives, and one of the most requested tools across current design jobs listings. According to data from Fast Companys 2025 Design Jobs report, requests for expertise in Blender jumped 88% in the past year, and its the most mentioned piece of software in graphic design job listings. The updates made six years ago have had ripple effects on Blenders business and relevance in the creative world. 2019 was the moment when the Blender Big Bang started, says Francesco Siddi, who serves as COO at the Blender Foundation and producer at Blender Studio. It was really a lot of different factors, but you sometimes reach a threshold of usability and accessibility combined with a bunch of other factors, and thats when things start to roll. The Swiss Army knife of software In recent years, Blender has transformed from niche software into a Swiss Army knife of digital creation that is invading designers desktops everywhere. There are motion graphics designers who put After Effects on the side and work in 3D space using Blender’s real-time rendering, which allows for instant visualization of scenes. Concept and traditional artists sketch directly in 2D/3D space using Blenders Grease Pencil, a powerful 2D paintbrush that allows users to draw, sculpt, and edit 2D elements directly in a 3D environment. Industrial designers prototype with geometry nodes. Alberto Petronioa lead designer who worked on yachts and planes before getting into the entertainment marketsays he hopes Blender will completely emancipate him from Photoshop, because that software has gone downhill. Petronio even edits video in Blender rather than using dedicated software. I know that there is DaVinci Resolve, but I don’t know how to use it. So if I have to cut or revert a video, it’s very easy for me to be in Blender. The revolution extends far beyond traditional creative fields. Every year at the Blender Conference, people come from all industries and parts of the world with extraordinary uses for the software, a testament of the flexibility and approachability that has made it so popular. Siddi told me how surprised he was when he discovered doctors simulating proteins with geometry nodes, forensic analysts reconstructing crime scenes from phone footage, and architects designing fire safety elements in buildings. One presenter at the 2022 edition digitally re-created the Beirut explosion of 2020 in extraordinary 3D detail using multiple video sources. Breaking down the wall The expansive use cases for Blender were not something the company could have foreseen. For decades, 3D software was considered niche and out of reach for most creatives. Since 1986, when John Lasseter and Ed Catmull launched Pixar as 3D modeling software, 3D software has spawned a constellation of multibillion-dollar industries producing everything from Hollywood hits to console games. But that creative explosion also created barriers that locked out entire communities of creators who didnt have the money or the resources needed to learn increasingly complex and technical software suites. Back in the 90s, it was a professional industry dominated by packages that cost thousands of dollars from companies like Alias and Wavefront running on prohibitively expensive computers by Silicon Graphics. Later, the software got cheaper as production moved to high-end (but barely affordable for most) PCs running packages like Maya or 3ds Max. Today 3D software demands monthly subscriptions ranging from $200 to $500, pricing out freelancers, students, and artists who might want to experiment with 3D. Luís Cherubini, cofounder of a Tokyo-based 3D outsourcing company, tells me that he started with Blender 17 years ago in Brazil because most people in Latin America back in the days couldnt afford the licenses. But price was just one part of the adoption equation: Historically 3D software has been really hard to use. The software interfaces remained very, very complex and disorganized, Cherubini says. The learning curve to get started was really big. All those packages evolved as specialized tools for large and small animation studios. Each software addressed specific production pipeline stagesmodeling, rigging, animation, renderingrequiring teams of specialists. The complexity worked for studios with dedicated departments, like Fords serial production factories, but alienated individual designers, 2D artists, conceptual artists, product designers, motion graphics creators, and even tattoo artists who needed broader tool sets without steep learning curves. Blender wasnt the exception. For decades, Blender was even more alienating than its competitor tools. It suffered from usability problems until the Blender Foundationthe nonprofit organization that controls its developmentcommitted to radical change at the risk of alienating its tiny but extremely dedicated user base. Blenders breakthrough moment In 2017, Google’s Summer of