Adam Mosseri, Head of Instagram, published an essay arguing that authenticity is becoming “infinitely reproducible.” His thesis: when AI can generate photorealistic content indistinguishable from reality, the calculus of trust fundamentally changes.
Mosseri argues that creators will matter more, not less, as synthetic content floods feeds and authenticity becomes a scarce resource. He thinks the winners will be those who signal “this could only come from me” in a world where anyone can simulate anyone. As Mosseri puts it: “Rawness isn’t just aesthetic preference anymore. It’s proof.”
Will raw aesthetics (blurry photos, shaky videos) become proof of realness? This is an adorable fantasy. It reminds me of the one-liner, “The secret of success is sincerity. Once you can fake that, you’ve got it made.” Or, in the context of AI, “The secret of success is authenticity…” Make no mistake. AI can already fake it, and the results are so convincing that there’s no version of Adam’s “Imperfection is defensive” idea that makes sense.
What does make sense is Adam’s idea that it will be easier to fingerprint authentic media (however you define it) rather than chase fake media.
There is no end to the amount of watermarking and fingerprinting solutions available, but they don’t solve the problem because the problem is subjective. Almost every modern content production tool uses some kind of AI. Those that don’t, soon will. AI is, first and foremost, a productivity tool and the production business is about productivity.
Where is the line between “just enough AI tool use” and “too much AI tool use”? You can only draw that line on a case by case basis, so there can never be a one-size-fits-all solution. In practice, we may need more AI to prevent too much AI.
Author’s note: This is not a sponsored post. I am the author of this article and it expresses my own opinions. I am not, nor is my company, receiving compensation for it. This work was created with the assistance of various generative AI models.