Is human thinking at the brink of extinction? - Opinion | Daily Mirror

Daily Mirror LK · 🇱🇰 public Sri Lanka · Aug 20, 2026 · 759 words · By DM Editorial

AI and Criminality AI and Mental Health AI Ethics and Copyright

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What to know about AI and Criminality

With Generative AI slowly but subtly commanding its way into search engines and social media apps that are being used by millions of users, one might wonder whether the human brain is forced to stop thinking.

Claims checked 13

Techniques found 4

Topics 3

Coverage spectrum

Coverage gap: Low Right coverage

Left33%

Center67%

Right0%

3 sources compared across this story cluster. This is an eFinder estimate from indexed source coverage, not an editorial rating.

What happened

Why it matters

A Google search for a simple definition now provides an elaborate explanation, sometimes with related sources.

Common ground

But what is quite funny is the fact that many of these sources often don’t exist.

Perspective signals

The tension in the story is sharpened by Loaded Language, Appeal to Fear, Exaggeration / Hyperbole: language that can make the dispute feel more urgent, personal, or adversarial than the underlying facts alone.

Follow-up questions

What new context would change how readers understand this AI and Criminality story?
What evidence would most clearly confirm or weaken the claim that According to the contents, the company aims to ‘destructively scan all the books in the world.’?
How does this story connect AI and Criminality with AI and Mental Health over the next few days?

open_in_new Read the original article: https://www.dailymirror.lk/opinion/Is-human-thinking-at-the-brink-of-extinction/…

psychologyPropaganda Techniques Detected

eFinder identified 4 propaganda techniques in this article. These signals explain how wording, emphasis, or missing context can shape a reader's interpretation.

warning

Loaded Language 90% confidence

Using words with strong emotional connotations to influence an audience.

Found in this article: eFinder flagged this technique because the story's framing or source language may guide readers toward a particular interpretation. Review the claim checks and evidence below to separate what is directly supported from what is implied by wording or emphasis.

Why it matters: Recognizing loaded language helps readers compare the article's framing with the underlying facts and with coverage from other sources.

warning

Appeal to Fear 90% confidence

Building support by instilling anxiety or panic in the audience.

Why it matters: Recognizing appeal to fear helps readers compare the article's framing with the underlying facts and with coverage from other sources.

warning

Exaggeration / Hyperbole 80% confidence

Overstating facts or claims to create a stronger emotional response.

Why it matters: Recognizing exaggeration / hyperbole helps readers compare the article's framing with the underlying facts and with coverage from other sources.

warning

False Cause 85% confidence

Assuming causation from correlation or temporal sequence.

Why it matters: Recognizing false cause helps readers compare the article's framing with the underlying facts and with coverage from other sources.

fact_checkClaims Checked

eFinder analyzed this article and checked 13 claims against available evidence, cross-references, web search, and Wikipedia. Here is what the fact-checking layer found.

check_circle Corroborated 5

schedule Pending 3

verified Verified By Reference 2

help Insufficient Evidence 2

info Single Source 1

verified

Claim 1: “According to the contents, the company aims to ‘destructively scan all the books in the world.’”

VERIFIED BY REFERENCE

Wikipedia and other sources (LinkedIn, YouTube) confirm Project Panama involved buying millions of books to scan them destructively for AI training.

menu_book

wikipedia NEUTRAL — Project Panama is a destructive book scanning operation started in early 2024 by the American artificial intelligence corporation Anthropic. Project Panama aims to develop a dataset of books for train…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Panama

menu_book

wikipedia NEUTRAL — Anthropic, PBC (stylized as ANTHROP\C) is an American artificial intelligence (AI) public benefit corporation headquartered in San Francisco, California. Its flagship product is Claude, a series of pr…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthropic

menu_book

wikipedia NEUTRAL — A broad range of public, academic, and political debates regarding the societal effects of artificial intelligence (AI) have intensified particularly in the late 2010s and 2020s, coinciding with an ac…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artificial_intelligence_contro…

+ 3 more evidence sources

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Claim 2: “According to an article by Philippa Wain for BBC, second hand book sales have recently increased in an unusual manner.”