Code initiative provided funding to Blender for a complete overhaul of its user interface. They hired two to three programmers in-house in Amsterdam to revamp the software user interface, Cherubini tells me. The user interface became more accessible, everything became more user friendly. It was not only about the user interface, it was about the entire user experience. The July 2019 release of Blender 2.8 represented a complete reimagining of Blender’s UX. The foundation modernized the viewport system, which Siddi describes as the space where you spend the majority of your time. The previous system relied on technology that was 10 to 15 years old. The new viewportwhich took over the entire screen rather than being constrained to a small window surrounded by a labyrinth of icons and menuswas redesigned to let users focus on your artwork rather than distracting UI elements. It also enabled real-time visualization and faster iteration, which is crucial for production in general but especially for 2D design, motion graphics work, and concept development. It did so through a visualizationsystem called Eevee, a real-time rendering engine that eliminated lengthy render times and provided instant feedback to your actions in full color, rather than having to work with wireframes. A tabbed workspace system streamlined navigation. Modern icons and dark themes made the interface more intuitive. The new UI also allowed users to tailor the UX to their specific needs, Petronio tells me. You can completely restructure your layouts, he says. You can completely restructure your shortcuts. It’s very flexible, so it allows a lot of different types of professionals to use it for work. The customization capability transforms Blender from generic software into personalized creative environments. This modularity spawned an entire add-on economy, too. Add-ons range from $20 tools to specialized software like Quad Remesher, which costs $160 and optimizes complex 3D models. Some developers release code freely on GitHub while accepting donations. Others create proprietary tools for specific industries. But there was also a tiny, seemingly inconsequential UI change that was crucial for the Blender revolution: Left-click selection replaced right-click selection. For decades, Blender defied industry standards by using the mouse/trackpads right button for selection, creating an immediate barrier for newcomers. As Cherubini points out, this unconventional approach felt very strange, even for people who had never used a 3D software because most digital tools reserve left-click for primary actions like selection. The old method caused practical workflow issues too, as Petronio notes. While you’re selecting things, you don’t move them accidentally with left-click. This precision matters when manipulating complex 3D scenes. Like UX expert Jakob Nielsen says: Dont change an industry-wide UX convention unless your alternative is fundamentally better. The selection button change allowed users from Photoshop, Illustrator, and other standard tools to transition without reprogramming their muscle memory. This seemingly small update symbolized Blender’s shift from niche tool to accessible platform. The change was a cornerstone of a broader new philosophy: making Blender work with user intuition rather than against it, Siddi says. The accessibility breakthrough happened because Blender’s developers approached tool design differently than commercial software companies. When they implement something, they’re not trying to nudge you one way or the other, Petronio points out. They just put it in. They’re like, all right, it’s yours now. This philosophical difference enables users to adapt Blender to their workflows rather than forcing workflow changes. Daniel Vesterbaek, a freelance 3D generalist, tells me via email that this is one of Blender’s core advantages. The software never followed the ‘industry standard’ and wasn’t controlled by studios and shareholders. It was built by a bunch of skilled developers who submitted code because they were passionate about the project, not because they wanted their paycheck. The Grease Pencil factor Another important tool that has changed the perception of Blender for 2D artists and designers is Grease Pencil, one of the most attractive tools for newcomers because it basically feels like painting with a Photoshop brush. The tool fundamentally reimagines how artists approach 2D creation by placing it directly within 3D space. It began as a simple annotation tool for making temporary notes in 3D scenes but evolved into a 2D drawing, painting, and animation system that exists natively in Blender’s 3D viewport. The core innovation of Grease Pencil lies in its unique approach to digital drawing. Unlike traditional 2D software that works on flat canvases, Grease Pencil creates strokes as collections of points positioned in 3D space. These strokes