Month: April 2025

Be careful out there; it’s a deep fake future

Screenshot taken from deep fake video of Ja Morant post-game interview

My wife sent me a video interview she saw last week with Memphis Grizzlies star Ja Morant that was pretty shocking.

In what appeared to be a post-game interview with the media after the Grizzlies’ loss to OKC, Morant made some outrageous comments. He said that Thunder star Shai Gilgeous-Alexander was not MVP-worthy, that the Grizzlies had no chance in the series and that NBA Commissioner Adam Silver had taken away his motivation.

It was such an eye-opening interview that I forwarded it to my friends Ed, Steve and Casey.

Trouble is that it was a totally fake video created with Artificial Intelligence. Ed tipped me off because he immediately started searching for articles about what Ja had said and found none. Zero.

But I fell for it, and I hang my naive head in shame.

I invite you to click on the video below and tell me that you could spot it as a fake, aside from Ja’s outrageous comments.  Ja’s voice and the post-game setting are both realistic.

I find the fact that this fake video was so well done to be disturbing for what it portends about the future. It is part of a growing phenomena commonly known as deep fakes.

The Ja video was pretty harmless, but what if someone created a fake video of a presidential candidate saying incredibly racist things that he or she would never utter?

We can see where this is headed. I’ve read that such videos already exist.

Want an example? The video in this link isn’t exactly a political deep fake, but it that made the rounds shortly after the death of Pope Francis, created around his meeting with Vice President J.D. Vance the day before he died. The creators took an historic meeting and turned it into an attempt at humor that is pretty disrespectful.

Screenshot from Threads of deep fake video of Pope Francis taking a swing at VP JD Vance

I decided to seek an expert’s opinion and reached out to John Hassell, Ph.D., an Associate Professor of Software Development and Integration at the University of Oklahoma Polytechnic Institute in Tulsa. If you are not familiar, the Polytechnic Institute is OU’s newest campus that offers a host of technology degree tracts, including Artificial Intelligence.

Dr. Hassell has incorporated AI into software development for the past couple years, and shared his thoughts on the subject with me in a 2024 blog post. 

When I asked him about the Ja Morant deep fake, he immediately put me in touch with Colin Torbett, an OUPI student who possesses a master’s degree in data science but is now pursuing another undergraduate degree in cyber security.

“Colin is actually doing research on that very topic now,” Dr. Hassell said.

So, Colin connected with me and shared some thoughts on the emerging flood of AI generated deep fakes.

“These fake videos (but also images and audio recordings) are called ‘deep fakes’ because they use an AI technique called ‘deep learning’ in order to create a fabricated, digital artifact,'” Colin told me. “They are indeed pervasive and I see new ones appear everyday on social media, though I typically find one’s which are humorous, benign, and easy-to-spot as fake. On the other hand, some are more nefarious and easily pass as real at first glance.”

A cyber security major at OU’s Polytechnic Institute campus in Tulsa, Colin Torbett is researching the deep fake phenomenon

Colin described a deep fake he recently saw that claimed to be an interview with a young woman on her dating preferences. Apparently, it was a well done video, but the person holding the microphone for the interview had six fingers. Dead giveaway.

“It does illustrate how pernicious deep fakes can be — and how easily duped anyone can be,” he said. “This can only become a concern for politics especially with all the chaos in the last decade. Obviously, fake video or audio of speeches would be detrimental — if not fatal — for a political career, but would sow discord among voters and the general public.”

My question: how can these deep fakes be more easily detected and even stopped before they are in widespread distribution?

“While there is no immediate antidote to the problem, I am confident that cybersecurity researchers and computer scientists will create digital watermarks and signatures which validate any digital piece of information (video, audio, document, email, etc.) as authentic,” Colin said. “The digital infrastructure and software for these solutions is still in it’s infancy, being developed by startups and university researchers. It might take 5-10 years for this technology to be refined and widely adopted.”

Wait. Five to 10 years for a real solution? The bad guys are going to have quite a head start.

“In the mean time, my only advice (unsolicited, I admit) is to take everything online with a few grains of salt — especially if it confirms something one already believes,” Colin said. “It’s easy to dismiss something if runs contrary to a belief about the world, but being skeptical about information that affirms a deeply held worldview is an effective antidote to confirmation bias, and the deep political entrenchment we see reinforced by social media today.”

