Why we feel sure AI fakers will get their comeuppance (eventually)
Fakers and forgers have always been with us, but we usually wise up to their scams
Can’t trust anything these days. Videos showing a kitten doing the cutest thing, a politician making a scandalous admission, or Private Eye editor Ian Hislop dancing like a ballerina... it all could be AI. And, unlike the last one (for a documentary highlighting the deepfake issue), sometimes it’s hard to tell fact from fiction.
If you can’t discern the truth, anything can be dismissed as ‘fake news’ by unscrupulous politicians. Suddenly democracy is under threat and our whole world seems to be about to come tumbling down...
But take heart! Before succumbing to despair, we should remember there have always been scammers of one kind or another.
A new exhibition at the National Library of Scotland shows the work of 19th-century crooks such as Alexander ‘Antique’ Smith, ‘Major Byron’, allegedly the famous poet’s son, and the Sobieski Stuart brothers, who claimed to be descended from Stuart royalty and published a dodgy but best-selling book about clan tartans (even Queen Victoria bought a copy).
Ultimately, we’ve always found ways to beat the fakers. Even in our complicated world, we feel confident the truth will out, probably, eventually...