Dear Carolynn

When Even He Can’t Tell!

Yanis Varoufakis—the economist, former Greek finance minister, author and seasoned thinker—sat across from Unheard Editor-in-Chief and CEO, Freddie Sayers, discussing the AI created doppelgängers of Yanis proliferating across YouTube. Not grainy, unconvincing impostors, but flawless fabrications with, of course at least one very poor exception. AI videos of a “VarouFAKEis,” contain his oratory skills, his passion, his intellectual energy, espousing views to hundreds of thousands of followers who are not aware that they are being conned.

The most chilling detail? Yanis confessed that the only things that made him realise he was watching an AI created video of himself were because of the shirt he was wearing and the opinions about Putin are not his.

Think about that for a moment. A man with a lifetime of training in critical analysis, arguing against the most powerful institutions on earth, a master of rhetoric was reduced to relying on knowing his shirt selection and watching long enough to discover the AI “VarouFAKEis,” has a differing opinion about a world leader than that of his own.

His philosophical response was intriguing, even hopeful: perhaps this isn’t all bad, he mused seeking at least one positive, if it forces us to learn isegoria—the ancient Athenian principle of judging the speech, not the speaker. To focus on the argument’s merit, then investigate the source.

It’s a beautiful, logical, yet utterly terrifying proposition. Because while Varoufakis is highly disciplined, we in Australia will unleash the same synthetic storm into the pocket-sized on-line public forums of unprepared 16-year-olds.

At the risk of sounding like a broken record

I recently stated my disagreement with the Australian Government's policy to ban under 16 year olds from social media, and a lack of educating about fakes only adds to the problems that will follow an adolescents 16th birthday.

We Are Sending Kids Into a Cognitive Riptide.

A lot of parents find this stuff confusing or they are disinterested. The idea that a video of Yanis Varoufakis, or a sports star, singer, actor or a news clip, could be a complete fake is mind-bending and should be of deep concern to us all. If parents, governments, media and most of adult society don’t understand AI, or are even interested in understanding AI and its consequences, how can they prepare kids and teens?

So, the easy answer is to just ban social media. Out of sight, out of mind. AI is the head-in-the-sand. Banning social media feels like action, but it’s just avoidance. One day, and not long from now, we will wake up and realise too late that we should have learnt to live with AI as a helpful tool, not live under AI as a way of life. Instead, a sobering realisation that we neglected an economic and social impact far bigger and light-speed quicker than the Industrial Revolution, while we focused on social media and things that are easily exploited to suit certain ‘popular’ agendas that create divides.

The warning sign is flashing large and using an urgent red font—AI FAKERY—is being ignored. It’s a global weapon being used right now to trick everyone, from teenagers to professors, all while we’re busy arguing about fences instead of what danger hides inside the fence; digital swimming lessons of life to borrow in part from Australia’s great singer/songwriter, Paul Kelly’s, Deeper Water.

No sane parent waits until a kid is 16 and says, “Alright, you’re legally old enough to swim in the choppy surf now, off you go!” We start them early. We start in the baby paddling pool. Arm floats. Shallow end. Mild surf. An adult right there, holding them up, showing them how to float, how to kick. We help build confidence and skill in controlled, gradual doses.

Social media is the digital ocean. The currents are algorithms. The sharks are predators, scammers, and AI fakes. And we’re proposing to keep kids on the dry sand until they’re 16, letting them only hear about the ocean, never feeling the water, never learning to spot a rip.

We will be shocked when, on day one of their digital freedom, some young people will get pulled under by the first powerful wave of perfect misinformation. AI has already been accused of encouraging youth suicides, yet it isn’t banned for under 16’s, which would be pointless anyway for the same reasons why I argue banning social media is not solving a bigger problem.

What We Should Be Doing Instead of Banning

We need Digital Literacy, starting in primary school. Not just “don’t talk to strangers,” but: (for example)

• Grade 4: How does a “like” work? What is an algorithm actually trying to do?
• Grade 6: Spotting bad photoshops. Why do people make fake memes?
• Grade 8: Deepfakes 101. Here’s how to do the “Official Channel Check.” Here’s why the shirt Yanis is wearing matters.
• Grade 10: The philosophy of it. What is isegoria? How do you judge an idea separately from the famous person selling it?

We need Graduated Access. Let 10-year-olds onto platforms with training wheels—filtered feeds, time limits, mandatory tutorial pop-ups about sources. Build the skills inside the fence, with life savers on hand just like at a beach monitored by Surf Rescue.

We’re not protecting our kids. We’re prepping them to be the easiest victims on the internet. We need to teach them to enjoy and survive, not just build a taller fence and hope they figure it out when they finally climb over. Parents also must learn. Not only learn about AI for their kids, but also for themselves.

Here’s a very troubling reality. If AI succeeds with AGI, and every likelihood it will, our lives as humans will change for the worst, for the long term or forever. If it fails our lives will change for the worst, with likely decades to recover from the global losses considering so much financial investment gambled on speculation. It is bloody bleak. Either way, the survivors will be those who know an analogue and a digital world.

Over a beer last Sunday, I said to a mate of mine that we men and women who grew up in an analogue world should be recruited to teach younger people non-digital basics before it’s too late. Patience, critical thinking, resolve and reliance too. We can also learn from them if we listen; instead of banging on about what is wrong with them.