behave like 3D objectsthey can be moved, rotated, lit, and even rigged like any other element in a Blender scene. Artists can draw a character from one angle, then move the camera around to view it from different perspectives, or integrate 2D drawings directly with 3D models and lighting. Users love Grease Pencil because it breaks down the traditional barriers between 2D and 3D workflows. Artists can create traditional frame-by-frame animation, concept art, paintings, illustrations, cutout puppet animation, motion graphics, and storyboards all within the same 3D environment. At any time, you can transform and animate those 2D designs into sophisticated animated graphics adding tools like lighting and cameras. Photoshop and After Effects have tools to add 3D elements, but they feel like an afterthought slapped into their 2D architecture. Grease Pencil takes the opposite approach, adding 2D flexibility and power to a 3D environment in a way that feels natural. The tool supports pressure-sensitive styluses and offers sophisticated features like onion skinning, vector-based editing, and a comprehensive modifier system that includes noise, build, tint, and other effects. These modifiers allow artists to create complex art without destroying the original artwork, maintaining nondestructive workflows at all times. This versatility has attracted artists from diverse backgrounds who previously worked in separate software ecosystems. Illustrators can paint directly on 3D surfaces, motion graphics designers can create depth-aware animations, and concept artists can sketch ideas that integrate seamlessly with 3D scenes. The tool’s ability to combine traditional 2D drawing freedom with 3D spatial awareness has made it particularly valuable for stylized animation projects, where artists want to maintain hand-drawn aesthetics while benefiting from 3D camera movements and lighting. Taking over education Midge Mantissa Sinnaevea 3D artist and teacher at the Syntra AB training center in Flanders, Belgiumwitnessed the other Blender seismic shift that led to its recent popularity. “It exploded in schools,” says Sinnaeve, whos been teaching for 15 years and noticed Blender’s popularity surge in the last 5. Suddenly, it’s everywhere, he says, noting that students embrace Blender’s Swiss Army knife approach. You can do 2D animation. You can do video editing. You can do compositing. You can do 3D animation. You can do everything really. It also helps that the software is free. Universities worldwide have adopted Blender as primary teaching software, creating talent pools that influence industry implementation. Game studios like Ecosoft, where Petronio worked, “decided to use Blender to save money and to take advantage of the amount of talents that are studying Blender instead of 3ds Max.” Another unexpected factor that helped popularity was COVID-19. The global pandemic and its lockdowns accelerated adoption as creators gained time at home to experiment. “There was really big growth of the software,” Siddi recalls. “People had time to play with it and they found out that it was actually something fun that they wanted to do. Blender retained a lot of users after that time.” Social media also amplified Blender’s visibility as artists shared impressive work online. “You get skilled artists who have never used the software before,” Siddi tells me. “They can find their way around. They can make something awesome, show it to the world. And all ofa sudden, people think Oh, wow, Blender is a great tool!” The transformation reflects deeper changes in digital creation. “The digital natives, kids who start to do content creation nowadays, they know about Blender,” Siddi says. “Everybody knows. So then you at least try it and then you play with it. And Blender is meant to be accessible and playful.” All you need is a computer and an internet connection and youre ready to go, at any company, anywhere in the world, Sinnaeve says. I just download it, install it, and I’m good to go. I don’t have to think about licensing. Just having that safety net of knowing that the software is never going to go anywhere really gives me more time to think about what I want to do with it.” AI control The flexible power of Blender feels even more appealing in the era of generative art. It’s something the Blender Foundation has been thinking about. The topic of AI is obviously very hot, and people want to know what Blender is going to do with it,” Siddi says. The foundation is leaning toward creating AI tools that can speed up people’s creative workflows while allowing them to keep control. He says its developers are talking about upscalers (to lower render times), denoisers (to increase quality), voice isolation (for dubbing), and computer vision-related stuff to help artists work with external images in an easier way. These technologies address practical workflow bottlenecks without