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\t\t\tDallas Mavericks forward Cooper Flagg has been subjected to a bevy of fake news stories generated by AI. (AP Photo\/Sam Hodde)<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tDallas Mavericks forward Cooper Flagg has been subjected to a bevy of fake news stories generated by AI. (AP Photo\/Sam Hodde)<\/p>\n
Did you hear about Cooper Flagg? He went on \u201cThe View\u201d and dressed down Whoopi Goldberg after she dismissed him as just another kid. Stick to layups, she said. Leave real-world issues to the grownups. He responded with eloquence far beyond his 19 years.<\/p>\n
Did you hear Flagg also donated around $5 million to homeless shelters in Newport, his hometown? That money will be used to build 150 apartments and add 300 shelter beds to help keep Newport\u2019s homeless off the frozen winter streets, and safe.<\/p>\n
He also paid off the debts of his favorite janitor back at his old high school. The story didn\u2019t say if the janitor is sweeping halls at Nokomis or Montverde Academy, the Florida prep school Flagg attended before moving on to his college season at Duke.<\/p>\n
And Flagg also saved an animal shelter that was just days from closing, giving a second chance to dozens of dogs looking for a home. He even adopted one of them, Buddy, an 11-year old Labrador mix.<\/p>\n
Amazing, right? Too good to be true?<\/p>\n
That\u2019s because they are. These stories, and probably others, have been circulating all over the internet, especially Facebook, where fabulists reign supreme. They are all fiction. Poorly written fiction, at that. <\/p>\n
Flagg is hardly the first celebrity used by the AI hucksters to peddle nonsense. \u201cThe View\u201d seems to be a regular prop in these stories, with some athlete or politician joining the stars on the set to share truths that until then were unknown to the universe. <\/p>\n
They are 100%, Grade-A, certified prime North American road apples. Most of the fake news stories are generated from satirical social media accounts and sensationalized \u201cinsider\u201d accounts. <\/p>\n
There\u2019s even a story out there that 73-year old Bill Belichick has a 24-year old girlfriend from Maine.<\/p>\n
OK, that one is true, proving the absurd doesn\u2019t need a jump start. <\/p>\n
In the online world, clicks are currency. Truth and quality are a small obstacle. Veritas non refert. Truth doesn\u2019t matter. <\/p>\n
It\u2019s easy to see how these nonsense stories can do laps around Maine\u2019s social media landscape. The state has never seen anything like Cooper Flagg. We\u2019ve had professional athletes, of course, and we\u2019ve supplied the world with plenty of talented people in the arts, including writers and actors of some fair renown. Politically, Senator Margaret Chase Smith stood up and told the country we\u2019re not listening to Joseph McCarthy\u2019s fear mongering any longer. <\/p>\n
We\u2019ve never produced the best college basketball player in the land before, though. We\u2019ve never sent the top pick in the NBA draft <\/a>out into the zeitgeist. Flagg is a new thing, one of a kind, and Mainers understandably want to claim a little ownership of that. With so much horrible stuff going on, Flagg\u2019s budding basketball career is something everyone can rally around with pride.<\/p>\n
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<\/a>Mavericks rookie forward Cooper Flagg has been the subject of some outlandish and fake stories that have spread across the internet of late. (Peter Forest\/Associated Press)<\/p>\n