It’s always been a good idea to think critically about the information you’re given, or why people might be acting in a certain way. That was true before the digital age, but it’s become more important when you’re interacting with an anonymous person anywhere in the world.

We’ve gone from interacting with people in our village, to receiving news via print, radio and TV, to finding out information from random posts on social networks. With any online publication or community, it takes a little time and effort to figure out who seems to be more interesting or trustworthy, which means most of us will only expend that energy in groups that we’re heavily invested in, if at all.

And humans are psychologically built on making snap judgements at face value. Useful if you’re trying to work out whether that’s a sabretooth tiger about to jump from the bushes, and still handy if you’re being approached in a dark alley. Less helpful when you’re trying to judge the accuracy and honesty of a random internet message.

Bad and manipulative people have always existed. But technology has helped them scale. Someone untrustworthy in a small village will struggle to find new targets indefinitely, whereas direct mail scams could reach people across the country or around the world.

And online we’ve seen the growth of automated bots and sock puppet accounts. We all receive an influx of phishing emails and messages to our phones on a regular basis. And even those most informed and aware about security can become victims. The old rule about the police and criminals has been flipped, and now they can fail hundreds of times, but we only need to mess up once to have our bank accounts emptied or identities stolen.

But what happens when we can’t trust anything?

• Deepfakes of Chinese influences are livestreaming 24/7
• Virtual influencers: the AI-generated figures posing as your new online friends
• The rise of AI music
• Does the world need images of fake AI people?
• Life or Death:’ AI-Generated Mushroom Foraging Books Are All Over Amazon
• Beware frightening new ‘deepfake’ Martin Lewis video scam

There are a lot of ethical questions about AI, from data sources and algorithm bias, to the accuracy of the output.

But what about the impact on all of us, including many who aren’t interested in artificial intelligence, and have no idea of the current and future capabilities of it? What’s the cost to our minds and energy levels when we have to not only assume that we can’t trust anything, but also that it may never have even been near a human? And when that misinformation or manipulation can be done more effectively, at a greater scale than ever before?

The concept of decision fatigue has been debated, but there is some evidence it can impact your cognitive ability, and even your physical wellbeing. Now imagine having to spend time and energy evaluating every single incoming message, every piece of text, every sound or song you hear, and any video or photograph you see for clues about the origin. Not just asking whether someone is trying to spread misinformation for a political or financial gain, but whether your friend has actually gone on holiday to Barbados, or just used AI to fake it. Or even if your friend is a real person at all.

I’ve worked in and around technology for a long time. And there’s always been a trend that regulation comes long after progress, and tends to ignore most of the impacts on normal people. You can argue pretty successfully that the Industrial Revolution raised living standards in general, but it took decades and centuries for that to make a meaningful difference for the general population, compared to changes to society, the environment, and to the individual wealth of mill owners and factory bosses.

And there’s no reason to believe the AI Revolution is going to be any different. We can’t predict all of the impacts, both positive and negative. But we make an educated guess about where the benefits are likely to land, and the disadvantages are probably going to fall.

Image credit: Zoltan Tasi on Unsplash.