Real Fake

Playing with Reality in the Age of AI, Deepfakes and the Metaverse

Manipulation, influence and disinformation are of all times. People have always felt the need to play with reality, but never before has it been so easy and believable as now. The question is how do we keep a grip on information society now that artificial intelligence is starting to interfere with the manipulation game. Unlike most books about fading realities, Real Fake looks beyond the fear scenarios. Special opportunities arise from the realization that the playing human is the engine of cooperation, prosperity and progress. Using inspiring recovery stories and a new ethics of reality, the authors outline a golden future for the Real Fake world.

“Real Fake educates, terrifies, and stimulates simultaneously. Nascent synthetic media technology has the potential to create mayhem or happiness for society — the authors brilliantly paint a picture of how this battle will play out over the next ten years. And most interestingly, they predict the “democratization of creativity” — how the new digital tools will unleash a dynamic and vital era of marketing, commerce, and art.”

George F. Colony, CEO, Forrester

“As someone who has studied authenticity (real vs. fake) and the rise of digital technology (real vs. virtual), no one has intertwined these topics in as interesting, insightful, and indispensable a narrative as the authors of Real Fake. Digital technology is giving us something akin to superpowers. Will we use them to obliterate the distinctions between authenticity and inauthenticity, reality and virtuality, human and machine? Or will we find a path into a future that preserves what makes us human while ennobling our technology in service to our innate needs? Real Fake says yes.”

B. Joseph Pine II, co-author, The Experience Economy: Competing for Customer Time, Attention, and Money