Here’s the rewritten tech news article with enhanced detail, an informative yet viral tone, and approximately 1200 words:

AI’s Surreal Promise: Why We Need to See the Full Picture

In one of the opening shots of Un Chien Andalou, the 1929 surrealist masterpiece co-created by Salvador Dalí and Luis Buñuel, a young woman stares directly into the camera as a razor blade appears to slice across her eye. The shocking image—achieved through movie magic, of course—became an enduring symbol of surrealism’s power to disrupt passive viewing and challenge conventional perception.

Last Thursday, as I sat in a lecture hall at the Salvador Dalí Museum in St. Petersburg, Florida, listening to a presentation about emerging technology and innovation in 2026, I found myself hoping for a similarly revolutionary discussion about modern innovations. Instead, what I witnessed was a one-sided marketing pitch that masked the real risks and concerns surrounding artificial intelligence.

The audience, likely experiencing their first real introduction to generative and physical AI, absorbed everything uncritically. They nodded along enthusiastically as the speaker painted a picture of a future transformed entirely for the better. When shown a video of LG’s laundry-folding robot that debuted at CES 2026, the response was telling.

“Who wants this robot?” the speaker shouted, and hands shot up across the room.

What the audience didn’t hear was that the robot, despite the impressive demonstration, folds clothes at a glacial pace—one uniform T-shirt at a time. It requires human assistance to reach into the hamper, comes with a prohibitive price tag, and represents technology that’s still years away from practical home use. The crowd left that room with their understanding of AI shaped by someone who had carefully avoided mentioning any of the technology’s downsides.

This selective presentation is a growing problem in how we discuss AI. The people with platforms—whether they’re tech experts, museum lecturers, or influencers with millions of followers—have a responsibility to tell the whole truth about AI, not just the exciting parts or the marketing-friendly angles.

When public figures highlight AI’s capabilities, they routinely gloss over its significant risks: the devastating environmental impact of training massive models, the proclivity for chatbots to hallucinate and make things up, the concerning effects on memory skills and cognitive development, and the rising incidents of AI-induced psychosis and suicide.

We’ve seen this dangerous pattern before. After the 2018 US Supreme Court decision allowing states to legalize sports betting, celebrities and influencers lined up to promote betting apps, pocketing massive checks while their followers faced rising rates of gambling addiction and financial ruin. The 2021 crypto boom brought a parade of celebrities hawking digital coins, many of which later crashed, leaving regular people holding worthless assets.

Kim Kardashian settled with the SEC for $1.26 million in penalties for promoting a crypto token without disclosing her payment. Matt Damon’s “fortune favors the brave” Crypto.com Super Bowl ad in February 2022 aged terribly in the wake of that year’s crypto crash.

Now we’re watching the same story unfold with AI. Household-name actors are jumping into Super Bowl commercials championing AI companies for 100 million viewers. Influencers are taking money from AI companies to promote tools they probably don’t even use and likely don’t understand, to audiences who have grown to trust them.

The difference is that AI’s risks go beyond financial loss. We’re talking about job displacement, the erosion of creative industries, the spread of misinformation at scale, deepfakes that can destroy reputations, and the environmental cost of running these massive models.

This is why I appreciate artists like Guillermo del Toro who speak realistically about AI. When models that referenced his distinctive visual style went viral, he didn’t mince words about generative AI trained on artists’ work without their permission, compensation, or respect for copyright laws. He called it theft.

Other artists and public figures have been similarly direct about the threat AI poses to their livelihoods and craft. Meanwhile, tech executives and developers dismiss these concerns as the latest wave of Luddism.

While I generally believe that famous people are not role models to follow or trust, many people do. They assume that if someone with credentials or celebrity is enthusiastically promoting something, then it must be safe, beneficial, and inevitable. That public trust comes with responsibility.

If you’re going to insist on talking about AI in public, taking $600,000 to promote Microsoft Copilot to millions on social media, or if you’re the NFL partnering with an AI company in a commercial airing during the biggest sporting event in America, you have an obligation to present the full picture—especially to audiences who are just learning about it.

Speak about the limitations. Talk about the jobs that are being eliminated. Mention the artists whose work is being scraped without consent to train these models. Acknowledge the staggering energy consumption. Explain how easy it is to generate convincing misinformation. Disclose when you’re paid by an AI company to say what you’re saying.

This doesn’t mean you can’t discuss the possibilities and benefits of AI. It has real potential to accelerate drug discovery, improve disease outcomes, and solve complex problems. But framing it as pure progress and innovation—as an unalloyed good—is ignorant or deceptive.

Like the surrealist work that emerged after World War I, AI is revolutionary, provocative, and disruptive. They both challenge the ways we see the world. But surrealism was intentional and deeply human, rooted in our minds, expressions, and emotions. Generative AI is machine-driven pattern recognition. Surrealism was created to defy conventions and reach ultimate truth and authenticity.

We still deserve the truth now. The conversation around AI is happening, whether we like it or not, and it’s happening fast. The least we can ask is that the people leading that conversation tell us the facts of the matter.

Tags: AI revolution, technology risks, celebrity endorsements, environmental impact, job displacement, deepfakes, misinformation, copyright issues, tech ethics, AI limitations, CES 2026, surrealism, tech responsibility

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