I remember when I read the headline. Richard Engle had been critically injured while covering the turmoil in the Middle East. I figured that the evening network news would surely have a story about it. Especially NBC, his home network.

When I didn’t hear anything else about it, I turned to AI. “Was Richard Engle injured critically,” I asked.

“No” was the answer. None of it was true.

I found other versions of the bogus story. He had all his limbs amputated. He died. NBC refused to pay his medical bills because they were so large. And on and on the rumors went.

The fact that a bold lie could be published as if it was true is a statement about the state of our regard for truth as a universal and necessary value. Truth is the basis of our trust that our car will travel safely, even at high speeds. That airplanes will stay in the air to our destination. That an object we by at a store will operate as promised.

All of this is based on truth.