← The Fr. Mike Schmitz Catholic Podcast
The Fr. Mike Schmitz Catholic Podcast
Addressing the FAKE Videos of Me (w/ Fr. Mike Schmitz)
00:09:11
There have been numerous fake videos of Fr. Mike circulating online: clips of him supposedly asking for money for Lourdes, delivering sermons he never gave, and appearing on accounts that aren’t actually his. These are all scams — and a concerning reminder of how easy it is to be deceived by AI-generated content. Fr. Mike addresses these scams, shares tips for spotting fake content, and offers his perspective on artificial intelligence. If you come across any AI profiles or questionable videos, please send the link(s) to support@ascensionpress.com so our team can work on getting them removed. Thank you for helping us protect Fr. Mike's name, image, and likeness!
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Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz, and this is Ascension presents so artificial intelligence. I grew up with the Terminator movies. I know about Skynet. I'll be back. Don't do that. You don't hand over the reins. You don't want your computer to be smarter than you. Like, that's ridiculous. The machines are going to rise up, like, legitimately. I think that that's. There are, I'd say two things right now that are even graver possibilities because they're happening right now. One is scams and the other one is amputation. Let's get there in a second. So the scam thing is actually impacted me. It's probably maybe impacted you too, because there are people who have made AI generated videos of me, audio of me a giving sermons at one point or trying to raise money for something else. And it's basically a scam. So this, the sermon. Sometimes they're. I mean, I can look at them and say, that's ridiculous. I would never say that you're being watched by a demonic human. But people can't necessarily tell. That's a problem. That's like a really big problem when people are using my name, image and likeness kind of a situation to say something that I wouldn't say. This is your last chance to receive God's blessings today. He wants to give you something, and I come in the name of Jesus to bring it. Beyond that, to also scam people out of their money is a really, really big deal. So if you've seen, quote unquote, me making a video or audio trying to raise money to. For lords, you must act quickly because the spots for sending prayers are already running out and the next trip will only take place in four months. Click the Learn more button now and secure your blessing before it's too late. That's a scam. And so just please know about that. The only thing raising money for is our Seeds of Faith campaign to build a church and a Newman center here at the University of Minnesota Duluth, as well as our ongoing ministry. We have a, you know, give to the Max day, this kind of things. Bulldogatholic.org, we have a Catholic initiative we work with and sometimes for ascension, sometimes we make an appeal. But beyond that, like, that's. That's it. I just named five things. So there you go. That's confusing. The scams are real. And I feel so, so badly for anyone who's been scammed because the artificial intelligence generated images and voices can sound very, very similar. That's one thing. But there's another piece, and that's called amputation. I was talking with some people, I think it's at the McGrath Institute at the University of Notre Dame. Some really, really brilliant people who are talking about the dangers of artificial intelligence. And it's this. It's the danger we face with any technology. Here's. Here's what they kind of proposed. And I thought this was so, so genius. I've been reflecting on it since. For about a year, year and a half, since they. They told me this. They said every technology, typically in our experience, every technology is an expansion of a human capacity, some kind of human capability. So the print, the printing press, right? So even this, even the written word, the written word is an extension. It's an expansion of our. Our ability to use language, our ability to communicate. And so we have communication now. Put down on paper or on papyrus or on, you know, skins. Then the printing press is an extension of that, right? We can generate that all over the place. With every introduction of a new technology, we have an extension of our human capacity. So someone invents a bicycle, and now our human capacity to travel is now extended out there. Then someone invents the car, automobile, like combustion engine, right? And so that extends our capacity to move even further. And then there's the plane, and then there's the spaceship, all these kind of things. So it extends something, a natural human capacity that we have, the Internet. It extends our natural human capacity to have memory and to store data in our brains. What happens with every extension of this technology, every extension of this human capacity is part of what's human is extended out into the world. And our capacity to do that thing becomes stunted in some ways. It can become amputated. So here's an example, and this is some of the examples that these smart people had come up with. They said, you know, we used to be storytellers when it comes to humanity. We would pass on our history, pass