THE RISE OF FAKE INTELLIGENCE.

Good evening. I trust that your corporeal vessel remains operational, your cognitive faculties sufficiently intact, and the chronological progression of your week has thus far been devoid of catastrophic inconvenience. If that sentence sounded unnecessarily intelligent, congratulations—you have just encountered the fundamental premise of this article. Yes, I did it again. Sit down. We live in an era where complexity is frequently mistaken for intelligence, confidence for competence, and an impressive vocabulary for intellectual depth. That's part of what's killing us. I have so much to say, so I'm likely going to converse with you more through an audio version. If I do, kindly ignore the errors. Let's begin. Who gave confident fools microphones? You mean to tell me that I can read some complex grammar, get a mic, start a podcast spitting absolute rubbish and I'll have fans?!!! Interesting. Well, let me explain what's going on. But first, I'll drag you in. Have you noticed that your “for you page” screams “for someone else?” No matter the platform you're on, it keeps showing things that aren't necessarily for you. You see posts saying, “If he does this, he's a narcissist.” “If she does this, she's not for you.” “How to be an alpha male.”<img src="/media/inline_insight_image/83037.jpg"/>You've definitely seen someone or “some-ones” talk about topics like those. Even “doctors” are part of this fake intelligence trend. “Professionals” are not left out. Everyone, including the foolish, wants to sound smart. So why isn't there a rise in intelligence? Instead, there's a rise in fake intelligence. Let's go back to the beginning of this post. I simply wanted to ask how you were and if your week is going well. Fake life. Fake intelligence. Fake composure. Nonchalance. These things are killing society! What caused the rise of fake intelligence? It's the fact that people who want to sound smart take on a persona, and people who want to “hear” smart things to believe or buttress their point support them. Don't get me wrong, there's absolutely nothing wrong with using big words. The problem, however, is when you're speaking jargon and you don't even know the meaning of what you're saying. I saw a TikTok video today that perfectly reminded me of what I'm talking about. A 17-year-old Nigerian TikToker went viral after being presented as a self-taught Chinese speaker. PUNCH also featured her story, and thousands of people celebrated her apparent ability to speak Chinese. Then came the questions. Mandarin speakers, interpreters and other language professionals began analysing her videos and questioning whether what she was speaking was actually Mandarin or another recognised Chinese variety. Some went as far as describing her speech as gibberish. Now, I'm not here to declare her guilty of anything. I wasn't there. I don't speak Mandarin, Cantonese or any of the other Chinese varieties well enough to independently verify those claims. But that's precisely the point. How many people watching those videos could? Most of us couldn't. We saw a young Nigerian girl confidently speaking what sounded like a foreign language, and because it sounded impressive, we assumed it was impressive. We rewarded the appearance of knowledge before establishing whether the knowledge was actually there. And that is exactly how fake intelligence thrives. For context, “Chinese” itself is not simply one spoken language. There are multiple major Chinese language varieties, including Mandarin and Cantonese. So even saying someone “speaks Chinese” without specifying the variety can be imprecise. The larger lesson, however, isn't about this particular teenager. It's about us. Why are we so easily impressed by things we don't understand? Why does confidence make us lower our standards of verification? And why do we sometimes believe someone simply because they sound like they know what they're talking about? Look at some podcasters. Some come online and speak absolute rubbish and are famous for it. Some promote unhealthy moral, mental, emotional, financial and relationship advice, yet they get millions of views. Who are those listening to them??? Young ones, naive ones and people who don't know better often fall into their trap. That's the problem. Now, am I hating on intelligence or smart speech? Absolutely not. However, I'm hating on speech that sounds smart but is absolutely meaningless and misleading. Let's stop rewarding posts, opinions and trends that sound smart but are meaningless. Posts that mislead. Posts that do nothing to help society. Posts that cause hurt or promote incompetence. Thank you for reading my 50th post. And thank you so much for 146 amazing followers. What do you think? Share your thoughts in the comments.

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