8th Layer Insights

Latest Episodes:

The Costume of Truth: Why We Trust the Logo, the Lab Coat, and the Lanyard Jun 09, 2025

Show notes

Not all deception hides in the shadows. Some of it walks right in — wearing a badge, a clipboard, or a lab coat.

In the latest issue of Deceptive Minds, I explore one of the most powerful tools in the scammer’s playbook: credibility theater — the subtle art of looking legitimate enough to bypass your skepticism.

Inside this issue:

🎭 Why we trust uniforms, logos, and titles more than facts 🧠 The psychology behind “surface-level trust” 📜 Historical scams that used nothing but confidence and costumes 🔍 How social engineers, phishers, and marketers use the same tricks today 🛡️ And how to train your brain (and your team) to see through the performance

Because sometimes, the most dangerous deception doesn’t sneak past you — it gets waved through the front door.

🧠 Join 4,000+ others exploring how deception works — and what to do about it.

Want to check out the print version? You can ⁠⁠get here as a LinkedIn newslette⁠r⁠. Or you can subscribe to the email version on my website: ⁠⁠https://TheDeceptionProject.com⁠⁠

Anything you'd like me to cover in a future edition?

Stay sharp,

— Perry

hello [at] 8thLayerMedia [dot] com

Check out The FAIK Files, episode 27: Prove Yourself!!

Audio version of the podcast: https://thecyberwire.com/podcasts/the-faik-files/37/notes
YouTube Version: https://youtu.be/m4TYB40oThg?si=AqzkaqHqD3QBXLLu

Link to my Google VEO 3 experiment, "The Sandwich Incident: https://youtu.be/DvsFm1XII6U

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Feel First, Think Never: Your Emotions Are the Exploit May 28, 2025

Show notes

If it made you panic, rage, or rush… it probably bypassed your cognitive defenses.

In the latest issue of Deceptive Minds, I dig into the dark cognitive malware of emotional hijacking: how scammers, manipulators, and even well-meaning voices use fear, urgency, outrage, and hope to short-circuit your critical thinking.

Inside:

🧠 Why your emotions beat your rational mind to the punch

📞 How scam messages and panic phishing bypass logic

📣 What viral rage-bait and fear-mongering have in common

🔥 Plus: how a single fire reshaped a nation — and how the “lie that felt true” still outperforms facts today

The stronger the feeling, the weaker the scrutiny.

Want the print version? It's available on LinkedIn or my website.

References:

The Great Moon Hoax: https://blogs.loc.gov/folklife/2014/08/the-great-moon-hoax/
Moon Shot: Race, a Hoax, and the Birth of Fake News: https://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/moon-shot-race-a-hoax-and-the-birth-of-fake-news
The True Story of the Reichstag Fire and the Nazi Rise to Power: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/true-story-reichstag-fire-and-nazis-rise-power-180962240/
The Missile Gap: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Missile_gap

Episode 26 of The FAIK Files:

Listen here: https://thecyberwire.com/podcasts/the-faik-files/36/notes
Watch here: https://youtu.be/2slM09Czy_s?si=D3ZotFEef3zdGbZA

Anthropic's Claude 4 Attempts to Blackmail a Researcher:

Claude 4 System Card: https://www-cdn.anthropic.com/6be99a52cb68eb70eb9572b4cafad13df32ed995.pdf
Something Wild Happens If AI Looks Through Your Emails and Discovers You're Having an Affair: https://futurism.com/ai-email-affair

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Too Easy to Be True: The Fluency Trap and the Lie That Slides Right Past You May 20, 2025

Show notes

Some lies try hard to fool you. Others just make it easy for you to believe them.

That’s the danger of cognitive fluency: the simpler something feels, the more likely we are to think it’s true.

In the latest issue of Deceptive Minds, I explore:

Why fake documents with grainy photos often seem more real than verified ones
How anti-intellectualism and slogan-based disinfo campaigns thrive on fluency bias
And what makes even seasoned professionals fall for staged “leaks,” forged letters, and photo ops

💡 The truth can feel complex and overwhelming. But, the best deceptions...are frictionless.

Want to check out the print version? You can ⁠⁠get here as a LinkedIn newslette⁠r⁠. Or you can subscribe to the email version on my website: ⁠⁠https://TheDeceptionProject.com⁠⁠

Anything you'd like me to cover in a future edition?

