Wyoming Road Map Hoax Shows How AI Tricks People

Every time you turn around, tech is changing. It adds features, updates operating systems, and develops new devices to make life a little easier. One place we've seen this is in the evolution of cell phones. We have more power in our pockets than NASA had when it sent the Apollo 11 mission to the moon.

We've also seen the evolution of AI. Artificial Intelligence isn't new; systems have been used since the 1950s, but it has really boomed in the last 15 to 20 years. In the last 5 years, AI use has skyrocketed, almost to a scary level. Images, videos, reports, presentations, press releases, and really just about anything you see or read online can be AI-generated.

As AI becomes such a popular tool, you have to second-guess much of what you see, read, or even hear, and be careful not to fall for a scam or false information. We've seen this happen a lot with AI; it's to the point that social media has to label posts when AI has been used to create or edit them.

We've seen AI be very misleading in some of those posts that people are falling for, obviously fake maps. For instance, an AI-generated map of Wyoming's stretch of I-80 running through the middle of the state from Lusk (labeled as Rawlins, which is not even close) to Casper, then south of Riverton, down around South Pass City, to Big Piney, and over to Afton, WY. The map also shows two routes along that line, but one avoids the toll road, which, if you didn't know, Wyoming doesn't have ANY toll roads...FAKE NEWS.

The fake map also claims that it's only 3 hours and 15 minutes (or 3 hours and 50 minutes along the "toll road"), which is also false. From Pine Bluffs, WY to Evanston, WY along I-80 is right around 6 hours...FAKE NEWS.

We already know some people in the United States don't believe Wyoming is a real place, and geography isn't a strong suit for a lot of people, so when stuff like this spreads on social media, AI makes people dumber, not smarter.

In closing, please don't take everything you read or see on the internet for the gospel. Look at an actual map, and you can tell that this AI-generated map isn't accurate.