generating content that might compete with human artistic vision. The foundation will maintain its core philosophy, Siddi says, noting, Our goal is to make artists be in control. That’s the mantra when you talk about anything, but especially when you talk about AI stuff. There is already AI integration through community initiatives. Users employ Blender for synthetic data generation, training AI models with 3D-rendered environments. Others bridge Blender with ComfyUIan open tool to set up all types of generative AI workflowsfeeding 3D scene information to AI rendering nodes. Siddi highlights Cascadeur as an example of AI assistance that maintains artistic control while improving efficiency. This keyframing tool allows animators to pose characters, then uses motion capture training data to interpolate between poses more naturally than traditional algorithms. This is something that is already entering more the territory of making people cringe, thinking that this is now taking control away from the artist, Siddi admits. But this is a tool that allows animators to pose a character in 3D, then do another pose, and then the AI interpolates. The vision extends to contextual AI interfaces that understand user intent without replacing creative decisions. Siddi describes potential VR workflows in which artists could command Put a tree there and have the system reference their existing asset library rather than generating new content. I don’t want it to generate a random tree. I have a tree in my library. I know the tree that I’m talking about, he explains. And in theory, if you train a system to be aware of what your context is, you can say, Put the tree there. This measured approach also reflects Blender’s nonprofit structure and community-driven ethos. Unlike megacorporations that are rapidly restructuring around AI, the foundation must balance innovation with sustainability. We are in a constant battle for making our project really, truly sustainable, Siddie tells me. So even if they wanted to go crazy on AI, the development fund that supports core features cannot match the AI investments of companies orders of magnitude larger. The result, however, is the same. The foundations strategy acknowledges AI’s potential while preserving what makes Blender unique: its commitment to empowering artists rather than automating them away. It makes sense, as this is the core philosophy that transformed an obscure open-source project into the creative industry’s most versatile tool.
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YouTube Shorts, the shortform platform from Google-owned video giant YouTube, has seen massive success since its launch in September 2020. Today, an estimated 1% of all waking human hours are spent watching Shorts, with videos amassing around 200 billion views daily. But what users watch is ultimately shaped by YouTubes algorithmand a new study published in the Cornell University preprint server arXiv suggests that the algorithm nudges viewers away from politically sensitive content. When you start [watching] a political topic or specific political topics, YouTube is trying to push you away to more entertainment videos, more funny videos, especially in YouTube Shorts, says Mert Can Cakmak, a researcher at the University of Arkansas, Little Rock, and one of the studys authors. Cakmak and his colleagues scraped between 2,100 and 2,800 initial videos across three themes: the South China Sea dispute, Taiwans 2024 election, and a broader general category. They then followed 50 successive recommendations for each video under three viewing scenarios, which varied how long a simulated user watched: 3 seconds, 15 seconds, or the full video. The researchers tracked how YouTube presented 685,842 Shorts videos. Titles and transcripts were classified by topic, relevance, and emotional tone using OpenAIs GPT-4o model. When engagement began with politically sensitive themes like the South China Sea or Taiwans 2024 election, the algorithm quickly steered users toward more entertainment-focused content. The emotional tone, as assessed by AI, also shiftedmoving from neutral or angry to mostly joyful or neutral. Early in the recommendation chain, videos with the highest view counts, likes, and comments were favored, reinforcing a popularity bias. Maybe some people were aware of this, but Im sure the majority of people are not aware what the algorithm is doing, Cakmak says. They are just going and watching. Neither YouTube nor its parent company, Google, responded to Fast Companys request for comment on the studys findings. Cakmak doesnt believe this is a deliberate effort to suppress political discourse, but rather a design choice focused on user engagement. What YouTube is trying to do, he says, [is] remove you from that area or topic, and push you [to a happier] topic so that it can increase . . . engagement [and] earn more money.
