The Man Who Travelled 2,000 Kilometres for Someone Who Didn't Exist

Watch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gH6RgRayBs0

A man in Brazil had a shocking experience while searching for love. Mr X, 49, sold everything he owned to get enough money to meet a woman he had met online. He travelled over 2,000 kilometres by bus to see her in person.

He first met her online in 2020 and quickly fell in love with her. He wanted to marry her. Her name was Jessica, and her online profile promised him a completely different life. It said: "I really want to support you. I want you to come to my farm and never work again in your life."

Mr X travelled to Belo Horizonte to meet Jessica, but he couldn't find her. He showed people photographs of her, but nobody recognised her. Eventually, he discovered the shocking truth: Jessica didn't exist. She was an artificial intelligence (AI) creation.

Mr X was devastated. He had spent his money and travelled a huge distance for someone who was completely imaginary. He explained his feelings simply: "I came here to find happiness."

His experience reveals the dangers of trusting people we meet online. Millions of people use social media to make friends, find relationships and build professional connections. However, AI can now create convincing faces, voices and personalities that appear completely real.

Jessica's social media account had more than 300,000 followers. She looked like a real woman, and her creator admitted that the character was designed to attract attention and eventually help sell products.

This raises an important question: if an AI character can attract hundreds of thousands of followers, how can we know who or what we are really dealing with online?

The same problem can affect the world of work. Imagine applying for a job with a company that doesn't exist, receiving a message from a fake recruiter, or attending an online interview with someone using an AI-generated face. You might share personal information, complete unpaid work or even lose money.

Mr X wants other people to avoid making the same mistake. His story reminds us to verify people's identities before trusting them, whether we are looking for love, friendship or a new career opportunity.

3.Vocabulary 

    Paragraph 1

1.	experience	a.	Learned or discovered something.
2.	search	b.	The act of trying to find something or someone.
3.	owned	c.	Started to love someone very much.
4.	fell in love	d.	Something that happens to you in life.
5.	support	e.	Made something new.
6.	found	f.	Had something as yours.
7.	created	g.	To give lots of help to someone (sometimes with money) or be there for them.

    

Paragraph 2

8.	risky	h.	The interest people give to someone or something.
9.	tricked	i.	People who choose to follow a person or account on social media.
10.	followers	j.	Information that shows who a person is.
11.	attention	k.	Not safe; with a chance of something bad happening.
12.	similar	l.	Made someone believe something that is not true.
13.	identity	m.	The feeling of being alone and wanting to be with other people.
14.	loneliness	n.	Almost the same as something else.

 

4. SYNONYM MATCH: Match the following synonyms from the article.

1. sad
2. owned
3. support
4. created
5. find
6. risky
7. tricked
8. real
9. check
10. problems

1. look after
2. fooled
3. possessed
4. dangerous
5. difficulties
6. unhappy
7. get
8. look at
9. genuine
10. made

5. Career Challenge: Your Dream Professional Future

Forget dream partners. Imagine you could design your ideal professional life.

Complete the table with your partner. Be specific, explain your choices and compare your answers.

My ideal…	What would it be like?	Why?
Job
Salary
Boss
Colleagues
Workplace
Working hours
Career achievement
Lifestyle

Discuss:

• Which matters more: a high salary or a job you enjoy?

• Would you accept a lower salary to work for an inspiring boss?

• Would you prefer to work from home, in an office or abroad?

• What would make you leave a job immediately?

• What would your ideal working life look like at 50?

6. AI at Work: Take a Side!

Choose a side for each statement: PRO or ANTI. Prepare three arguments to defend your position. Your partner must challenge your ideas with questions and counterarguments.

1. AI will create more jobs than it destroys.

2. Companies should be allowed to use AI-generated people in job advertisements.

3. Employers should disclose whenever AI is used during recruitment.

4. A candidate should never have to compete against an AI-generated version of another candidate.

5. People who use AI at work will eventually replace people who don't.

6. Companies should be legally responsible when their AI systems deceive customers.

7. An impressive online professional profile is more important than real-world experience.

8. Employees should be allowed to use AI to complete almost any work task.

Challenge: After three minutes, switch sides and defend the opposite opinion. Can you argue convincingly for an idea you don't personally believe?

7. Role-Plays: Workplace Scenarios

Work in pairs or small groups. Choose a scenario, assign roles and act out the conversation. Each role-play has six possible roles, so groups can adapt the situation to their size.

Role-play 1: The Job Offer That Seems Too Good to Be True

A candidate receives an online job offer promising a very high salary, flexible hours and immediate employment. The recruiter refuses to arrange a video call and asks for personal documents before explaining the job.

Choose your roles:

• A — Job candidate: You urgently want a better job and are tempted by the offer.

• B — Recruiter: Convince the candidate that the offer is legitimate.

• C — Friend: You suspect the offer is a scam.

• D — HR manager: Explain how genuine recruitment normally works.

• E — Cybersecurity expert: Identify warning signs and explain how to verify the company.

