Authenticity in the Age of AI: Beyond the Alarmist Deepfake Discourse

This chapter examines how generative artificial intelligence (AI) impacts political communication, focusing on the notion of authenticity and the question of what is real. The main aim is to discuss the notion of authenticity, and what impacts our sense of realness. Through a conceptual history of authenticity in media studies, the chapter nuances the current debates about the impact of AI on elections and democracy. While deepfakes and misinformation have attracted outsized attention in public discourse and academic research as looming threats to democracy, this chapter argues that such focus reinforces a sectionalist and alarmist view of AI’s implications. Instead, the chapter shifts attention toward more common and currently operational forms of AI-generated content: automated social media posts, synthetic comments, chatbots engaging in political dialogue (AI sealioning), and low-effort, high-volume synthetic content known as ‘AI slop’. The chapter argues that the most consequential impact of AI lies not in fabricated visual realism, but in the cumulative effects of everyday, low-level algorithmic mimicry. In conclusion, this contribution encourages studies of authenticity in the communicative process, rather than solely in the content.