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Its a staggering statistic: Around 70% of the worlds internet traffic flows through Virginia. The states data centers, some of which feature hallways nearly a mile long with thousands of thrumming servers on either side, make possible the billions of retail transactions, videos streams, and artificial intelligence queries that happen around the world each day. But as more data centers are built to accommodate AI and other data-intensive processes, energy demand is expected to skyrocket. A single hyperscale data center can use the same amount of energy as a large city, and the stress this is placing on local power grids is expected to drive up energy costs for residents in Virginiaand around the country. What we are projecting, with the contracts that are already in place, is that the energy demand in Virginia will almost double just because of AI and data centers, says Joo Ferreira, a regional economist who worked on a recent report about data centers by the Virginia Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission. That, of course, will impact all the electricity ratepayers, because we will end up paying more for electricity. Virginia is an enormous energy importer This exploding demand is especially burdensome for states serviced by PJM, a regional transmission organization serving Virginia, 12 other states, and Washington, D.C. The organization, the largest of its kind in America, coordinates the movement of power from company to company and state to state. Virginia imports more energy than any other state50.1 million megawatt hours, or 36% of its total energy supply, as of 2023so the expansion of the states energy needs are expected to reverberate throughout the PJM region. A recent report by the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis finds that ratepayers in other states will end up paying for the infrastructure that transports energy to data centers. West Virginia, which the report uses as a case study, could pay an estimated $440 million for two new energy transmission lines, despite having no data center industry of its own. These transmission linescalled the Mid-Atlantic Reliability Link and Valley Linkpropose to bring energy from power plants in Pennsylvania to Virginia and from those in West Virginia to Maryland, respectively. These lines are still proposals, rather than ongoing construction projects. Still, they raise concerns because all ratepayers in the region will pay for the lines, passing hundreds of millions of dollars onto taxpayers in each state. When utility companies build transmission lines and other infrastructure, the cost is spread across all ratepayers in the region. The assumption is that these lines provide benefits, like reliability of electricity, to everyone, so everyone should pay for them. But the large data centers powering AI programs upend this logic, says Cathy Kunkel, author of the recent report and energy consultant at IEEFA. Its just so enormous and were really talking about building infrastructure that would not be needed if not for the data centers, Kunkel adds. A new model of electricity demand While data centers and other internet infrastructure have been powered by sources across state boundaries for decades, concerns about residential ratepayers burdens are more intense than ever due to the mismatch between the modern demands of the energy sector and the legal framework governing itmuch of which was developed decades ago, when our energy needs were quite different. Everybody gets electricity delivered from some company that has a monopoly on delivering electricity within that geographic area, says Ari Peskoe, Director of the Electricity Law Initiative at Harvard Law School. Even though their prices are heavily regulated and their profit margins are regulated as well, they still want to grow their business. The way that these businesses grow in this regulatory environment is by building out their physical infrastructure, which guarantees them a certain rate of return. The larger the company and the more infrastructure they manage, the more money is allowed to flow into the business. Hidden subsidies With this traditional model of regulated growth, data centers are a windfall. Their large size and energy needs means substantial infrastructure must be added to the grid, and energy companies do their best to attract data centers to the regions they serve. Peskoe has found that confidential deals often take place between data centers and utility companies, providing rates that are not as transparent as typical rate-setting processes. Everybody, obviously, is trying to reduce their own rate that they pay, but that, in effect, causes somebody else to pay more, because you have this billion-dollar pie that everything has to add up to, Peskoe says. These hidden subsidies raise issues for legislators and residents, alike. States are struggling to meet environmental goals as transitions to renewable energy sources are put on hold and fossil fuel power plants reopen to help meet rising energy demand. Meanwhile, residents