Stay sharp,

— Perry

hello [at] 8thLayerMedia [dot] com

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Plausibility Effect May 14, 2025

Show notes

Hey friends,

Let’s start with a weird truth: People don’t fall for things because they’re true. They fall for things because they’re plausible.

That’s the dark magic of deception — it doesn’t need to be airtight, or flawless, or even particularly clever. It just needs to feel true enough. Something your brain can accept without asking too many questions.

Welcome to the Plausibility Effect — the sneaky cognitive glitch that powers scams, fuels misinformation, and makes even the dumbest conspiracies stubbornly sticky.

Want to check out the print version? You can ⁠get here as a LinkedIn newsletter⁠. Or you can subscribe to the email version on my website: ⁠https://TheDeceptionProject.com⁠

Anything you'd like me to cover in a future edition?

Stay sharp,

— Perry

hello [at] 8thLayerMedia [dot] com

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

👁️ Look Here: Why Every Great Deception Starts with Stolen Attention May 05, 2025

Show notes

Welcome to issue #3 of Deceptive Minds: a newsletter about how we are fooled, how we fool ourselves, and what we can do about it.

In this week's episode: 🚨 Your attention is under attack! 🚨

From WWII rubber tanks to 2023’s phantom Paris bedbugs, the first strike of any scam is the same: steal your gaze, shape your reality. This issue of Deceptive Minds is all about “attention theft”—how con-artists, phishers, and AI-powered tricksters hijack that split-second between stimulus and thought…and what to do about it.

🕵️‍♂️🗞️I NSIDE:

Operation Fortitude’s audacious distraction playbook
The modern attention-hijack toolkit (urgency, authority, AI personalization)
Fast-action defenses to keep your cognitive perimeter intact
... and a few other fun items from the past week!

Listen now: turn the tables on the impostors, and guard the one resource every attacker wants first: your focus.

Want to check out the print version? You can get here as a LinkedIn newsletter. Or you can subscribe to the email version on my website: https://TheDeceptionProject.com

Anything you'd like me to cover in a future edition?

Stay sharp,

— Perry

hello [at] 8thLayerMedia [dot] com

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Artifacts of Deception (Deceptive Minds - issue #2) Apr 29, 2025

Show notes

Hey friends! Here's issue 2 of Deceptive Minds: a newsletter about how we are fooled, how we fool ourselves, and what we can do about it.

🔥 Since starting this newsletter last week, we're already closing in on 3,000 subscribers to the print edition! 🔥 Huge thanks to everyone who's jumped in early!

This week, I'm diving into what I call the “artifacts of deception,” and why the flashy stuff (deepfakes, fake emails, cloned voices) isn’t the real trick you need to watch for.

Hope you enjoy this exploration into the hidden mechanics of how deception *really* works.

Here we go…

— Perry

The Deception Project

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Deceptive Minds (the audio experience): Issue #1 Apr 29, 2025

Show notes

Hey listeners, Perry Carpenter here. Yeah, it's been a while since I've posted this feed, but I've got something exciting that I think you'll be interested in. It's the audio version of a newsletter that I recently started.

The newsletter is called Deceptive Minds, and it's all about how we are fooled, how we fool ourselves, and what we can do about it.

In other words, it's the exact right newsletter for the 8th Layer Insights audience. So for the next little bit at least, I'm going to post these audio newsletters into the 8Li feed -- exactly where you are right now. We'll see if it grows into something else or if it fades into oblivion. But regardless, I hope you enjoy it while it's here.

So with that, let's get to episode one... or I guess I should call it issue number one of Deceptive Minds, the audio newsletter,

If you're interested in the print version, it's a LinkedIn newsletter and you can also subscribe on my new website, The Deception Project, at https://thedeceptionproject.com. So, regardless of your format of choice, unless you want to see my face reading this on video, you can get the audio version right here or you can read the print version on LinkedIn or in an email that will make its way to your inbox and hopefully not to your spam filter.

With that, let's go ahead and get to issue number one.

Thanks!

Perry

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The FAIK Files | Holiday Special: AI Safety Update Dec 27, 2024

Show notes

Note: We're posting Perry's new show, "The FAIK Files", to this feed through the end of 2024. This will give you a chance to get a feel for the new show and subscribe to the new feed if you want to keep following in 2025.