Colin has worked for technology-based firms for about a decade, beginning with an internship at OKC’s Spiers New Technologies in 2015. He gained his interest in deepfakes and AI while in graduate school, earning his MS in 2017.

“Since then, deep fakes have exploded and are becoming a serious concern,” he said. “My interest revolves around helping to create a novel solution for a pervasive problem that affects everyone. What I really want to do is what every good engineer wants: to use my skills and science to solve complex problems for the world.”

I hope that one day Colin Torbett leads his own high tech company that creates antidotes to deep fakes and will keep videos like the Ja Morant interview out of my timeline.

Then I won’t get fooled again. Maybe.

BONUS CONTENT: My friend Don Mecoy shared a video with me that provides a deep dive into deep fakes and how they are evolving and their threats to society.  Watch the video below:

DOUBLE BONUS CONTENT UPDATE:

Concerned that AI is coming after your job? Read what my friend Dr. John Hassell at University of Oklahoma Polytechnic Institute has to say on the subject. Spoiler alert: It’s not likely!
https://www.news9.com/story/68c731020ebc3adec64fbb37/is-ai-coming-for-your-job-ou-professor-weighs-in-on-widespread-fear

Friends, colleagues honor Michael McNutt in NonDoc retirement celebration

Michael McNutt tells a story as he addresses the audience at his Nondoc retirement ceremony

Michael McNutt’s retirement celebration from the NonDoc online news organization was under way earlier this week when he shared a story with me from almost 30 years ago and said I played a role.

A story for which I had no recollection.

Michael is a friend and former colleague at The Oklahoman who served as the newspaper’s Enid correspondent for probably a decade before moving to the Oklahoma City newsroom.

McNutt’s retirement ceremony, organized as a fund raiser for NonDoc, was outstanding.  I’ll come back to it.

As for the memory that he shared with me, McNutt recalled that I was assigned to help him conduct a focus group for The Oklahoman in northwest Oklahoma in advance of the 1996 presidential election. Michael said that I called him on the day of the focus group and alerted him that I was going to be a no-show because my wife and I were having a baby — in Abilene, Texas.

I don’t recall the focus group assignment, but I do recall that on June 18, 1996, Paula and I received a call that the baby we hoped to adopt was to be born that very day in Abilene. We jumped into the car, drove 330 miles and arrived at Abilene’s Hendrick Medical Center in time for the birth of our son, Ryan.

Anyway, it was a story that took me back to that milestone event, and obviously was an event that stuck in McNutt’s mind over the remainder of his reporting and editing career.

A St. Louis native, McNutt worked as a reporter and editor for The Oklahoman for nearly 30 years. He had a distinguished post-newspaper career, as well, working for an Oklahoma governor and a state agency, before the recent tour with Nondoc.

NonDoc honored Michael with this week’s celebration because he is retiring as managing editor of the enterprising, not-for-profit online news organization that fills a lot of holes left behind by the decline of traditional newspapers.

McNutt’s retirement celebration brought me and about 75 others to the Will Rogers Theater events center on Monday evening.

Michael McNutt with Mick Hinton, a former colleague at The Oklahoman.

Throughout his 40-year journalism career, Michael earned the respect of his colleagues, as well as elected officials across the state and of the people he really served — readers of his reporting and editing through the years.

I didn’t work on a day-to-day basis with Michael at The Oklahoman, but I got to know him as a thoughtful, approachable, empathetic person, as well as a baseball fan who remains devoted to his St. Louis Cardinals in both good times and bad.

A University of Missouri graduate, McNutt began his journalism career for the Rolla, Mo., newspaper before taking a job at the Enid News & Eagle in the 1980s. His wife, Kathryn McNutt, is also a longtime editor/reporter and veteran of The Oklahoman who now works at OKC’s Journal Record.

McNutt told me that he left The Oklahoman’s Enid bureau position in 2000 to become an editor and reporter in the paper’s OKC newsroom. He held editing positions on the state and city desks, and also covered the state capitol for eight years.

After leaving The Oklahoman in 2013, Michael served as spokesman and communications officer for Gov. Mary Fallin, before assuming the role of  communications director for Oklahoma’s Office of Juvenile Affairs. He took the Nondoc position about two years ago.

Former Gov. Mary Fallin shared the stage with Steven Buck, former administrator of the Oklahoma Office of Juvenille Affairs.

You could see evidence of the respect Michael earned in the audience at the NonDoc retirement ceremony. The room was filled with former newspaper colleagues, as well as state agency and elected officials, including former Gov. Fallin.

