I suppose a lot of people may not have read Tom Sawyer since it has been banned here and there. Yet there is a part of the book that seems really appropriate today and is unfortunate people didn’t read. It’s a great con.

It’s in Chapter 2 that Tom Sawyer gets punished and has to whitewash a fence for his Aunt Polly, and when mocked about his punishment by another boy, he claims whitewashing the fence is fun. It’s so fun, in fact, that the other kid gives Tom an apple (an initial offer was the apple core, I believe), and so Tom pulled this con on other kids and got their treasures while they painted the fence. He got ‘rich’ and had fun at their expense while they did his penance.

That’s what’s happening with social media like Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, etc.

Videos, text, everything being generated on these social networks is being used to train generative AI that you can use for free – at least for now – while others pay and subscribe to get the better trained versions.

It’s a pretty good con that I suppose people didn’t read about. It’s a classic con.

Some people will complain when the AI’s start taking over whitewashing the fences, or start whitewashing their children.

Meanwhile, these same companies are selling metaphorical paint and brushes.

I suppose this is why reading is important.

Oddly, the premise of the ban of “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer” was “when librarians said they found Mr. Sawyer to be a “questionable” protagonist in terms of his moral character.”

Happy Painting.