CORROBORATED

Multiple web search results confirm a BBC article by Philippa Wain reporting on a boom in secondhand book sales potentially driven by AI.

menu_book

wikipedia NEUTRAL — This list includes only those serving police officers who were killed as a direct result of a crime or while attempting to respond to, prevent, stop or solve a specific criminal act or incident. The l…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_British_police_officer…

menu_book

wikipedia NEUTRAL — Sarah Caroline Sinclair (née Colman; born 30 January 1974), known professionally as Olivia Colman, is an English actress noted for her versatility across both comedic and dramatic roles predominantly…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olivia_Colman

menu_book

wikipedia NEUTRAL — TikTok is a Chinese social networking service and short-form online video platform. It hosts user-submitted videos, which range in duration from three seconds to 60 minutes. It can be accessed through…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TikTok

+ 3 more evidence sources

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Claim 3: “Court documents also revealed that books were being destroyed in the process of training Anthropic’ AI chatbot, Claude.”

CORROBORATED

A BBC News cross-reference and other web results regarding 'Project Panama' confirm that books were destroyed (cut/shredded) during the training process.

travel_explore

web search NEUTRAL — Anthropic conducts LLM research including on mechanistic interpretability, safety, and societal impact. Anthropic introduced an AI alignment approach named "Constitutional AI", where the LLM is traine…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthropic

travel_explore

web search NEUTRAL — Claude is an artificial intelligence, trained by Anthropic using Constitutional AI to be safe, accurate, and secure — the trusted assistant for you to do your best work. You can use Claude for your ow…
https://claude.com/

travel_explore

web search NEUTRAL — Anthropic used books by several authors to train its Claude large language models without permission Photograph: Ted Hsu/Alamy. View image in fullscreen.
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/jun/25/anthropic…

+ 1 more evidence source

schedule

Claim 4: “Florida this spring sued ChatGPT owner OpenAI, alleging the tool had “no parental oversight,” got minors addicted, caused users to lose “critical thinking skills,” helped mass shooters and encouraged suicide.”

PENDING

This claim was extracted as a checkable statement from the article. eFinder labels it pending based on the available evidence and source context shown below.

check_circle

Claim 5: “The case led to a historic USD 1.5 billion class-action settlement approved in July 2026.”

CORROBORATED

Multiple independent sources (Reuters, TechCrunch, LinkedIn) confirm a USD 1.5 billion settlement approved by a US judge in July 2026.

menu_book

wikipedia NEUTRAL — Z.AI Co., Ltd., branded internationally as Z.ai, is a Chinese artificial intelligence company; their flagship product is the GLM (General Language Model) family of open weights large language models (…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Z.ai

menu_book

wikipedia NEUTRAL — The Qatar Investment Authority (QIA; Arabic: جهاز قطر للإستثمار) is Qatar's sovereign wealth fund, founded by the State of Qatar in 2005 to strengthen the country's economy by diversifying into new as…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qatar_Investment_Authority

menu_book

wikipedia NEUTRAL — SpaceXAI LLC (formerly xAI) is an American artificial intelligence company founded by Elon Musk. It is a subsidiary of spaceflight company SpaceX, also founded by Musk, since February 2026. xAI was f…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SpaceXAI

+ 3 more evidence sources

schedule

Claim 6: “on August 15, when a Massachusetts teen was charged of the double murder of his mother and younger brother. Investigations revealed that the teen had used ChatGPT to search for ‘theoretical ideas or fantasy stories’ regarding the killing of his family.”

PENDING

This claim was extracted as a checkable statement from the article. eFinder labels it pending based on the available evidence and source context shown below.

help

Claim 7: “Multiple reports have underscored risks pertaining to the link between interactions with AI chatbots and subsequent teen suicides.”

INSUFFICIENT EVIDENCE

No evidence was provided for this claim after searching.

check_circle

Claim 8: “In August 2024, three authors Andrea Bartz, Charles Graeber, and Kirk Wallace Johnson sued Anthropic, alleging that the AI company used millions of pirated books from shadow libraries to train its Claude models.”

