Identity/biometrics/technology marketing and writing services
I haven’t run into a lot of ViVi Contras Belleville Brown 429 scammers lately. Though you have.
I don’t think I’ve used my “KYB Fraud Failure” response in over a week.
Have the scammers finally figured out that an anti-fraud specialist isn’t the best target for their scams?
Or have I just been lucky?
Most of us treat hallucinations as an evil, scary thing. With some exceptions.
This negative perception of hallucinations extends to our views of generative artificial intelligence. Although perhaps what generative AI does is more accurately called “confabulations.”
““A hallucination is a conscious sensory perception that is at variance with the stimuli in the environment. A confabulation, on the other hand, is the making of assertions that are at variance with the facts, such as “the president of France is Francois Mitterrand,” which is currently not the case.”
Whatever you call it, the result is not consciously intended. And it can sometimes be bad.
Take those AI tools that jobseekers can use to not only apply for a job, but automatically customize their resume for that particular job.
When automatic resume rewrites are not reviewed, the new resume may end up with confabulations, hallucinations, or outright falsehoods.
If my rewritten resume claims two years’ Python experience, that just ain’t true.
And I could lose a job opportunity if I lie on my resume.
But those who praise hallucinations as good are not limited to Timothy Leary.
Take the time I intentionally asked Google Gemini’s image creation engine (Imagen 4 at the time) to make something up.
Perhaps I’m wrong, but I don’t see any harm in creating a Tolkienesque illustration of Theodore Roosevelt riding a flying bald eagle. Actually, TR fans may think it’s pretty cool.
By definition, ANY generative AI engine HAS to invent stuff. A prompt can’t specify everything.
Let’s look at another example, the two-plus minute song that formed the audio for my recent reel “The Cooling Blue.”
Now here is the prompt that I used to create that audio track.
“Create a moving song with violin, harp, and guitar about overly long meetings. The opening male spoken words are “meeting hour 1, meeting hour 2, meeting hour 3, meeting hour 4.” The female singer, accompanied by a female choir, sings of her despair in pointless meetings with no purpose. The chorus consists of the choir singing “When will this madness end?””
When you review the prompt you can see many of the elements of the final song.
But I never told Lyria to sing “the coffee turned to ink.” Lyria made that up.
But I like that addition.
And I have another example.
This example is from the images that appeared throughout the video. These were also created by Google; is the image generation capability still called Nano Banana this month?
Anyway, here is the prompt for the noon scene.
“Edit the picture so the time is noon and the lead wombat is still droning on and on. The attendees are restless.”
Google executed my image request.
But look more closely.
I did NOT specify that the koala write the note “Make it end…so sleepy.” Or any of the other notes that this particular koala wrote throughout the day.
Nor did I specify the “out of order” note that appeared on the coffee urn at 10:10 am.
(My little secret: that time was NOT supposed to be 10:10. I asked Google to display a time of 10:45. But since so much of the clock training data uses at 10:10 time, Google got confused.)
But I like those additions.
Take two minutes and twenty-four seconds and watch the reel again, taking note of the few elements specified by me, and the many elements that were “made up” by Google.
Adding a koala note of frustration is a good thing.
Lying on a job application is a bad thing.
And showing a time of 10:10 instead of the requested time of 10:45? It didn’t materially affect my story, so I was indifferent to it.
What did I learn after May 31, 2023?
That sometimes, you aren’t wanted—not because of a lack of skill, but because of an abundance of it.
We live in a climate where technology leaders openly say: “I think too much knowledge is actually bad in tech.” And most companies agree.
Where being overqualified leads to being bypassed by companies.
And by people you once considered friends who no longer have time for you.
And I learned that I would never fit into a market that views experience as surplus and unnecessary.
I created this (again with Canva, Google Gemini, and Google Lyria) for self-promotion.
Jobseekers, including myself, have endured endless debates about the pros and cons of LinkedIn’s “Open to Work” green banner. While these debates seem to have died down, there are still arguments about whether the green banner does more harm than good.
But this is not confined to jobseekers.
You don’t walk up to my office and request a retainer or hourly services or small projects. You contact me by various means and we talk, you in your office and me in mine. Even the local customers aren’t going to drop by, especially since my City of Ontario business license prohibits me from meeting customers at my home.
Anyway, all these cold callers are NOT part of Bredemarket’s target audience.
And the myriad of Google Business Listing advisors are just one of the types of people who have no interest in buying my services.
So I create Bredemarket’s content to attract identity, biometric, and technology marketing professionals. Two recent examples:
Oh, and I also create content for wildebeest fans.
A statement of fact: with one exception, Bredemarket’s work is targeted to American audiences.
