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For at least some audiences, this ability to see someone perform authenticity is satisfying in a way that carefully scripted, packaged entertainment is not.

On some online platforms, it is common for content creators—figures such as Andrew Tate—to express voluntarily misogynist and hateful views. This may be part of the performance of authenticity.

But given that many users are turning to AI as counsellors and companions, maybe what I’m experiencing is my own middle-aged culture shock: I have trouble seeing this AI-generated text as anything but insincere by definition.

People may be excited to use AI to write computer code more quickly. But I hope it remains a faux pas to have AI tell your friend you’re sorry about their mother’s death.

If performances of authenticity are a shortcut to success and power, we need a way to understand what we should truly view as authentic.