Being in tech we have been aware of the progress of AI content generation for a while. AI can generate a ton of fake crap all day long and soon the actual human generated content will be a vanishingly tiny proportion. Most of the news and political speeches will be fake news, deepfaked war crime videos, and people will think they’re real.
For a while, “deepfake detection” will work until the deepfakes will become indistinguishable (up to a margin of error) from real stuff. At which point, we will only be able to rely on “official” sources, for anything. This is indeed a big issue, similar to how we rely on “official peer review” for science.
Bot armies have been influencing perception and attempting to shift direction for years. With words, often from anonymous strangers, on the internet.
“News” is a product, and your local news channel is often just the local distributor, not the creator. Sure, there are local stories, but the national ones are sometimes read word-for-word. “Official sources” starts sounding ominous, rather than comforting.
This might all eventually work out ok. People might have to step away from their screens, since the screens are known to lie rather convincingly.
And getting away from the screens? That will remind people they used to live, and dream, without the help of computers.
Humanity has been waving technology around recklessly since it learned to pick up a piece of wood or a rock. We’re crossing from the “Fuck Around” era to the “Find Out” one.
digital signatures will probably need to be in phones.