In fact, Fallin was a featured speaker, hailing McNutt for the work he did on her behalf, but also sharing some funny moments from his years on her staff. She was joined on stage by Steven Buck, who was OJA Administrator when Michael moved from the Governor’s office to that agency.

Buck shared his thoughts with me on the experience of working with Michael at OJA:

“When I found myself seeking a communications director for the Office of Juvenile Affairs, Michael quickly emerged as the best candidate. I had known him previously and greatly respected his work ethic but to serve as a lead advisor to me, I needed some one with great discernment, communication ability, confidence to hold me accountable and, of most importance, a commitment to mission and serving kids. There was not a single day in our work together that I regretted hiring him; he far exceeded my expectations and remains one of my most trusted colleagues.”

That’s the highest of praise.

I thought Tres Savage, NonDoc’s editor-in-chief, did a terrific job as emcee of the event, which served as a fundraiser for the Sustainable Journalism Endowment. The endowment provides funding for NonDoc to operate.

McNutt was the final speaker of the ceremony and told an intriguing story about how he was ‘almost fired’ from his job as a new reporter for the Enid newspaper just because he did his job. Michael said he received a tip that Enid city councilors met in secret at a local restaurant before each Council meeting and, along with a newspaper photographer, he “crashed” the meeting.

Michael McNutt speaking as Tres Savage, Nondoc’s Editor-in-Chief, looks on.

After his story appeared in the next day’s newspaper, a group of councilors marched into the editor’s office demanding that he be fired. The editor stood behind his reporter and told the elected officials to “follow the law.”

As for me, I had a terrific time at McNutt’s sendoff, greeting lots of my former Oklahoman colleagues, sharing time with both Michael and Kathryn and laughing at some of the stories I heard.

It was like a grand reunion.

Thank you, NonDoc, for giving him such a well deserved retirement recognition and to my friend, Steve Buck, for inviting me to sit at your table.

We’re all better off because of the work that Michael McNutt did over his career.

BONUS CONTENT — While Michael told me a story about an event I didn’t recall, I also shared with him about the first — and only — time I visited his office at The Oklahonan’s Enid bureau. Since I was from the “home office” of the paper and worked in the opulent (now former) newsroom along Broadway Extension, I had visions of McNutt working out of a similar abode in Enid. However, it turned out that he worked in a tiny office in a corporate building that was like a 1960s time capsule. I’m not sure exactly what I expected, but today all I can see in my mind is the bright green shag carpet in his office.

DOUBLE BONUS CONTENT — As I was visiting with Kathryn McNutt, along with other well wishers, someone brought up Michael’s avocation of making a daily, early morning run, no matter the weather. She told us that when the weather turned cold and the terrain ice covered, she made sure he wore baseball cleats on his run. One of the speakers at the retirement event spoke of once confronting a man in his neighborhood who was running in early morning darkness and wearing a ski mask, hockey jersey and baseball cleats. It was, of course, Michael McNutt.

From left, Jim Stafford, Steven Buck, Michael McNutt

‘London Homesick Blues’ puts me back in that place

‘Gotta put myself back in that place again’

Those are the first words in Jerry Jeff Walker’s live version of “London Homesick Blues,” which I consider as the soundtrack to my years on the campus of Abilene Christian University in the late 1970s.

Written by fellow Outlaw Country artist Gary P. Nunn, the song was recorded in Luckenbach, Texas, in 1974 as part of Jerry Jeff’s landmark “Viva Terlinqua!” album.

“London Homesick Blues” is one of the best examples of what became known as the Outlaw Country genre that emerged in Austin, Texas, in the 1970s. But it’s also a song about loneliness and longing for home when you are far removed from the place you love.

“Well, when you’re down on your luck and you ain’t got a buck
In London you’re a goner
Even London Bridge has fallen down
And moved to Arizona
Now I know why
And I’ll substantiate the rumor that the English sense of humor
Is drier than than the Texas sand
You can put up your dukes or you can bet your boots
That I’m leavin’ just as fast as I can”

So, why am I writing about a 52-year old outlaw country song in 2025?

Well, I was an aspiring journalist as an ACU student, and my campus life revolved around the student newspaper, The Optimist.  Several of my classmates who were also enrolled in ACU’s Journalism and Mass Communication department became lifelong friends.

Along the way on my ACU journey, the Optimist staff embraced “London Homesick Blues” as something of an anthem. A couple of guys played the guitar and we organized a faux band that played the song with gusto.

