By Noah Berkson
Serial Entrepreneur & Fintech Investor
We've officially reached the point where you have to fact-check whether someone was or is actually a professional athlete.
A man allegedly spent years pretending to be an NFL player. He posted training photos. Luxury cars. Expensive watches. Behind-the-scenes NFL content. He even posted a screenshot of a Google AI result that appeared to confirm he played for the 49ers.
There was just one problem: He never played in the NFL. Prosecutors say he and an alleged accomplice used the fake persona to scam women out of roughly $1.3 million. 26 victims have already been identified.
The Bigger Problem
The story is insane. But I think it's also a preview of a much bigger problem.
For most of the internet era, we were told: "Just Google them." That advice is quickly becoming obsolete.
AI can generate the photos. AI can generate the videos. AI can generate the articles. AI can generate the credentials. And apparently, AI can even help "confirm" that the fake person is real.
Information to Verification
We spent the last 20 years building the internet around access to information. The next 20 might be about verification of information.
Because when anyone can manufacture credibility at scale, "I Googled him" is no longer due diligence. As AI guardrails become more important, so does our own ability to verify what we see.
The New Standard
So apparently the new dating advice is: Don't search "Did he play in the NFL?" Search "Find him on an NFL roster."
The difference matters. One asks the internet to confirm what you want to believe. The other goes to the source.
In a world where AI can fabricate entire identities, the skill that will matter most isn't finding information. It's knowing how to verify it. And that means going beyond search results to primary sources, official records, and direct confirmation.
Start treating verification as a skill worth developing. Because the cost of trusting manufactured credibility just went up.
