Trust… Trust is Fragile, But It Can Become Improved – Part 2

I have a friend who posted on social media about new AI glasses that he believes are coming…

“Imagine, owning a pair of AI glasses… That can watch people’s facial expressions, listen to their speech patterns… and detect whether they’re lying to you or not. It’s coming. It won’t be long before we live in a world where people can’t lie and get away with it anymore… But even I have reservations about this. Imagine no more cheating or leading people on. No more news broadcasters or politicians getting rich by lying to our faces. No more bluffing in a game of poker.

But also, no more Santa Clause. No more Tooth Fairy. No more keeping surprise birthday parties a secret. It’s coming, faster than you think. Hold on to your seats, folks… things are about to get weird.”

In a sense, that's already here. Although they may not be AI glasses, we tend to wear rose-colored glasses regarding where and what we consume as truth and how much we trust it. I tend to look at media consumption in three flavors or levels:

Entertainment—Movies, even documentaries, are designed to keep our attention and entertain us. They may often be based on facts or sciences, but we go into them knowing that people are writing scripts, hiring actors, editing, enhancing, and creating an experience. You can learn from entertainment but would not want to bet your life or business on what they present.

Facts—Not to be confused with truths, facts are observations or measurements that are repeatedly confirmed, such as “water boils at 212°F at sea level.” They represent the data or evidence collected through observation and experimentation.

Truths—Truth, on the other hand, is more subjective and philosophical. It represents a state of being under reality or fact but can also encompass personal beliefs, biases, or interpretations. For instance, “honesty is the best policy” may be considered truth by many, but it is not universally provable like a fact.

When AI starts to determine what is the truth or a lie, we are in real trouble.

The Social Conundrum

Social media has a way of presenting things as truths from trusted sources. For example, a link from a well-established media company like Fox or CNN that has the respect of its fans but lacks the trust of people who oppose their views. This goes further to create divisions and erode trust. Facts on social media are often treated as pliable as truths.

This is important because social media is entertainment. The ideas presented by people who use it are not limited to or liable for posting facts. The platform has only one goal: to keep you engaged longer so it can present more ads and make more money. There is nothing altruistic about social media and its audience. It's a business model, pure and simple.

The AI Conundrum

Artificial intelligence also presents things as truths from trusted sources. AI pulls information from multiple sources and compiles it in an LLM (Large Language Model). That LLM stores attribution to the original source but may or may not share that. When someone types an inquiry, the LLM gets to work to compile an answer (often from multiple sources). The inherent problem is that we assume that each of those compiled answers is not just truth but facts.

Artificial intelligence also means that the LLM is learning as it goes. If it gets multiple requests for a similar question or query, it may start to assume that its answers are becoming facts and start to serve that up as such. And people with their biases and beliefs will start to drive what the output ultimately becomes.

The AI-SOCIAL Conundrum

Social media and AI are becoming increasingly intertwined. Social media is run by AI algorithms. Social media text and video tools generate information based on LLMs and present it as fact when, in fact, it is truth. The line becomes blurred.

Social media tools like Truth Social are, in fact, truth in advertising. They present theories utterly biased by the user base and their social biases. So it becomes truth to the user but may be totally baseless as a fact.

The CASE for Presenting Facts to Support Truths

When creating content, your main goal is to build trust for your audience. Presenting truths may be enough if people are socially aligned with your biases. Facts (case studies, examples, experiments, and personal stories) are something that no social media or AI tool can invent.

You, your staff, vendors, and your customers have unique experiences that may end up in an LLM, but they are unique to you and your lived experience. This is the stuff of trust, community building, and lived experiences that no social or AI model can verify or factually confirm.

An AI model can interpolate experiences but can't express the nuance or emotional experience that people can (yet). That is what creating original content and sharing it with your audience is all about. It's about the human condition, emotional intelligence, and just plain creativity that can translate an experience into a lesson, epiphany, or even more questions that maybe only you can answer.

Closing Thought

I am truly excited about what AI and Social Media can and will do for our business in the near future. I am also going into this with eyes and ears wide open.

If you read the post?about our dog Layla a few weeks ago, you know the response was overwhelming. There were many thoughts and prayers, but many people were also trying (with love and respect) to help us fix problems.

In March, I am doing a Cancer Walk with Layla to raise money for the American Cancer Society. We just found out that Layla has heartworm and cannot do the walk with me, so I am going to complete the task with a little help from her friends. I will walk with her dog friends and parents and interview them about dog life and Layla, then post that to social media while completing my 50 miles in March.

The Donations have doubled since I announced that, and so have the medical diagnoses from friends with newly minted Facebook Veterinary Media Degrees. They all mean well. Just like every cancer, every person has a different treatment and reaction to it, and so do dogs for the treatment of heartworms.

The key thing to realize is that the collective response is a culmination of personal experiences, and sharing ours will be how we support Layla, Cancer patients, and ourselves through all of this!

There are no AI glasses that can dispute the fact that people love their pets, even if they lie sometimes to protect others!

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Comment below and share your thoughts, ideas, or questions about business-to-business sales and marketing today! Do you have a sales or marketing communications strategy that works for you? What tips or techniques can you share that work for you and your business?

To learn more about this and other topics on B2b Sales & Marketing, visit our podcast website at?The Bacon Podcast.