Ah, doom and gloom. You’re going to get a fine for sipping from a coffee while you drive your car.
Or are you? This story is a case study in how cynical people are exploiting AI generated fake news stories for profit and how AI then feeds off itself to make it all seem true. I’ve been sent this supposed story a dozen times, maybe more. And you may have seen the breathless headlines from blogs, news, motoring, and law websites, and social media pages claiming that as of October, you can be fined $850 just for sipping on a coffee while driving. Depending on the website, you’ll see claims of fines of up to $1,800 behind clickbait titles about new Australian fines for eating, drinking, and vaping while driving, or new traffic rules punish coffee drinkers.
They’re all enticing you to click to read all about this outrageous news story, but it’s just not true.
At least not in the way that it’s presented. Somebody has literally gone to AI and said, “Hey buddy, what’s a really juicy story that will definitely go viral and get lots of clicks?” and AI dutifully has come back and said, “Well, if we combine something that everybody loves, coffee, with something that everybody hates, traffic finds, then we’ve got a shore fire viral sensation on our hands. And judging by the results, the AI was right. This story is suddenly everywhere.”
Now, some of these websites render the story really badly, such as this example that said huge instead of huge. Others make bold claims in the search results, like this one from On-road Driver Education. But if you click it, just goes to their blog page with no specific blog post about this topic to be found. Then there’s this effort from Timber build. Yeah, never heard of them either. But you might start to notice a pattern. See that free gift button floating off to the side there? That’s eerily similar to the click and win button floating off to the side on this dabble version of the same story. Same story, same misinformation using either a similar or identical website template. Hm.
There’s every chance that at least some of these websites are actually run by the same person who gets AI to generate a fake news story and then rolls that same story out across all of their clickbait websites once they find a winner. So, what’s the truth in this story? Well, the truth is these guys are harvesting eyeballs for profit. No, not like Minority Report. That was probably a poor choice of words. I mean, they’re lying to you for clicks. And this problem, it’s going to get much, much worse in coming years because with the advent of AI, it’s becoming easier and ever more profitable to spread fear for cash.
I’m going to tell you what you need to look out for so you don’t get tricked. But first, my name’s Toeer Field. This is the Topher Project, and I help busy people like you to keep up with the world as it changes around you. I am 100% viewer supported. So, if you appreciate what I’m doing here, then please help me to keep going by buying me a coffee via the button at topherfield.net. And if you like my videos, then you will love my books, DVDs, and merch. All available at goodpeoplebreakbadlaws.com. And every purchase will help me to keep making more videos to help busy people like you to stay informed with what’s really going on.
First, let’s clarify what is happening regarding the rules for drinking non-alcoholic drinks while driving.
Obviously, alcoholic drinks while driving, bad idea. But after we talk about that, I’ll tackle different types of misinformation, the different reasons why this sort of misinformation is created and how to spot them so that you don’t get sucked in. And yeah, let’s be honest, a few of you did send me links to this most recent round of scary coffee drinking headline. So, let’s put paid to this one once and for all.
You are not going to get fined just for drinking from a coffee cup whilst you are driving. But you will get fined if you fail to maintain complete control over your vehicle at all times or if you allow yourself to become distracted. So yes, if you are drinking from a cup and it causes you to stray out of your lane or lose focus on the road ahead or maybe if you’re taking a big long drink as you approach a busy intersection, then yeah, at that point you could get into trouble. But the same is true if you’re distracted by changing radio stations or yelling at the kids or trying to figure out why that homeless guy needs three supermarket trolley. Like seriously, is that the Taj Mahal of homeless shelters? What’s he even got in there? How does he push three all at once?
Any form of distraction that causes you to no longer have full control over your vehicle is punishable by a fine. There’s no specific ban on drinking from cups or drinking your morning coffee. And the people claiming otherwise are doing it for their own personal profit. But this is more than just a clickbait issue. This is an object lesson in how AI turns in on itself to create its own alternate reality, which it then reinforces, and on and on it goes. It’s a form of what’s known as AI hallucination.
