A.I. Said I Was Dead
Yes, you read that right. Specifically, Google's AI said I was dead. And it was as disturbing as it sounds.
This past April I finished a speaking engagement for the Pennsylvania National Guard. A couple of days after the training one of my training contacts messaged me on Facebook. He said he was trying to send my information to his daughter, but when he googled my name to send my link to her, AI says "you died in a car accident".
He sent me a screenshot of the inquiry and to say I was shocked would be an understatement. I was reading about my life and accomplishments in the past tense. It was like reading my obituary, which was spooky. Then I get to the part where it talked about my passing and that's what really blew me away. It read "Nicole Snell tragically passed away in September 2025 at age 36 following a car crash caused by an impaired driver while she was working as a rideshare driver. Her legacy continues through her extensive work in personal safety and empowerment education."
Her legacy continues????
Let's fact check this. First, I'm alive. 2nd, I'm not 36. 3rd, I've never been a rideshare driver. 4th, I'M ALIVE.
Of course, my contact knew this wasn't true since he'd seen me a few days prior, but imagine if someone else had heard of my work and looked me up only to be told by AI that I had passed away. I was already dubious about AI considering the reports and research outlining it's dangers, lack of oversight for it's safety, catastrophic affects to our environment, and how unreliable it is for providing data. This reinforced that my concerns about AI are valid. I was personally affected by the misinformation that could be devastating to my business.
How could AI possibly come to the conclusion that I was dead?
It turns out that there was another woman also named Nicole Snell who DID tragically pass in September 2025. She lived in Arizona, and was an Uber driver who was killed along with her passenger, by a suspected drunk driver who ran a red light. My deepest condolences to her family and loved ones. You can read more of her story here.
A traditional search would find keywords for the name Nicole Snell and then display a list of news articles for any mention of people who have that name. They'd be separate and easy to discern that some articles were about completely different people. No journalist worth their salt would ever make a mistake and write an article combining 2 unrelated people. However AI found any reference to the name Nicole Snell and conflated the information from different sources/different people without any fact checking before serving it up as an answer to an AI query and being 100% wrong.
Although I don't use AI myself, I did an AI search in the days after my contact sent me this information to see if it still said that I was dead. Thankfully, it had my information correct that time. But that may not always be the case.
I have no control over what AI searches provide as summaries. Someone may have already been given incorrect information about me and there's nothing I can do about that in the moment. What I can do is spread awareness NOW and provide the fact check that I'm here and I'm alive.
Not everything you read from AI whether in a search engine summary, or a search query is accurate. Fact check everything. Avoid making assumptions that AI or even a web browser search is infallible. Avoid assuming that everything you see is real, especially on social media. It's becoming a scary time with deep fakes and AI sexual abuse materials, so discernment, awareness, and education are even more important.
I do not and will not use AI to create content, videos, photos, write for me (emails, newsletters, social media copy, etc.) or make graphics or marketing material. I only use AI for closed captioning videos, and that is because the AI technology is already integrated into those apps. Whatever you see from me, will always be 100% human made. And if you ever run into anything out in the wild that says it's from me but it looks questionable, email me and I can either confirm or deny it's authenticity.