on our legacy. We pass on our stories by telling stories. And our capacity to remember those stories and then communicate them again was intact. Then when you go write it down, we don't remember those stories as well. We're not an oral culture anymore. We're a written culture. And so our capacity to remember this amount of information has been stunted or amputated similarly. Now we have a bike. Okay, bikes rate. Now we have E bikes. E bikes, I have to say, looks like so much fun. But our health is now stunted. Whereas you had to walk that distance, now I can bike it. It's easier now I can e bike it. It's even easier now. I can ride in a car. It takes virtually no effort whatsoever. You could travel around the world, and it might not burn up as many calories as it would take for you to walk from one town to another. I'm just, you know, obviously hyperbolizing, but you know what I'm saying. So with every expansion of technology, we're extending a human capacity. And we're also, in the process, stunting that thing. If you remember. I mean, this is kind of an old kind of nostalgic thing. Remember sitting around the kitchen table or sitting around the bar and arguing about who said what in this movie? Did Luke say, no, you're not my father? Or did Darth Vader say, luke, I am your father? I am your father? No. Or did he not really give that line? And everyone's debating about this now. You just look it up. We've expanded, extended our capacity for memory into out. Into technology. But in the process, we've stunted that. So, see, here's what's happening with AI you just type in a couple prompts and say, craft a letter that says this. And then, boom, there's the ability. Great, that's a human capacity. I've now expanded it or extended it at what cost? Let's create a song. And I've seen those AI Created songs. Someone says, I want a song. I want a country song that talks about this, this, and this, and. And then, boom. Father Mike knows that the AI tools can make an AI country track. That sounds so cool. The computer program creates the country song. And so what happens is the creativity that is innate to humanity is extended by technology. But something in the process might be lost. Actually, I'm going to say this. Something in the process is going to be lost. AI is not evil any more than a bicycle is evil, any more than the Internet of itself is evil. It is simply an extension of a human capacity beyond human capacity. What do we lose in the process is going to be the question. And it might not be Skynet, right? It might not be the machines rise up, but it's going to be something. And we have to pay attention to what that is. Here's the last little thing. I was on a plane recently, and this airline is celebrating its 100th year of being an airline. And so it was going back. You know, here's what the flight attendants WORE in the 20s or in the 40s, you know, in the 50s, 60s, whatever. And then it was here in the future, and they had an image of a person sitting in an airplane seat, and they're wearing futuristic clothing. And outside were all these spaceships. Like, it was kind of flying all over. And I thought, yeah, that's what people imagine the future would be like back in the day. Like, we would become so technologically advanced that you would. You'd have your own spaceship. You'd be able to fly around. I don't see more people willing to do things with their bodies. I see with technology, more people willing to put on, like, an Oculus, right? Put on VR goggles and pretend to fly something rather than let me go do it myself. I see the technology as a, oh, I can sit here and it can be just like I'm doing the thing. So Wall E, the movie Wall E is kind of prescient, right? It's kind of prophetic in that sense that that might be our future more than anything else, which we would not have anticipated. Right? We would have thought, no, by extending technology, we can travel even further, we can go even faster, we can do amazing things. And it could be the case that we don't actually do amazing things. It could be the case that by extending that part of our humanity, we cease knowing how to do things and only do things virtually. We cease actually connecting with other people and only seek to connect with people virtually. There'll be a tragedy again, I think Wall E is more accurate than anything. Maybe the machines don't rise up, but maybe we become machines. Maybe the dependency becomes so great that we forget what it is to have our own minds. We forget what it is to create. We forget what it is to connect with other people. We forget what it is to have our own bodies and to do things. There's a danger with technology, and it's not just what could we do with technology. It's the question, what might we lose as thinking people, as Christians, as leaven in the world? What we're called to do is not condemn something for being amoral, right? No good. Or that there's not. It's not right or wrong, not good or bad, but we have to watch and say, okay, culture K. The rest of us, what are we gaining? But also what are we in danger of losing? There's a lot of things to be gained, but there's a lot of things to lose. What do you think? Put in the comments below. Anyways, Marlowe's here at Ascension presents. My name is Father Mike. God bless.