The chain of events in this case is basically this. There’s people who want your eyeballs for one of two basic reasons. One is clickbait for Ad revenue. That’s obvious, and we’ll get to them second. There is a lesser known source of clickbait based misinformation that I do want to address first and that’s desperate digital marketing agencies who are struggling to meet their KPIs, their traffic targets. Companies all over the world pay agencies to drive traffic to their websites and some of the less scrupulous agencies don’t really care how they get that traffic just as long as the weekly report to the boss looks good and the client keeps paying.
Now, I am speculating here, but that’s what it looks like might be happening with the on-road driver education website that I mentioned earlier. Google search shows a juicy excerpt, but there is no such blog post to be found. This looks to me, and again, I’m speculating, but it looks to me as though someone is playing with the blog page metadata to make it really clickbait to drive traffic to the blog page, but for no actual benefit to the business. It makes their report for the week look good, but that’s all. In this case, there’s no ads on that page. There’s no ad revenue to the business. This is not about your eyeballs in the sense of ad revenue. It really does look to me like the most likely explanation is a rogue social media or website person is desperate to meet their traffic targets and has resorted to dishonest measures almost certainly without the knowledge or approval of the business owners.
So that’s one type of misinformation, but honestly that’s not the main problem here. Such examples are relatively rare. The real problem is the dishonest people that are using AI to create clickbait. And then AI is relying on that clickbait to answer questions when people ask if the story is true. And it creates an alternate reality. There’s a lot of websites now that are just AI generated content for ad revenue. And that’s not in and of itself the end of the world if the information on those websites is honest and accurate. But sadly, the truth, well, it doesn’t get very many clicks.
So these website operators, or at least the less honest ones, turn to AI and they ask, “What news story, real or imagined, would get lots of clicks in Australia?” Or they ask it some similar prompt. Then based on the answer, they pick one that they go, “That one. That’ll be good. Write me that story.” Now, generate an image to go with that story. Then they smash all of that into some free website template that has lots of ads or affiliates with gambling websites or some such thing. And hey presto, that viral fake story prints money out of thin air.
Where it gets really sketchy, though, is that even though AI wrote the content, it can’t tell the difference between what’s real and what’s fake on the internet. Now, unfortunately, I did not get a screenshot of this the first time it happened. But when I first started researching this story, the AI overview in Google search told me with great confidence that yes, you can be fined just for drinking and dutifully gave me links to the timber build and dabble websites that I showed you earlier. They were using this AI generated clickbait as its source for the AI generated overview.
Now I didn’t get that screenshot when I should have. I kept on searching and looking at other things. Now, when I go back and I ask Google to give me another AI overview for the same search, it generates a more accurate, if still somewhat hyperbolic response. It does at least say that it’s only an issue or drinking from a coffee cup is only an issue if it interferes with your control of the vehicle, which is more accurate. But it does go on to say that it’s safest to pull over before having a drink because clearly that’s a really practical solution when you’re on a long drive. But you get my drift.
Scammers who want your eyeballs are using AI to generate juicy clickbait which goes viral.
And then that influences the AI generated results when people search and try and fact check and find out the truth. This is a rabbit hole that we’ve only just started to go down. It is going to get a lot crazier before it gets better. And yes, in time I do think that this will actually be addressed. It will get better partly because AIs will get smarter, but also more because humans will too. And as we start to be more discerning, this problem will go away.
In the meantime, browser beware. Do your best not to buy into fear-based click harvesting campaigns. Always have a look at the sources. Don’t believe everything AI tells you. Life is already busy enough and the times are already challenging enough without adding even more to your already full headspace. My name’s Topher Field. This is the Topher Project and I do what I can to help busy people like you to cut through the crap and make sense of the nonsense that surrounds us. I am 100% viewer supported. So, if you appreciate what I’m doing here at the Topher project and especially if you were someone who, be honest with yourself, you believed that for a second, then I’d really appreciate it if you’d help me to keep the Topher project going by buying me a coffee at topherfield.net. And if you don’t yet have a copy of my books, my DVD, or my merch, then head over to goodpeoplebreakbadlaws.com and grab my best-selling books about government, power, human rights, and civil disobedience. And check out my DVD documentary, Battleground Melbourne, and have a look at my t-shirts and hoodies in a range of designs. Some funny, some serious, but all designed to be thought-provoking conversation starters.
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