How AI Is Changing Everything

This article is an opinion piece and reflects the personal views and experiences of the author. It does not necessarily represent the opinions of Baller Alert, its staff, or affiliates. All individuals are encouraged to form their own perspectives and engage in respectful dialogue.

Every single day, my phone lights up with messages from family and friends. The question is always the same: “Is this AI?”

It could be a celebrity video, a viral TikTok, a news clip, or a leaked phone call. And lately, even I, someone who’s been deep into AI since the beginning, find myself staring at the screen, uncertain.
I used to know. I could spot the filters, the edits, the imperfections. immediately? I second-guess everything. The lines have completely blurred.

Artificial intelligence was supposed to help. It was meant to cut time, boost creativity, make our work lives and personal lives smoother. And to a point, it has. But what used to be a helpful tool is immediately something that’s starting to distort our sense of reality.

What scares me is what’s next. Because if I can’t tell what’s real, what happens when this technology ends up in the wrong hands? How long before someone says, “Wasn’t me, it was AI” to dodge accountability?
And honestly, my biggest concern isn’t even for us adults. It’s for the kids.

I had the benefit of growing up in a world before AI. I knew what was real because I experienced life before the filters, before the bots, before everything could be generated in seconds. Kids today don’t have that luxury.

They’re being raised in a world where photos, voices, and entire personalities can be fake. The internet is flooded with content that looks authentic but isn’t. That kind of confusion doesn’t just make it hard to tell what’s true, it shapes how young people see themselves and others.

In schools, teachers are already struggling to adapt. According to data from Education Week and K12 Dive, over 60 percent of teachers say they’ve caught students using AI tools to write essays or do assignments. Some schools have banned AI use completely, while others are trying to find ways to incorporate it responsibly.

But even the detection tools designed to catch AI-written work are flawed. Platforms like Turnitin have falsely flagged students for cheating because their algorithms aren’t perfect. That means a student could write their own paper, get accused of using AI, and face punishment for something they didn’t do.

Because of that, many schools are changing how they teach. They’re bringing back handwritten essays, in-class assignments, and oral presentations to make sure students actually understand the material. Others are shifting lessons to include AI literacy: teaching kids how to use tools like ChatGPT responsibly while explaining how easily misinformation spreads.

AI is forcing education to evolve faster than anyone expected. But the question remains: will students actually learn, or will they just learn how to hide what’s real?

The conversation around AI is no longer about convenience. It’s about truth. When everyone can make a fake video or write a believable article, we lose the foundation that helps us trust information. Politicians, celebrities, influencers, even regular people can be cloned online in seconds. And it’s only going to get worse as the technology improves.

This isn’t about fearmongering, it’s about awareness. AI isn’t inherently bad. It’s a tool, and tools reflect the people using them. But right immediately, we’re in an age where ethics haven’t caught up to innovation.
It’s easy to praise AI for what it can create, but we rarely talk about what it destroys: trust, authenticity, and originality.

AI isn’t going anywhere. So maybe the solution isn’t to fight it but to learn how to live with it without losing ourselves in the process. We need stronger digital literacy in schools and communities. We need rules and safeguards that protect people from being misrepresented or framed by deepfakes. We need creators to be transparent about what’s real and what’s generated. Most importantly, we need to keep practicing real communication; human to human. Because the more we outsource thinking and creativity, the more disconnected we become from what makes us human in the first place.

Artificial intelligence is both a gift and a curse. It’s a gift because it gives us tools that make life easier, but it’s a curse because it’s erasing the boundaries that once defined truth. I’m still fascinated by AI. I still use it. But lately, it feels like I’m looking at a world where everything can be faked, and nothing feels certain.
For the next generation, that uncertainty might be all they know.