All this time, living for 49 years, I never knew how to identify AI manipulation. Because dang if it wasn’t sitting right here under my nose this whole time.

Who knew I was artificially generated? No. Seriously. Which of you knew this and why didn’t you let me know? Plus the photos on my Facebook profile “show many signs of AI manipulation”. But also, I have a husband, 4 kids, 2 dogs and 2 cats. So they’re deep fakes, too? Guess I’ve been workin’ hard over here, y’all. Building this fake life and all.

I don’t get it, but this is what I’m told.

Here’s the scoop…

*insert dramatic music here*

It all stared back just before Christmas. Someone (I will refer to her as AM) that I became friends with on theclickcommunity.com (formerly Clickin Moms) had been going HOG WILD on her Facebook page. You see? She had a photography FB, with about 4k followers, but she randomly switched the content from personal photography to some sort of AI “educational” stuff. I put that word in quotes because…well…because you’ll see from this story that it’s not that educational if you ask me.

I, along with many other CM (Clickin Moms — which I shall forever refer to it as) buddies thought she had been hacked. Oh. Oh no. She had not been hacked.

Anyway, AM posted something about Elon Musk. I don’t even remember what, but the whole thing was her trying to debunk something from Musk, but she was using a far left source to do so. Well? Seeing all these nutball postings that had been coming from her in the last several months? I commented. I know, I know. But I just couldn’t help it. Basically I said, “I think it would be better, if you’re trying to debunk a far right idea, don’t use a far left source. Cite something more down the middle of the road.”

Woooooo Nelly. AM did not like that.

Now. Let me also add this part in. Right around/just before this happened, she was part of a very large (47k+) FB group that is led by an extremely popular photoshopper/photographer, Damien Symonds. Damien posted a What To Buy article for Macs and AM asked why he would suggest items that were so expensive. When Damien clarified his answer, she wouldn’t let up and began calling him an AI bot. She then began calling another long-time admin of that group an AI bot and sharing photos of him all over social media. Some CM members popped in saying they were becoming concerned, thought maybe she’d been hacked and that this wasn’t like AM at all. I agreed.

So anyway, back to my ‘I don’t think you should try and debunk a far right idea by citing a far left source’ saga. AM responded to me suggesting that Caroline (my 16 year old) isn’t real and saying “thank you for proving the point that I’ve been making for months”. I went on to tell her that I’d been watching her posts for months and that I, along with many of her other CM people who’ve known her for years, were becoming concerned about her.

And that’s when she said….”let’s not pretend we were ever “friends””. And called me an online “acquaintance” for a “short time”.

I don’t know y’all, but that really made me sad because we WERE FRIENDS. Online friends, sure, but for quite a while. It started 12 years ago so people didn’t text like they do now, but we sent messages on CM and FB. She mailed me care packages. She made CM Mentor and we were both so excited!! We workshopped our Breakouts together and were so happy for each other when we were selected to present them for CM. Just a genuine friendship. Or so I thought.

Yet now? AM says….”Let’s not pretend we were ever friends”.

I guess I was the only one who thought we were buds this whole time.

She was fairly harsh in her responses and told me I could hit the ‘unfollow’ button and not offer any ‘unsolicited advice’. And said “I’ve never met you in person so your claim that you’re a real person doesn’t mean anything”.

Fast forward about a month later in January. Another post about Elon Musk. Not a big deal…I don’t care one way or another who she’s posting about, but she was really letting people have it in the comments. Most of them were fellow CM buddies…her pals, too. I couldn’t resist commenting (because this was her personal FB page and honestly I’d forgotten about the other post the month before since I hadn’t looked at FB too much.) on the post. I said something sassy like “I’m surprised I can still see your page since you said we were never friends…that I was genuinely sad to see the way things had gone with her/her comments and hoping that the other CMs would be careful–that they’d be on the outs with her, too”.

Well? She began to call me (and five other CM buddies) a troll. A virtual agent. Said that the photos on my FB account are AI generated. The videos I share are inconsistent and show signs of artificial intelligence. I am a Chatbot posing as a human with a realistic looking FB profile, an elaborate online digital footprint and a deceptively convincing backstory. I’m very skilled at simulating human conversation and even better at lying. I never break character and I will never admit to being a Chatbot, plus I’m very good at manipulating public opinion…it’s called ‘trolling’. Melissa is a troll and a Chatbot and isn’t a real person.

Y’all. After I read that? Where she posted my name and then said I was ALL OF THOSE THINGS? I took a screenshot of our old FB messages and some of our CM messages. Specifically the part where I say “AM!! You sweet thing for sending me a treat!! How thoughtful of you!” and she responds “You’re welcome, I thought of you immediately, I hope you’re feeling better…” Blah, blah, blah and so many others…

Then? I posted that screenshot in the FB thread and asked “Do Chatbots like me have mailing addresses?”

BOOM. DELETED ME AND AND BANNED ME ON ALL SIDES. I’m assuming she did this to the other CM people who disagreed with her, too. Called us Chatbots, AI manipulated, trolls, etc…for a while I thought it was a hacking situation, but now I see that it isn’t. She’d never met me in person, although had so very many online conversations with me over the last 12+ years, but because I didn’t support her agenda? I’m fake. That’s messed up, y’all.

Now. I’d like to say the following:

1. I do not have an elaborate online digital footprint. I visit about 8 websites and 2 of them are business related. Yes, I do play Wordscapes on my phone a bit and have 11k coins, 2 rockets and 3 lightbulb hints, but I don’t think that’s nearly as many as most people.

2. I do have a realistic looking FB profile. That’s because it’s real. As are all of the other photos and videos on my FB/IG/blog. The only one that isn’t real is the dorm room photo that I used for the Grown and Flown Article I wrote and I let everyone know that it’s AI.

3. Skilled at simulating human conversation and even better at lying?
HAHAHAHAHA! Yeah. Right. Okay. I can talk, yep. But I don’t use big words as you can tell by reading this blog. I also like talking to dogs better than humans most days. And lying? Um no. I’m not one for that unless you count the times I’ve told The Kid “Get to bed right now or I’ll pull your toes off one by one and feed them to the dogs”.

4. Good at manipulating public opinion? Pfffttt….I can’t talk my 9 year old into going to bed on time (See Item Number 3). How am I going to convince the ENTIRE public of something?

The only thing AM did get right? The part were she said I will never admit to being a Chatbot. I won’t do that. Because…duh…I’m not.

And as far as creating AI images? Y’all. It ain’t worth my time. It took me 3 hours to make this photo.

Me. The Queen of AI Manipulation. BWAHAHAHAHA

P.S. I have receipts of these communications. I just didn’t post them because I felt this was long enough.

P.S.S. I haven’t met 99% of you who read this blog, yet I know you are real.

*Fake items in this photo are as follows: background, crown, earrings, necklace, dress, hair curls at the sides, perfect hair part down the middle, slight chin dimple (don’t have that), mascara (eyes are too itchy for that stuff), smooth skin. I do have those freckles, hair color, eyes, nose, ears and mouth. Unsure about the behavior of the eyebrows.