are already starting to feel the rising costs: 78% of Americans are stressed about their high energy bills, according to a CNET survey last year. Reacting to the Virginia Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission report last year, which touched on many of these issues, the tech-company backed Data Center Coalition (DCC) issued a statement highlighting the positive findings of the report. Namely that the industry “supports 74,000 jobs, $5.5 billion in labor income, and $9.1 billion in GDP in Virginia” each year. “We look forward to continuing to engage with policymakers about the JLARC findings and opportunities to advance positive economic, environmental, and social outcomes while building and supporting Virginias 21st-century economy,” DCC President Josh Levi said in the statement. Searching for a fair system Community advocates, policy analysts, and economists advocate for reforming the way utilities serve he data center industry. Some states like Georgia and Ohio are starting to consider ratepayer protectionssuch as creating new rates that separate industries using large amounts of energy from industries and residents that do notas their data center industries start to grow. Other states, like Utah and Maryland, are passing bills that provide transparent rate structures for data centers, aiming to eliminate the hidden subsidies.” In other cases, its the utility companies themselves pushing back against fronting the cost of data center growth. Some companies are starting to require long-term contracts with guaranteed minimum payments from data centers, Kunkel says, ensuring they remain accountable for the long-term costs of infrastructure. As costs continue to rise, legislators are pushing for regulatory bodies to explore other solutions. In February, Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA) and three other senators wrote a letter urging the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to make guidelines insulating consumers against rising costs and other ill effects of increased energy demand. Later that month, FERC ordered a review of the issues AI data centers can cause other consumers, ultimately planning to evaluate the need for updated regulations. (Current FERC Chairman Mark Christie was nominated during President Trump’s first term and has been in office since 2021. The agency has largely escaped the cuts and firings seen at other agencies within the Department of Energy.) Can Virginia teach us how to regulate data centers? Still, policy options for protecting consumers remain largely unexplored both at the local and national levels. FERC has not yet issued a comprehensive set of regulations for data centers, and this yearfor the second year in a rowmost of the laws to explicitly regulate the burgeoning industry and protect consumers from the price shocks associated with soaring power demand did not make it through Virginias General Assembly. Too often, residents are left out of conversations about how data centers impact their daily liveswhether its increased noise, strain on infrastructure, or rising electric bills, said Del. Josh Thomas (D-Gainesville, Va.), in a Jan. 14 press briefing about proposed data center reforms within Virginia. Both houses of the Virginia state legislature passed bills that would have required localities to conduct a site assessment to gauge the impact of energy intensive facilitiesincluding data centerson noise, water, forests and cultural assets like parks and historical sites. During the legislative session, a representative from the Data Center Coalition told a House subcommittee that some of the proposed regulationrequiring a power-grid impact assessment before approving data center projects, for examplewould signal to major businesses that their time and their money may be best invested elsewhere, The Washington Post reported at the time. The Data Center Coalition represents 36 major companies in the data sector, including Amazon Web Services, Google, Microsoft and Meta. The bills were vetoed by the governor. One that was signed into law directs the State Corporation Commission, a state agency in charge of determining utility rates, to look into whether customerslike data centersare being charged correctly for their energy usage. (The Coalition did not respond to an email asking their views on the passed measures.) With Virginia still at the forefront of the data center industry, it may be the best place to learn how to regulate data centers and protect impacted communities. But so far, community activists do not see Virginia as a positive role model. My perspective is that its a cautionary tale, says Julie Bolthouse, director of land use at Piedmont Environmental Council, a Virginia-based environmental advocacy group. Honestly, Ive been very disheartened and jaded by the lack of action from Virginia compared to other states, especially around ratepayer protection. For now, as the data center industry continues its upward trajectory in Virginia and across the country, so too will the costs millions of Americans are quietly absorbing.
