The Shifting Sands of Truth in the Digital Age

A fleeting moment of controversy involving Prince William reveals a deeper, unsettling truth about our reliance on digital evidence.

In March 2022, accusations of racism and ignorance were leveled against Prince William following a visit to the Ukrainian Cultural Centre in London. The controversy stemmed from a reported quote suggesting Britons were “more used to seeing conflict in Africa and Asia,” implying a difference in how war is perceived depending on location. However, a quickly released video clip of the visit – despite its amateur quality – swiftly refuted the claim, leading to an apology from the reporter responsible for the initial story.

This incident highlights our instinctive trust in recordings as objective representations of reality. Traditionally, a reporter’s testimony is considered fallible, while video and audio provide “perceptual evidence,” offering a seemingly transparent window into events. We believe recordings show us what happened, rather than simply telling us. This belief forms an “epistemic backstop,” discouraging falsehoods because of the assumption that an event could be recorded.

But that assumption is rapidly eroding. The emergence of “deepfakes” – synthetic media created by artificial intelligence – threatens to dismantle the perceived reliability of video and audio. While currently dominated by malicious uses like non-consensual pornography, the technology is rapidly advancing, making indistinguishable forgeries increasingly accessible. Soon, it may be impossible to definitively determine the authenticity of any recording.

The danger isn’t necessarily mass deception, but rather a pervasive sense of distrust. If even a few convincing deepfakes enter the public sphere, they could undermine our faith in all visual and auditory evidence, blurring the lines between truth and fabrication. The consequence won’t just be questioning what we see, but questioning the very possibility of knowing what happened.

As technology races ahead, we must critically re-evaluate our reliance on recordings. The epistemic authority we’ve long granted them is no longer guaranteed, and a future saturated with deepfakes demands a renewed emphasis on critical thinking and a healthy skepticism – even towards our own eyes and ears.