Is anything trustworthy?

We're living through a collapse of trust - and it's not just online.

- FRANCIS J. KONG

Every swipe, click and scroll trains us to doubt. AI-generated content floods our feeds with polished “reality,” and deepfakes blur the line between proof and performance. Bots now negotiate with bots, buy on our behalf, recommend what we “should” want, and sometimes decide before we even think. The speed is dizzying. The consequences are not.

But let’s be honest: the distrust didn’t start with AI. AI simply arrived in a world already bruised by disappointment.

In the real world, controversies pile up: bribery allegations that refuse to die, “ghost projects,” and the slow grind of justice that makes truth feel delayed and diluted. Add to that the spin experts and agency spokespersons who can make a crisis sound like a “communications challenge.”

When people see that accountability is optional and consequences are negotiable, they don’t just lose trust in institutions - they lose trust in everything.

Then there’s the modern marketplace of influence: a plethora of TikTok, YouTube and online “fake gurus” dishing out shallow advice and offering expensive courses. Yet these influencers have never exhibited a track record of life or business achievements beyond selling their wares.

They sell certainty in 60 seconds, confidence in a carousel post and “success” in a downloadable PDF. It’s a strange economy - the less proof required, the higher the price tag.

No wonder people ask: How can anyone trust anything?

AI agents can now research, purchase, negotiate and recommend autonomously. Brands can be reduced to a prompt. People can be imitated with uncanny accuracy.