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I can perfectly imagine the pain, confusion, and betrayal in the voice of the elderly Malaysian woman who, according to a hotel staff member, asked “Why do they do this to people?” when she found out that her dream holiday destination wasnt real but a video fabricated with Veo3, the generative artificial engine made by Google. She and her husband had just driven three hours from Kuala Lumpur to this location in Perak state, convinced they would find a scenic cable car attraction called the Kuak Skyride. Instead of a gondola to wander across paradise, they found nothing but a quiet town and a hotel worker trying to explain that the glamorous TV journalist they’d watched on TikTokthe one who had ridden the tram through lush forests and interviewed happy touristshad never existed at all. There was a Veo3 logo in the bottom right corner. How on Earth didnt they see that? Oh well, its something to tell the grandkids and feel really dumb. No criminals lifting $200,000 from their savings account, no false accusations to sink grandpas reputation, like others have experienced thanks to AI-made videos. No real harm done. Except it is harmful. Its another brick out of the walls of our reality in a world thats been crumbling in this post-truth era. AI has made the impossible indistinguishable from the actual, and now its turning even vacation planning into a minefield of false experiences. The alleged Malaysian couple’s story might sound like an isolated incident, but its the expression of something far more sinisterthe complete erosion of our ability to trust what we see, hear, and experience in a world where artificial intelligence can manufacture any narrative with increasingly terrifying precision. The AI black hole is growing exponentially The numbers tell the story of our collective descent into digital deception. Deepfake attacks have exploded from just 0.1% of all fraud attempts three years ago to 6.5% todaya staggering 2,137% increase that represents one in every 15 fraud cases, as identity services company Signicat detailed in February 2025. The statistics have real victims behind them, like Steve Beauchamp, an 82-year-old retiree who drained his entire $690,000 retirement fund after watching deepfake videos of Elon Musk promoting investment schemes. “I mean, the picture of himit was him,” Beauchamp told The New York Times, his life savings vanished into the digital void. The scope of AI-powered deception now touches every aspect of human experience. The British engineering company Arup lost more than $25 million when an employee was tricked during a video conference call featuring deepfake versions of the company’s CFO and other staff members. A school principal in Maryland received death threats after an AI-manipulated audio clip showed him making racist and antisemitic remarksa fabrication created by his own athletics director to discredit him. Even democracy itself isn’t safe: AI-generated robocalls impersonating President Joe Biden encouraged Democrats not to vote in the New Hampshire primary. The list goes on and on. And now this couple. AI tourism The deception began with a video published on TikTok by “TV Rakyat,” a television channel that sounds official but exists only in the realm of artificial intelligence. The footage showed a reporter experiencing the Kuak Skyride, a cable car attraction supposedly located in the town of Kuak Hulu in Perak state. She rode the tram through beautiful forests and mountains, interviewing satisfied customers about their journeys. Everything looked perfect, professional, and real. On June 30, the couple checked into their hotel in Perak state and approached someone on the staffwho goes by @dyaaaaaaa._ on Threadsto ask about the scenic cable car they’d seen online. The worker claims that she initially thought they were joking because there was no cable car, no attraction, nothing to see around. But the couple insisted, showing the detailed video they’d watched featuring the TV host and her interviews with happy tourists. When the staff member explained that what they’d seen was an AI-generated video, the couple refused to believe it. They had driven three hours based on footage that felt completely authentic, complete with a professional news presentation and satisfied customer testimonials. According to the hotel employee, the elderly woman threatened to sue the journalist in the video before learning that she, too, was nothing more than a pixel figment of an AIs imagination. Things were bad enough already Tourism was already drowning in manufactured reality before AI perfected the art of deception. Social media has transformed travel into selfie tourism, where visitors flock to destinations not for cultural immersion but to capture Instagram-worthy shots for their feeds. UNESCO has declared a three-alarm fire on this phenomenon, warning that travelers now visit iconic landmarks primarily to take and share photos of themselves, often with iconic landmarks in the background. The consequences are devastating. In Hallstatt, Austriaa town that inspired Disney’s Frozenover a million tourists descend annually to re-create viral moments, forcing the frustrated mayor to erect fences and tell the press that the town’s residents just want to be left alone Venice gondolas capsize when tourists refuse to stop photographing. Portofino, Italy, now fines visitors $300 for lingering too long at popular selfie spots to prevent what Mayor Matteo Viacava calls anarhic chaos. That was all the product of influencers already distorting reality with carefully cropped shots of empty beaches and architectural marvels, editing out the crushing crowds and environmental destruction that mass tourism brings. These curated fantasies created unrealistic expectations about travel destinations, leading to overcrowding, infrastructure strain, and the degradation of local communities. And dont get me started on AI-generated travel influencers. Yes, fake humans peddling AI-generated travel advice on video is now a thing that has turned into an industry (and while many people hate them, many others totally buy the scam). Even governments like Germany have sanctioned them: The German National Tourist Board launched an online marketing campaign in 2024 that featured artificial personalities to promote travel to the country. Its a depressing prospect. The Malaysian couple’s experience is just the newest chapter in our journey from reality to manipulated reality to completely fabricated reality. I tell myself that we can only face it with pervasive education campaigns, but Im afraid that it will always be too little too late.