Welcome back to the show that keeps you informed on all things artificial intelligence and natural nonsense.

In our holiday episode, Mason opens a rather unique Christmas present from Perry, we invite a special guest to help explain the infamous "Paperclip Maximizer" thought experiment, and we discuss an interesting (and somewhat disturbing) new AI Safety paper from Apollo Research.

Want to leave us a voicemail? Here's the magic link to do just that: https://sayhi.chat/FAIK

You can also join our Discord server here: https://discord.gg/cThqEnMhJz

*** NOTES AND REFERENCES ***

An interesting cluster of new AI safety research papers:

Apollo research: Frontier Models are Capable of In-context Scheming (Dec 5, 2024)
YouTube Video: Apollo Research - AI Models Are Capable Of In Context Scheming Dec 2024
YouTube Video: Cognitive Revolution - Emergency Pod: o1 Schemes Against Users, with Alexander Meinke from Apollo Research
OpenAI o1 System Card (Dec 5, 2024)
Anthropic: Alignment Faking in Large Language Models (Dec 18, 2024)
Anthropic: Sycophancy to subterfuge: Investigating reward tampering in language models (June 17, 2024)
Fudan University: Frontier AI systems have surpassed the self-replicating red line (Dec 9, 2024)

Other Interesting Bits:

The Paperclip Maximizer thought experiment explanation
Theory of Instrumental Convergence
iPhone Game: Universal Paperclips
VoxEU: AI and the paperclip problem
Real Paperclips! 500 Pack Paper Clips (assorted sizes)

OpenAI Announces New o3 Reasoning Model:

OpenAI's "12 Days of Ship-mas" announcement page
YouTube video: OpenAI's announcement of their o3 Model
TechCrunch: OpenAI announces new o3 models
Wired: OpenAI Upgrades Its Smartest AI Model With Improved Reasoning Skills
TechCrunch: OpenAI trained o1 and o3 to ‘think’ about its safety policy
Matthew Berman YouTube video: OpenAI Unveils o3! AGI ACHIEVED!
NewScientist: OpenAI's o3 model aced a test of AI reasoning – but it's still not AGI
Yahoo Finance: OpenAI considers AGI clause removal for Microsoft investment

*** THE BOILERPLATE ***

About The FAIK Files:

The FAIK Files is an offshoot project from Perry Carpenter's most recent book, FAIK: A Practical Guide to Living in a World of Deepfakes, Disinformation, and AI-Generated Deceptions.

Get the Book: FAIK: A Practical Guide to Living in a World of Deepfakes, Disinformation, and AI-Generated Deceptions (Amazon Associates link)
Check out the website for more info: https://thisbookisfaik.com

Check out Perry & Mason's other show, the Digital Folklore Podcast:

Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/digital-folklore/id1657374458
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2v1BelkrbSRSkHEP4cYffj?si=u4XTTY4pR4qEqh5zMNSVQA
Other: https://digitalfolklore.fm

Want to connect with us? Here's how:

Connect with Perry:

Perry on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/perrycarpenter
Perry on X: https://x.com/perrycarpenter
Perry on BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/perrycarpenter.bsky.social

Connect with Mason:

Mason on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mason-amadeus-a853a7242/
Mason on BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/pregnantsonic.com

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The FAIK Files | The Butcher Will Scam You Now Dec 20, 2024

Show notes

Note: We're posting Perry's new show, "The FAIK Files", to this feed through the end of the year. This will give you a chance to get a feel for the new show and subscribe to the new feed if you want to keep following in 2025.

Welcome back to the show that keeps you informed on all things artificial intelligence and natural nonsense.

Warning: today's episode gets a bit dark as we chat with seasoned prosecutor and founder of Operation Shamrock, Erin West, about a devastating combination of attacks known as "Pig Butchering" scams. We go deep into how they work and what we can do about them.

