The clips are from a YouTube channel called House of News, which presents itself as an English-language media outlet. Researchers say the videos are part of the Venezuelan government's attempts to spin the narrative on social media, considered one of the last bastions of free speech in a nation where outlets are censored and journalists are often persecuted. The incorporation of AI, experts told The Washington Post, seems to be a new addition to the government's disinformation campaigns, which range from incentivizing Twitter users to post specific talking points to using bots that spit out the regime's messaging.

This story is part of Future Tense Fiction, a monthly series of short stories from Future Tense and Arizona State University's Center for Science and the Imagination about how technology and science will change our lives. Manny actually did remember him. He'd been working at Happy Rent-a-Car for a while, and yes, after five years the tourists did all start to blend together. But he also prided himself on having a weirdly good memory, which meant that when the American investigators and their police liaisons asked, he could say with confidence: Oh, yeah. The man was clearly waiting for someone and seemed tired and fidgety after his flight. Manny watched him wander out to the bar on the curb, where they blasted American music and sold bad, expensive tacos and strong, sugary drinks. But he came back pretty quickly and said something like: What a scene. I came here to get away from that. Jimmy Buffett?--but he guessed the man meant his fellow Americans. This was a type that Manny encountered often, the ones who asked him where he liked to eat, in this really pointed way. No, they'd say, when he offered them a dinner recommendation. Where do you like to go? These were the tourists who spent their whole vacation looking for some better, more "authentic" Baja that they believed was hidden from them, a bedrock of reality they could reach if they only dug past the glass-bottom boat tours and resort buffets. Manny actually liked these tourists the least because he knew that even if he sent them to his favorite restaurant, they'd still feel disappointed. They would sacrifice their actual experience on the altar of their expectations. They were the ones who would have the worst time, because they were always looking for some other, better place concealed by the one that they could see. Manny, resigned, told the man where he liked to eat and watched him as he carefully wrote these suggestions down. Manny, in spite of himself, felt a little bad for him. The man asked where he liked to surf. Manny said he liked to go up north a bit. Cerritos could be fun, but it was way too crowded.