Am I interacting with a person or an AI?

We’ve all met someone who sparks an immediate feeling of distrust—something just doesn’t feel right about them.

AI will introduce a similar unease, blurring our ability to discern reality and whether we’re interacting with a human or a machine. Demands for laws to identify AI interactions will intensify, while corporations and governments lobby to completely conceal AI’s presence.

We will enter an era of “Derealization”—a state where, under stress or trauma, one feels completely detached from their surroundings; where people and objects seem unsettlingly unreal.

Expect fact-checking organizations to grow wealthy by offering technology to detect deepfakes and misinformation. Their independent verification will provide coveted digital badges of authenticity, signaling the user’s status.

In a “post-truth” era—a digital arms race for reality—will the incentives to falsify match those to detect falsehoods? Will the winner be decided by the highest bidder? Who becomes the ultimate arbiter of reality? And will we trust them?