I’ve been noticing a trait common to all the AI-generated “humans” in the video ads I see online—and they’re ubiquitous these days—including those made using the images and audio of real people: they all come across to me as being soul-less.

That divine spark that makes us genuinely human is largely missing from all these fake talking heads.

As a media professional, I’ve created hundreds of audio and video messages derived from in-person interviews, all of them having in common an authenticity based on their unique human personalities, quirks, and vulnerabilities.

None of those genuine attributes appear in the eyes, facial expressions, and speech of today’s AI bots.

This reminds me of something I learned decades ago about Treasury agents who learned to spot counterfeit currency, not by examining all the various counterfeits but by knowing the genuine article so well that they’re able to spot a counterfeit immediately.

I’m curious. Are you spotting the fakes, too?