Last month I almost booked a "five-star eco-lodge" in Costa Rica based on reviews that, looking back, were written a little too perfectly. Same rhythm. Same odd phrasing. Same suspicious enthusiasm for the "artisanal breakfast nook." Turns out AI can write a glowing review faster than I can finish my coffee. I didn't book it. Something felt off, and I've learned to trust that feeling.
That's the world we're living in now. AI doesn't just write our emails and plan our road trip playlists anymore. It's writing ads, reviews, and marketing copy designed to sell us things, and a lot of it isn't exactly honest.
Pennsylvania just decided it's had enough.
The state is cracking down on deceptive AI in advertising, putting companies on notice that using artificial intelligence to mislead consumers isn't going to fly. Think fake endorsements, AI-generated "customer reviews" that no customer ever wrote, chatbots pretending to be real humans with real opinions, or ads that use AI to make claims a product can't actually back up.
Why does this matter if you're not a lawyer or a business owner in Harrisburg? Because this is exactly the kind of thing that touches anyone who books a flight, researches a hotel, or buys gear online. Which, if you're reading this, is probably you.
I've been traveling full-time since 2017, and I make a lot of decisions based on what I find online. Which outfitter is legit. Which campground actually has hot water. Which travel insurance company pays claims instead of inventing reasons not to. I rely on real information from real people. The second AI starts faking that trust, the whole system gets shaky for everyone.
Here's what's interesting about Pennsylvania's move: it's not really about banning AI. It's about banning deception. There's a difference, and it's an important one. AI itself isn't the villain here. I use it constantly — researching border crossings, checking weather patterns, even drafting itineraries when I'm short on time. Tools are tools. The problem shows up when a company uses AI to pretend it's something it's not, or to manufacture false confidence in a product.
What happens if more states follow Pennsylvania's lead? Probably a good thing. A little accountability never hurt anyone, especially in an advertising world that's gotten awfully comfortable blurring the line between "real" and "generated."
For travelers and adventurers, this should translate into some practical habits. Don't take five-star reviews at face value. Cross-check information across multiple sources. If a chatbot on a travel site feels suspiciously eager to close the deal, ask it a weird, specific question and see how it responds. Real humans stumble. Bots with bad training data stumble differently — they just make stuff up with total confidence.
I've learned this the hard way more than once. Years ago, before AI was even part of the conversation, I booked a "boutique hotel" in a country I won't name based entirely on photos that turned out to be, let's say, aspirational. Lesson learned: verify before you trust, whether it's a human exaggerating or a machine fabricating.
At almost 70, I've noticed something kind of funny. The more technology accelerates, the more old-fashioned skills matter: skepticism, curiosity, asking "wait, is this actually true?" That instinct doesn't come from a law in Pennsylvania. It comes from paying attention.
Still, it's good to see regulators paying attention too. Because the freedom to travel independently, make your own choices, and go wherever curiosity takes you depends on having real information to work with. Deceptive AI chips away at that freedom one fake review at a time.
So here's my takeaway, and maybe yours too: stay curious, stay skeptical, and don't let a well-written sentence fool you just because it sounds confident. Machines are good at confidence. They're still working on honesty.
Where will your next adventure take you? Just make sure the reviews that got you there were written by someone who actually showed up.
Source: JD Supra
Catch up on our earlier post: The Ivy's AI Art Gets Caught Out by a Three-Armed Woman
