Social Media, Deepfakes, and Information Overload: The Next Great Power Shift is Underway
I know the last few weeks of my newsletter have been pretty cybersecurity focused, but this week I wanted to mix things up a bit and explore some of the power dynamics I feel are being shaken up by the recent developments in technology.?
As I have written about before , I think one of the bigger consequences of the rapid development in generative AI is that the authenticity of all digital content and communication is now in question, and it is becoming increasingly difficult to confidently identify real from fake at all levels.
While there are far reaching effects of this, I want to take a moment to explore what is perhaps one of the most important ones.
Additionally, I am by no means a world renowned political theorist or technologist, but nevertheless I will do my best to lay out my thoughts in a digestible manner. Hopefully they make sense to you all.
There is a famous quote in Game of Thrones about power
(I haven’t seen it but I hear it’s quite good):?
“Power resides where men believe it resides. It's a trick. A shadow on the wall. And a very small man can cast a very large shadow.”
While this is undeniably a cool quote, I would argue that a more accurate explanation would be:
“Power resides with those who function as the Arbiters of Reality”.
Great Noah, that means nothing to me and you sound pretentious.
I’ll explain. Let’s start by defining what I mean by “Arbiter of Reality”.
I define “Arbiter of Reality” as an entity who controls the information we consume, how we verify the authenticity of the information we consume, or some combination of these.?
These entities end up shaping our worldview, decision making, history, and beliefs. They direct our attention, our focus, our money, and our thinking. They determine the information we see and help us identify what is “real”. As a result, they end up shaping the very reality we experience. While these “Arbiters of Reality” vary based on historical time period and geography, examples include governments, news institutions, religious institutions, academic institutions, and more recently social media and technology companies. Specific modern examples in the United States with varying degrees of influence might include (but aren’t limited to): Our government, CNN, Fox News, The New York Times, MSN, Meta, X, Reddit, Google, Tik Tok, along with various academic and religious institutions like Stanford, Harvard, the Catholic Church etc.
If you control what information people see, and how they evaluate the authenticity of that information, you control that population. This concept is why authoritative governments are often so restrictive with free speech, the press, and internet access.
Power has always resided with these entities that function as our “Arbiters of Reality”, however who they are, their total number and their influence has shifted over time. We are now living through another shift, and while some of the new key players can be identified, others have yet to emerge.
Now, at this point in time, you are probably beginning to wonder where I’m going with this, and likely think that I have spent too much time reading conspiracy theories on Reddit. Stay with me, it will make sense, I promise.
I want you to think for a moment about how different information exchange is today from a 1000 years ago.?
Even 100 years ago there was no TV, no computers, no internet, no cell phones, no AI. People kept up to date with what was happening via the radio, newspapers, telephones, books, magazines. People’s entire world views were shaped by the editors at publishing houses, newspapers, and radio stations. They relied upon these authority figures to keep them informed of what was going on in the world around them, and direct their attention to the things that that person (an Arbiter of Reality) felt was most important and relevant.
Now fast forward to the 1980’s and 90’s. Cable TV has become a staple in almost every American home. News programs have now emerged as a primary source of trusted information. As a result, new players have joined the ranks of the Arbiters of Reality, while the power of older members like radio stations has started to diminish. While TV news was a new medium of information consumption, people still had faith that there were still professionals (journalists) vetting the quality of the information being presented to them (even if the rise of entertainment news after 1987 meant that it was heavily biased). Perhaps most importantly, there were still some sources of information seen and generally trusted by most people.
Then, with widespread adoption of the internet and the rise of social media in the early and mid 2000’s, there was a fundamental shift.
Web browsers and social media platforms became the primary source of information and news for many people, and these companies rapidly became influential “Arbiters of Reality”. Unlike their predecessors, minimal due diligence (and perhaps just as importantly, minimal perception of due diligence) was done to vet the authenticity of the now unlimited volume of information on these platforms.
领英推荐
As a result, a new phenomenon emerged where people were exposed to information overload and endless, complete freedom with what they consumed. “A little bit of everything all of the time” as Bo Burnham puts it in his 2021 covid banger, Welcome to the Internet .?
What this meant was that people quickly surrounded themselves with others who reinforced their own existing viewpoints, and/or radicalized each other to various causes. Since then, we have seen increasing division in our society as we all operate within our own unique echo chambers armed with our own unique set of “facts”.
These newer, perhaps most powerful Arbiters of Reality (Facebook, Tik Tok, X, Google, etc.), have determined that our individual realities are whatever we want them to be. When someone disagrees with our views, we all call into question the reliability of their “facts” and look to our echo chamber of like minded peers to rally behind us.
The Social Dilemma on Netflix (Great show? Documentary? Whatever it was, it was good) quotes Roger McNamee describing this phenomenon:
“The way to think about it is as 2.5 billion Truman Shows. Each person has their own reality with their own facts. Over time you have the false sense that everyone agrees with you because everyone in your news feed sounds just like you. Once you're in that state, it turns out you're easily manipulated.”
Now, let’s revisit my original definition of an Arbiter of Reality:
an entity who controls the information we consume, how we verify the authenticity of the information we consume, or some combination of these.?
Notice that there are two primary sources of power: Control of the information we see and control over what is determined to be “real”.
What is most interesting is that since the rise of the internet and social media, power has largely been consolidated among the Arbiters of Reality who control the information we see, via the algorithms that dictate our individual information silos, while the power that is found in information authentication has largely been diminished, decentralized, and outsourced to each and every one of us. With this,
“There are no facts, only interpretations” - Friedrich Nietzsche
Now, here is where it all ties together.
I would argue that recent developments in the quality and accessibility of both generative AI and deepfakes, mean that the balance of power is going to dramatically shift again. When people can no longer rely on their own senses to discern real from fake across all forms of digital information exchange, verification, provenance, and authentication of both identity and information become extremely important and can no longer be decentralized or outsourced to the public. Furthermore, the issue of “trust” in both content and identity has now forcefully entered public consciousness and is becoming increasingly valued.
The end result of this is that tools are now needed across all channels of digital information exchange and communication to verify identities, authenticate content, and create records of digital information provenance. Due to the the size and scale of this need, and the implications associated with being the one verifying the “truth” and legitimacy of all information and identity, the companies who effectively build and distribute these tools will rapidly emerge not just as the “Arbiters of Truth”, but also as potentially the most powerful “Arbiters of Reality” heading into the future.
Therefore, it is essential that these businesses be built with the utmost care and thoughtfulness towards the weight of their actions. We are entering a new era where the authenticity of everything is now in question. Whoever the winners of this emerging market end up being will wield unprecedented power and responsibility, and will have a large hand in shaping the very realities we experience going forward.?
The coming years will be interesting. Buckle up.
Thanks for reading!
I'm a co-founder at DeepTrust where we help security teams defend against advanced social engineering, fraud, and phishing by providing next generation voice security built for deepfake threats. Seamlessly integrating with VoIP services like Google Meet, Zoom, Microsoft Teams and others, DeepTrust authenticates voices, verifies devices, and alerts both users and security teams of suspicious activity.
If you’re interested in learning more, or have additional questions about deepfakes, I’d love to chat. Feel free to shoot me an email at [email protected] .
Ready to get started? Sign up here !
Finally, if you enjoyed this blog, I invite you to follow my newsletter, Noah’s Ark on LinkedIn.