Hello and welcome to Outward Slate's LGBTQ podcast.

I'm Brian Louder and editor at Slate, and I'm joined today by my co-host,

senior writer Christina Carter Rucci. Christina, I am spiraling. Oh no. I have to tell you. What's

happening? So for the first time that I'm aware of anyway, I have been tricked by an AI

painting. Oh no. Let me tell you what happened. So last night I'm getting ready anyway. I have been tricked by an AI painting. Oh, no. Let me tell you what

happened. So last night, I'm getting ready for bed. And Cam, my partner is texting me or like

Instagram messaging me from the other room. Is that normal for you? And he sends this,

yeah, sometimes. Not every night, but like occasionally I'll like go to bed first and then he'll still

still be sending things. So I, he sends this painting that's three guys, like it's an impressionistic kind of style,

you know, like that period.

Three men in like 19th century sort of suits who look like they're athruple.

They're like, two are about to kiss and one's very close to them and very cute painting.

And of course, Cam was like, it's us. Like, it's like our throuple because each one actually kind of looked like one of us a little bit. And so I was immediately like, oh, that's so cute. Wow. Like, I didn't know who painted that. Like, how wonderful. And then about two minutes later, he said, oh, no, it's an AI painting. Were you sort of like, wow, like, Thruples existed in like 19th century France.

Like, wow.

Yeah, I had this whole thought process, right?

And I sort of analyzed it this morning.

I was thinking about it.

I was like, why did I like this so much?

Like, oh, you know, it was sort of representational

of me, but also, right, it had this, like, historic, like, faux historical element where I was like, like, someone was paying attention. And, you know, I thought, like, well, it could be one of those things where it's just men being more intimate, you know, like they used to be, like that could be that, but even that's interesting.

But then the AI thing, and now be, like that could be that. But even that's interesting.

But then the AI thing, and now I'm like struggling with my feelings. Do I like, does that mean I can't like the painting? Is it even a painting? Like that's another question. Is it even a painting? Yeah, my instinct is to not like trust it. I don't know. I'm like, I'm dealing with this. So listeners, if you have thoughts or like advice about how to deal with my AI fear of this painting that I actually

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