• F — Hiring director: Decide whether the recruitment process is trustworthy.

Your mission: Reach a decision. Will the candidate accept, investigate further or reject the offer?

Role-play 2: The AI Interview

A company introduces AI-generated interviewers to save time and money. Some candidates feel uncomfortable because they don't know whether their answers are being evaluated fairly.

Choose your roles:

• A — Job candidate: You want to know how your performance will be judged.

• B — HR director: Defend the company's new recruitment system.

• C — Business owner: Explain why reducing recruitment costs matters.

• D — Technology specialist: Describe what AI can and cannot evaluate reliably.

• E — Employee representative: Demand transparency and fair treatment.

• F — Recruitment consultant: Propose a compromise that satisfies both sides.

Your mission: Agree on rules for using AI in recruitment.

Role-play 3: The Fake Professional Profile

A company discovers that a successful-looking consultant has invented qualifications, created fake client testimonials and used an AI-generated photograph.

Choose your roles:

• A — Company manager: Decide whether to cancel the contract.

• B — Consultant: Defend your professional reputation.

• C — Client: Explain how the deception affected your company.

• D — Communications director: Manage the public reaction.

• E — Legal adviser: Explain the possible consequences.

• F — Journalist: Ask difficult questions about trust and responsibility.

Your mission: Decide what the company should do and how it should communicate the situation.

8. What Would You Do? Career Edition

Read each situation and explain what you would do. There is no single correct answer, but you must justify your decision.

Situation A — The dream job

A recruiter offers you a job with twice your current salary. However, the company has almost no online history, and the recruiter wants a copy of your passport before arranging an interview.

• Would you continue with the application?

• What would you investigate first?

• What evidence would convince you the company was genuine?

Situation B — The perfect colleague

You work remotely with a colleague who is always available, extremely helpful and never makes mistakes. One day, you discover that the colleague might actually be an AI system pretending to be a person.

• Would this change how much you trusted the colleague?

• Should the company have informed you?

• Would you continue working with the system?

Situation C — The unbelievable promotion

Your boss promises you a promotion, a large salary increase and international travel. You have been promised these things before, but nothing has happened.

• Would you keep waiting or start looking for another job?

• How would you approach your boss?

• At what point does optimism become a mistake?

Situation D — The AI advantage

You discover that a colleague uses AI to finish work in half the time you do. Your manager praises the colleague but expects you to produce the same amount of work.

• Would you adopt the same tools?

• Is the situation unfair?

• Should your employer change expectations for everyone?

Situation E — The suspicious client

A potential client offers your business a large contract but refuses to meet in person, uses a suspicious email address and pressures you to make a quick decision.

• What warning signs do you see?

• How would you verify the client's identity?

• Would you risk losing the contract to protect yourself?

Situation F — The online expert

A professional influencer has thousands of followers and claims to have helped hundreds of people become successful. You are considering paying for an expensive course, but you cannot find independent evidence of their achievements.

• What would you check before paying?

• Do followers prove expertise?

• When does marketing become misleading?

9. Discussion: AI, Trust and Professional Success

Discuss the questions in pairs or small groups. Support your opinions with examples.

1. Why do people sometimes believe what they see online without checking it?

2. Is it easier to deceive people who are lonely, ambitious or financially stressed?

3. Have you ever seen a job advertisement that seemed suspicious?

4. What are the biggest warning signs of an online employment scam?

5. Should employers check candidates' social media profiles?

6. Is it acceptable to exaggerate your experience on a CV?

7. Could AI-generated professional profiles become more convincing than real profiles?

8. Would you trust an AI career coach to make important decisions about your future?

9. What should a company do if it discovers that an employee has lied about their qualifications?

10. Can a person be successful without having a strong online presence?

11. What is more important for career success: talent, experience, connections or luck?

12. Should companies be required to tell customers when they are interacting with AI?

13. How can workers protect themselves from fake recruiters and fraudulent job offers?

14. Could AI make the workplace fairer, or will it create new forms of discrimination?

15. What professional skills will become more valuable as AI develops?

16. If you could ask Mr X one question about his experience, what would you ask?

10. Final Challenge: The Future of Work

Imagine your company has asked you to create a short presentation about how AI will change the workplace over the next ten years.

Work in pairs or teams. Choose one of these proposals:

• A — The AI-powered workplace: AI handles routine tasks, and employees focus on creativity and decision-making.

• B — The human-first workplace: Companies limit AI use to protect human jobs and personal relationships.

• C — The flexible workplace: Employees choose which tasks to do themselves and which to delegate to AI.

• D — The transparent workplace: Companies must clearly disclose every significant use of AI in recruitment, management and customer service.

• E — The competitive workplace: Employees are expected to use AI to improve productivity, and performance standards rise.

• F — The regulated workplace: Governments introduce strict rules to prevent AI deception, discrimination and employment fraud.

Prepare a two-minute presentation explaining:

1. What your workplace would look like.

2. The three biggest advantages.

3. The two main risks.

4. How employees would be protected.

5. Why your proposal is better than the alternatives.