AI generated content, which now includes incredibly convincing videos of people, will grow exponentially over the next weeks, months, and years.
At some point, the majority of the content you see will be fake, and any usefulness or connection to humans will be lost.
Even information that you might have previously been able to confirm from a trusted source can (and will) be manipulated in some way, making verification impossible.
This lack of verification, along with the speed at which fake content can now be generated, will make it impossible to defend against.
Even the world of art and communication has been tainted, serving no connection to real people through this digital hellscape.
To that end, when will the internet be so untrustworthy, “soulless”, and useless to you that it crosses the tipping point?
EDIT: Ok, holy fuck. There’s actually a term for what I’m describing: “The Dead Internet Theory”
Yes, limited in their scope.
The fake news of yesterday still needed real people to spread disinformation. Fake news of tomorrow will have convincing videos, photos, “verified sources”, interviews, article upon article expanding on the disinformation, and millions of bots to promote the content through social media and search.
“Fake” will be real enough to have catastrophic effects on actual people.
It’s like going from spitting wads of tissue out the end of a straw to dropping hydrogen bombs. We aren’t prepared for what’s to come in the landscape of fake news.
What you’re describing already exists in the conservative media ecosystem. And yeah, we weren’t prepared for it. That’s why the president of the united states is a septuagenarian felon.
Hasn’t he been 79 for like five years now?
Yes, so imagine that multiplied by a billion.
AI is just one more tool in the arsenal of propaganda for them. People in power haven’t even needed computers and advanced technology to get people to commit atrocities, we’ve been doing that for centuries.
So yes, the landscape is changing drastically. As it has done before. I believe it’s possible for us to adapt when that happens, as we have before. We’re not yet at the point you describe so I couldn’t say how it’ll happen. But I have a blind faith that it’s at least possible for us. This doesn’t mean we should relax and wait for it to happen, but I would rather think about solutions than “oh no we’re fucked nooo”.