Want to leave us a voicemail? Here's the magic link to do just that: https://sayhi.chat/FAIK

You can also join our Discord server here: https://discord.gg/cThqEnMhJz

*** NOTES AND REFERENCES ***

Learn more about Erin West

Erin's LinkedIn Profile
Operation Shamrock

Pig Butchering Scams:

CNN Story featuring Erin West: Killed by a scam: A father took his life after losing his savings to international criminal gangs. He’s not the only one
CNN Story: Hear how this man lost $1M in a 'pig butchering' crypto scam
CNN Story: Myanmar-based gangs force trafficking victims to scam Americans online
YouTube video: John Oliver episode
FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3)

Ok, doomer! Let's talk P(doom):

NY Times article: Silicon Valley Confronts a Grim New A.I. Metric
FastCompany article: P(doom) is AI's latest apocalypse metric. Here's how to calculate your score
Wikipedia Entry
PauseAI P(doom) records

*** THE BOILERPLATE ***

About The FAIK Files:

The FAIK Files is an offshoot project from Perry Carpenter's most recent book, FAIK: A Practical Guide to Living in a World of Deepfakes, Disinformation, and AI-Generated Deceptions.

Get the Book: FAIK: A Practical Guide to Living in a World of Deepfakes, Disinformation, and AI-Generated Deceptions (Amazon Associates link)
Check out the website for more info: https://thisbookisfaik.com

Check out Perry & Mason's other show, the Digital Folklore Podcast:

Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/digital-folklore/id1657374458
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2v1BelkrbSRSkHEP4cYffj?si=u4XTTY4pR4qEqh5zMNSVQA
Other: https://digitalfolklore.fm

Want to connect with us? Here's how:

Connect with Perry:

Perry on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/perrycarpenter
Perry on X: https://x.com/perrycarpenter
Perry on BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/perrycarpenter.bsky.social

Connect with Mason:

Mason on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mason-amadeus-a853a7242/
Mason on BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/pregnantsonic.com

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The FAIK Files | AI Gone Wild: Worrisome Leaks, Misguided Conspiracies, and More Dec 13, 2024

Show notes

Welcome back to The FAIK Files--- the show about artificial intelligence and natural nonsense!

In this week's episode:

Mason shares how ChatGPT became an unexpected hero in solving his home networking and studio challenges
Perry dives into the mysterious case of "David Mayer" and how a simple ChatGPT privacy patch sparked widespread conspiracy theories
We explore Tencent's bold entry into AI video generation with their open-source HunyuanVideo model
And in our AI Dumpster Fire of the Week, we unpack the drama surrounding leaks of multiple models from OpenAI

Want to leave us a voicemail? Here's the magic link to do just that: https://sayhi.chat/FAIK

You can also join our Discord server here: https://discord.gg/cThqEnMhJz

*** NOTES AND REFERENCES ***

The ChatGPT Privacy Patch Conspiracy:

TechCrunch: Why does the name 'David Mayer' crash ChatGPT? OpenAI says privacy tool went rogue
FastCompany: The Internet is Freaking Out Because ChatGPT Won't Say the Name "David Mayer"
USA Today: Why won't ChatGPT acknowledge the name David Mayer? Internet users uncover mystery
YouTube: Solved: Why ChatGPT Will Not Say "David Mayer"
The Decoder: New York Times writer exposes how AI models can be fooled by invisible text on websites
NYT: How Do You Change a Chatbot's Mind?

Tencent's HunyuanVideo Release:

The Decoder: Tencent introduces open source video generator HunyuanVideo and challenges Sora
TechNode: Tencent launches and open-sources Hunyuan video-generation model
YouTube: New AI Video Model Storms Onto The Scene!
HuggingFace: HunyuanVideo Official Model Page
Research paper about text based sound generation for videos. SonicVisionLM: Playing Sound with Vision Language Models

AI Dumpster Fire of the Week (The Sora Leak):

TechCrunch: OpenAI's Sora video generator appears to have leaked
Washington Post: OpenAI hits pause on video model Sora after artists leak access in protest
Tom's Guide: OpenAI's o1 model leaked on Friday and it is wild — here's what happened
Leopold Aschenbrenner: SITUATIONAL AWARENESS: The Decade Ahead
Additional Sora leak from internal preview

*** THE BOILERPLATE ***

About The FAIK Files:

The FAIK Files is an offshoot project from Perry Carpenter's most recent book, FAIK: A Practical Guide to Living in a World of Deepfakes, Disinformation, and AI-Generated Deceptions.