Everyone is so amped about the new generation of AI services and disinfo and repeating the mistakes of the last hypecycle. Remember people panicking about deepfakes when cheapfakes were the real problem? This time, we’re doomscrolling about OpenAI when videogame engines, low fidelity deepfakes as a service and the use of paid political influencers are all jamming along. Multiple kinds of synthetic media are converging - generative and predictive modeling, 3D graphics and gaming, “cheap” but powerful editing tools, and decontextualization of real media. AI is a shiny object in a burning building.