Which means the content I am publishing and linking to today is going to strike non-Americans as a little odd.
Why?
It’s complicated.
Because even though International Workingmen’s Day was celebrated throughout the world on May 1, 1890, the celebration has mostly died out here, except for its adoption by immigrant groups.
See my tymshft post from 2012 (with corrected link), “The American perspective on May Day – or, I am not a Commie.” I revisited the topic here in the Bredemarket blog 10 years later, on the AMERICAN Labor Day.
So if you want to talk about May Day with Americans, even AFL-CIO members (especially AFL-CIO members), play it safe.
Do you remember ViVi Contras Belleville Brown 429, the long-winded scammer who contacted me at length about a position at “the intersection of Global Supply Chain and Systemic Accountability”?
Well, I guess I’m not the only candidate she targeted. I just received an email that read, in part, as follows. (I’m hiding the identity of the emailer to spare them from other scammers.)
“I received a very similar ‘contact’ from Vivi Brown trying to solicit my employment interest in the same AI/Energy Structure start-up. Oddest ‘interview’ procedure I have ever seen. No concrete job descriptions, organization structures, identification of Founders, etc. All communications mandated on WhatsApp (encrypted). Very verbose ‘corporate speak’ exchanges. When I asked if this was AI, they obviously denied that it was. Answers to background questions don’t necessarily add up. Company startup name given to me was “ARCLight’, and their interest in me reportedly ties to my mgt experience in Energy Structure Development. Numerous pictures (AI driven ?) of the young Vivi Brown have been forwarded with ‘feel good’ influence peddling formats, mixed in ‘business’ answers to my structure comments/questions. It looks like the AI derived Vivi was created as an Influencer on EezyCollab (“catfishing”?).”
I never encountered the WhatsApp red flag since I applied my KYB Fraud Failure flag early on, but I’m not surprised.
As for EezyCollab (which was NOT part of the scam, but may have been used by the scammer), it “connects AI products with the right creators across global markets — powered by an AI platform of 100M+ creators, direct pricing, and end-to-end delivery.” Plus its founder Yiki Chen is a marketer and vibe coder who has been vibe coding since 2021. Groovy.
Returning to Vivi, I found the website https://www.shvivi.com/#home for A.R.C (sic) Insight. (Not ARCLight.) It includes insights such as the following:
“Vivi Brown’s profile was not built through display. It was formed through consistency, disciplined judgment, and the gradual development of capability — producing a rare combination of written clarity, operational steadiness, and long-range strategic calm.”
Yes, written clarity.
You know that the video I shared earlier begged to be expanded into a television show. And that for the proper setting, the show itself would market products in a way that is illegal today; yes, the show would be sponsored by Marlboro.
So without further ado…
(The show introduction is followed by a Marlboro commercial.)
(Sharp-eyed Inland Empire residents will notice that this depiction is entirely fictional, since the real “Main Street,” officially known as Euclid Avenue, is much wider and less dusty than the street depicted here. Allow me artistic license.)
As the Ontario townsfolk were gathered on the street in late afternoon, a mysterious stranger rode into town. He was a most unusual man. For one, he was smiling, unlike the other strangers that have come before him. For another, his brown/tan/black official western wear issue (Montgomery Ward catalog, pages 333-334) was rudely interrupted by a blue patch with a “B” on it. There was something else odd about him, but no one spoke of it.
The mysterious stranger rode up to the saloon, dismounted his horse, and walked in.
The mysterious stranger slowly walked to the bar and took a seat as the bartender eyed him warily.
“What’ll you have?” the bartender asked gruffly.
“Strum,” the stranger replied.
(Hey, Inland Empire residents, I got that one right.)
As he sipped his drink, the stranger couldn’t help but notice the older man in a gray jacket staring at him. As everyone in the saloon quietly watched, the older man slowly walked toward the stranger.
“Sir,” said the older man.
“Yes?” asked the stranger.
The older man gestured toward the stranger’s belt. “Those aren’t guns you have in those holsters.”
The stranger paused. “No, they’re not.”
“In fact,” the older man scoffed, “they look like pencils.”
The stranger nodded. “Yes they are.”
The older man’s face betrayed the slightest smirk. “Why” – he paused – “would a man carry PENCILS in his holster?”
As the older man and the others in the saloon broke out into grins, the stranger eyed them all with a serious expression. He paused before responding.
In a loud voice the stranger replied. “Business.”
Everyone looked puzzled at that unexpected response.
After a long pause, the older man turned back to the stranger. “Sir,” he asked, “exactly what kind of BUSINESS are you in?”
(Time for another Marlboro commercial)
I created this for my personal use.
Product marketer for hire.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/jbredehoft
Bredemarket