04/03/2026
The amount of Gen AI slop I continue to see going around the community weights heavily on my heart and mind. The weight HURTS me.
AI and its datacenters are a parasitic blight on our country, our resources, and the environment. They are doing legitimate damage. And Generative AI is so disingenuous. It looks awful. It innovates nothing new. It creates nothing of worth or value. It poisons the minds of the people that insist on using it more and more. It deteriorates and kills critical thinking and problem solving skills. It is dumbing people down, the more dependent its devotees get on it. And then they use it more to try and make up for it. It's an ugly cycle. And apparently these things HALLUCINATE now?? Not to mention the people that have killed themselves on the advice of some of these chatbots...... That seems to me like it should be bothering a LOT more people than it is.
And Generative AI is dependent on 'learning' from artists and writers and musicians to 'train it'. When, really, it's just stealing copywritten IP of all kinds and splicing and slicing it up and regurgitating crap while people ooh and aww and guffaw over it because the machine 'made' a funny picture or a funny song. It steals to survive, to do a half-assed job. It steals work from REAL artists, who put their blood and sweat and tears and TIME and EFFORT into their art and their WORK.
I have asked a number of people in the field why they'd do this.... The number one and two answers are:
'I can't afford an artist'.
'I don't have the skill or the time to learn'.
Both of these, in my opinion, are absolute horses**t excuses.
I don't know ANYBODY in Paranormal Investigation, today, that got into this field to become rich and famous.
This is NOT a field where there is a fortune to be found. It's not, and there just isn't. Ask anyone who's been going it for longer than 3 years. Hell, ask some of the folk who have been in it for 10 or 15 or 20 years. Ask some of the Big Names.
Ask them how many of them have been able to give up their day jobs to do this full time.
Ask them if Paranormal Investigation has helped them pay off their house or their car, or their rent, or put their kids through college.
And don't you dare bring up HIS NAME. Because that man is full of s**t. A con artist, a shyster, and a bully. And I bet he's not doing as well for himself as he'd like you all to believe.
Sure, maybe a FEW are making a LITTLE money on the side, selling books and tshirts, etc. Maybe it takes a LITTLE BIT of the edge off the financial struggles that we all have. I can't think of three names, though. I have had people tell me that, if anything, Paranormal Investigation is EXPENSIVE and TIME-CONSUMING. It wears and taxes their lives in every way possible. It is costly.
But, in their next breath, they'll turn around and tell me they'd never give up for all the money in the world. Because it makes them HAPPY. It's their PASSION. It's the thing they think about from the time they get up to the time they fall asleep, and even DREAM about. They tell me how they devoted their TIME to learning how to do things that they never believed was possible for them to do.
They put in the WORK. They invest their TIME. They learn NEW SKILLS.
All for the thrill of the chase. The next EVP. The next weird photo. The next video clip. I see the HUNGER in their eyes. I hear the quaver of excitement in their voices. Chasing the dead makes them feel ALIVE. I know men and women that you would have to beat them to death to pry their digital recorders and thermometers from their cold, dead fingers. And they'd still fight you for a few minutes longer.
I've talked to men and women who will tell me 'Yeah, we didn't really find anything this time. But NEXT TIME.....'. And there's ALWAYS that next time. It drives them through their normal lives. It's why they get out of bed and take care of themselves and go to work and slog through 5 days of bulls**t, all so they can go 'ghosting' on the weekends. They are MANIACS. They are my fu**ing heroes.
They are the Real Deal. And they will do ANYTHING, go ANYWHERE, to find the truth. Even if the truth isn't what they hoped it might be. Even if the truth turns everything they thought upside-down on its head. They want THE TRUTH. Even if it's not the Truth they thought it was gonna be.
They will never settle for anything one iota shy of that Truth. And it's that kind of dedication and integrity and hard work that WILL one day crack the mystery open for everyone.
THAT is what Paranormal Investigation is to me. THAT is the kind of people I love meeting and talking to and having on the show.
So why are any of you that use this Gen AI nonsense using it?
It's disingenuous. It's fake. It's false. It is lies. It's lazy. You're supposed to be BETTER THAN THIS.
'It's just an add.' 'It's just a banner.' 'It's just a funny picture.'
It's just horses**t.
You're telling me you can take the time to learn photography? Learn sound editing? Learn audio production? Learn to wire and setup and then break down an EXPENSIVE surveillance system?
But you can't take the time to learn photoshop? Learn SOME image editing software? Learn to draw? Learn to paint?
You see my avatar up there? That s**tty little black-and-wide duder? It's weird. It looks like crap.
I DREW THAT MYSELF. And, yeah. It looks crappy. But I still did it myself. I'm still proud of it.
The banner at the top of our page? Jeff did that. He took that photo of me himself. It's AMAZING. I LOVE IT. Is it 'professional'? I dunno. But I wouldn't trade it for anything else that he didn't shoot with his own camera and his own two hands. He also did all the images and stuff for the website..... Back when we still HAD a website. He LEARNED to do that. He's not bad at it, either. He's DEFINITELY gotten better at it. I am 150% confident in his work, too. Because he put in the time and the effort himself.
Because THAT'S what Real Paranormal Investigators DO.
You don't have to be amazing immediately. You're gonna suck, at first. That's just how it goes. But at least you care enough about doing it to actually DO IT.
It's been hard to find the motivation to do the show because more and more people I genuinely respect and admire and call my friends are turning to using Gen AI. They're all SO TALENTED and HARD-WORKING people, too. It never fails to give me a little bit of whiplash when I find out someone else I know is doing it. It hurts.
Yes. If you know me and I know you and you're using AI stuff and I've seen it? Yes, I am judging you. And not positively. I DO think less of you for using it. Especially with everything we're learning about the harm AI does. If you don't know? Go do your research. Not one single solitary one of you is afraid of doing the research, because that's a gigantic part of Paranormal Investigation, too. I don't wanna hear any excuses about it.
I think we did ONE show last spring. I think we did ONE show last summer? We haven't done a single interview this year. I keep wanting to and I keep meaning to. But then I look around and I see..... AI. Infecting and infesting my happy place that is the Paranormal.
And it hurts me. Intimately.
We had to give up the website last year. It's gone. Jeff still has all the audio and we're still hosted on other streaming services FOR FREEEEEEE. (At least it had damned well better be free.) The reason we haven't done the show is 90% my broken heart over recent events and events of the last 3 years or so. It's adding up and brought me to a screeching halt.
I still WANT to. I still HOPE to again, someday. But, man..... The hurt runs DEEP.
I just don't know what to freaking do..... But, we're still here. Whatever that's worth.
~James