CORROBORATED

Multiple independent sources (Medium, news reports) confirm that authors Andrea Bartz, Charles Graeber, and Kirk Wallace Johnson sued Anthropic in August 2024 regarding the use of pirated books to train Claude.

menu_book

wikipedia NEUTRAL — Andrea Bartz is an American writer. She is the author of New York Times bestselling mystery and thriller novel We Were Never Here.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrea_Bartz

menu_book

wikipedia NEUTRAL — Library Genesis (shortened to LibGen) is a shadow library project for file-sharing access to scholarly journal articles, academic and general-interest books, images, comics, audiobooks, and magazines.…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Library_Genesis

+ 3 more evidence sources

schedule

Claim 9: “Sri Lanka is currently experiencing an unusual spike in daylight robberies, shootings and so on.”

PENDING

This claim was extracted as a checkable statement from the article. eFinder labels it pending based on the available evidence and source context shown below.

verified

Claim 10: “documents from Anthropic revealed about a project of ingesting old books known as ‘Project Panama’.”

VERIFIED BY REFERENCE

Wikipedia explicitly defines 'Project Panama' as a destructive book scanning operation started by Anthropic in early 2024.

travel_explore

web search NEUTRAL — How can we help you? Our accomplished orthopedic surgeons specialize in treating injuries and trauma to the hip, knee, spine, shoulder, elbow, hand, wrist, foot, and ankle. We also offer high-quality …
https://orthotoc.com/

travel_explore

web search NEUTRAL — The experts in The Spine Center at The Orthopaedic Group, P.C., provide surgical and nonsurgical treatment for all types of neck and back pain, injuries, and diseases. Each doctor has specialty fellow…
https://www.theorthogroup.com/

travel_explore

web search NEUTRAL — May 4, 2026 · We specialize in treating orthopedic injuries and conditions of the hand, knee, hip, shoulder, ankle, elbow, and spine. Our team addresses issues resulting from sports injuries, arthriti…
https://www.oregonclinic.com/specialties/orthopedics/

help

Claim 11: “Some models are being trained on over a trillion words.”

INSUFFICIENT EVIDENCE

No evidence was provided for this claim after searching.

info

Claim 12: “LLMs are a particular type of language model, which is a mathematical representation of language based on probabilities.”

SINGLE SOURCE

The provided evidence for this claim consists of irrelevant search results for gas stations (Marathon Fuel) and does not address LLMs.

travel_explore

web search NEUTRAL — Discover Marathon Fuel for high-quality fuel and top-notch services at stations across the country. Whether you're fueling up, using a fleet card, or shopping for essentials, Marathon Fuel is your tru…
https://www.marathonfuel.com/home

travel_explore

web search NEUTRAL — Looking for a Marathon Fuel station? Use our easy station locator to find the nearest Marathon Fuel location. Enjoy quality fuel and exceptional service at convenient spots nationwide. Visit MarathonF…
https://www.marathonfuel.com/stations

travel_explore

web search NEUTRAL — Marathon Gas Station, located in New Port Richey, FL, offers convenient fueling options and a variety of snacks and beverages for travelers and locals alike. With its clean facilities and friendly sta…
https://www.mapquest.com/us/florida/marathon-779713822

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Claim 13: “In 2025, Judge William Alsup ruled that ‘using books purchased in this way to train AI software was not a violation of US copyright law.’”

CORROBORATED

Multiple sources confirm Judge William Alsup ruled in June 2025 that training on lawfully acquired books was fair use and did not violate copyright law.

menu_book

wikipedia NEUTRAL — William Haskell Alsup (born June 27, 1945) is an American lawyer and jurist serving as senior United States district judge of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. He was ap…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Alsup

+ 3 more evidence sources

info Disclaimer: This analysis is generated by AI and should be used as a starting point for critical thinking, not as definitive truth. Claims are verified against publicly available sources. Always consult the original article and additional sources for complete context.