Category:
E-Commerce
Whats the first thing that comes to your mind when you hear the word personal branding? Does it make your mind brim with possibilityor make you roll your eyes? Weve been conditioned to think of personal branding as the domain of influencers, LinkedIn gurus, or people who refer to themselves in the third person. But what if your personal brand wasnt an online gimmick? What if its something deeper, an insight into what makes you valuable and engaging? Brands, especially personal ones, are built on trust and positive association. Think about celebrities. Since the dawn of marketing, companies have used them to sell products. Whether its athletes launching shoe lines or musicians turning into moguls, its not the endorsement itself that holds power: its the intangible trust theyve cultivated over time. The same dynamic is available to you, too. When done well, a personal brand transcends your current role or business. It shapes how people describe you when youre not in the room. It opens doors you didnt know existed. It creates compounding returns in credibility, connections, and opportunities. And in todays AI-driven age, where digital presence speaks before you do, its important to get it right. According to LinkedIns annual global talent trends report, about eight in ten executives plan to hire this year. Their top priority? Soft skills: problem-solving, critical thinking, and team leadership. Where do you think decision-makers look for evidence of these? Online, in your ideas, interactions, and network. So, here are my top three ways to start cultivating your secret growth leveryour personal brand. Treat Your Online Presence as your 24/7 Résumé If someone Googled you right now, would they find something that makes them say, We need that person? This isnt about chasing likes or follower counts. Its about being credible and memorable. Whether its LinkedIn, Substack, or your website, people are forming impressions of you based on what they findor dont. Engagement isnt the only metric. In my own career, I once went for a job interview, heard nothing back, and four years later was invited to coffee by the same person. It turns out they had silently followed my work the whole time. You never know whos watching. Your digital footprint is your passive nudge to the world: Im here, Im an expert at this, and I care. Have a Memorable Answer to What Do You Do? Most people dread this question. Dont default to something bland like Im a strategist. Thats a missed opportunity. Instead, start with your strengths, link them to what you do, and finish with what you care about. For example, heres how I pitch myself: Let me start with what I am good at, what I do, and why. I build trust quickly across all groups. I also have a commercial mind that grows companies, but understands how human behavior gets in the way. With my skills, I build great places to work which are aligned and profitable, with a high-performing culture. Smart companies hire the best over bias, and that decision creates a ripple effect, reducing inequality and domestic violence. See how I am bidding for connection, then a transaction, but also outlining my expertise? I care about their profit, and I share why I do. Now thats more interesting than Im a strategist, right? Build Beyond Your Usual Network Once upon a time, I believed that if I worked hard, my workplace would see my brilliance. But people are busy. Exhausted, even. If youre only known inside your current bubble, youre invisible elsewhere. This is where weak ties become powerful. Sociologist Mark Granovetters well-known paper explains how opportunities often come from acquaintances, rather than your inner circle. Why? Because they connect you to different networks. When I pivoted into the technology sector, I knew no one. But I started showing up eager to learn, at events, online, in conversations. I carried a standout briefcase that sparked curiosity. Eventually, I was invited to speak, something Id never done before. If Id stayed in my old circles, those doors would never have opened. Yes, it can be awkward. But over time, youll see how generous and wonderful people can be. You dont need to do all these things perfectly. Just start. Trust builds over time. And consistency is your compound interest. Ask yourself this: if someone else with a stronger personal brand, but half your capability, gets the opportunity you wanted, how will you feel? It happens all the time. Weve all seen average products with better marketing outperform the good stuff. So, if youre job hunting, pitching, or looking to grow, remember: youre the product. And your brand? Its the story that sells.
Category:
E-Commerce
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