My role was only to stand with the band and sing the song’s famous chorus really loud and off key. Of course, that’s the only way I know to sing.

I fondly recall a party hosted by our beloved journalism professor, Dr. Charlie Marler, where we played and sang that song in his living room.

“I wanna go home with the armadillo
Good country music from Amarillo and Abilene
The friendliest people and the prettiest women you ever seen”

If you are a fan of the PBS show Austin City Limits, you know that chorus because it opened the show for 27 years.

Back to 2025. I’m not sure how or why, but I began listening to “London Homesick Blues” on replay over the course of the past couple of months.
A wave of nostalgia washes over me when I hear it, and it really does take me back to that place — the ACU campus and the people with whom I shared classes and The Optimist newsroom.

“Well, it’s cold over here, and I swear
I wish they’d turn the heat on
And where in the world is that English girl
I promised I would meet on the third floor?
And of the whole damn lot, the only friend I got
Is a smoke and a cheap guitar
My mind keeps roamin’, my heart keeps longin’
To be home in a Texas bar”

The song plays pretty much nonstop my head these days, and I really sense the longing and loneliness of the tune. It’s a pretty heavy message for an Outlaw Country song, and it’s come to mean so much to me.

So, I asked several former classmates their thoughts on “London Homesick Blues” nearly 50 years removed from our days together at ACU. Since it was a small campus and student body, we had many classes together.

Here are their responses:

Scott Kirk was Sports Editor of The Optimist and remains a close friend from our college days together:

“It is one of my all time favorites. Nancy and I are going to London for our anniversary this year ,and I’ve been singing this song when I walk the dogs. It does take me back to the Optimist, as does any Jerry Jeff Walker song.”

Karen Latham (now Everson) is one of the smartest people I’ve ever known and a great writer as The Optimist’s film critic and features editor.

“It makes me think of playing records in The Optimist office, y’all singing at Dr. Marler’s house, and when I would hear it while living in Arizona and then New York City, I would think of my Texas (which is not today’s Texas) and shed a tear.”

Michigan native Ron Hadfield was editor of The Optimist for two years and then built a 40-plus year career leading ACU’s marketing efforts. 

“Little did I know at the time, but in the late 1970s I was in the process of becoming a Naturalized Texan (I claim dual citizenship as a Michigander) in those years when the world was discovering Luckenbach and that genre of Texas country music, thanks to Willie Nelson and others whose music I came to enjoy.

Jerry Jeff Walker and Gary P. Nunn and Michael Martin Murphy were among the pioneers of that sound, perhaps even before Nelson, as I recall. I was fortunate to interview Murphy in between concerts at ACU one night in 1978, and remain a big fan of his.

Their music has always been imminently singable. And although I won’t be confused with a vocalist of note, and don’t drink or hang out in honky tonks, it represents the soulful sounds of this part of the world that have quietly become part of my DNA.

‘They will always be a part of me whenever I think of Texas memories,’ as Jerry Jeff sang in ‘Leavin’ Texas,’ a deeply introspective ballad I have come to love dearly and queued up on the 8-track tape as I drove east out of Texarkana for what I thought was the last time decades ago. It still makes my eyes water after all these years.

So I live these days in San Antonio, not far from the amazing Hill Country, and still get deep satisfaction out of listening to ‘London Homesick Blues’ and Jerry Jeff’s iconic ‘Viva Terlingua!’ album and any other number of songs that remind me of time spent with dear and friendly Native and Naturalized Texans from Amarillo and Abilene and elsewhere.

As James Earl Jones described so eloquently in a famous scene in the baseball movie, Field of Dreams, ‘those memories are so thick, I have to brush them from my face.’ The background music of my Texas life makes a world of difference.”

Thank you to Scott, Karen and Ron for sharing your perspectives on “London Homesick Blues” and the Outlaw Country flavor of Texas music.

When I hear that song, it really does put me back in that place again.

“Well, I decided that I’d get my cowboy hat
And go down to Marble Arch Station
‘Cause when a Texan fancies he’ll take his chances
Chances will be taken, that’s for sure
And them limey eyes, they were eyein’ the prize
That some people call manly footwear
And they said ‘You’re from down South and when you open your mouth
You always seem to put your foot there

I wanna go home with the armadillo
Good country music from Amarillo and Abilene
The friendliest people and the prettiest women you ever seen’