Humans were not supposed to have access to such a large amount of information in such short time spans, nor were they supposed to witness such violence in such conditions.
There was a time when visual evidence carried an almost sacred authority. A photograph from a war zone, a recorded speech by a political leader, or a footage of military strike possessed the power to share diplomacy and trigger international investigations. The modern international legal system particularly after the twentieth century evolved around assumptions that reality, although politically contested, remained fundamentally verifiable.
That assumption is beginning to collapse.
The age of artificial intelligence has introduced a danger far more profound than ordinary misinformation. The problem is no longer simply that false information exists, falsehood always existed. Propaganda, manipulation and political distortion are as old as power itself, and had always been used as political tools. The problem is that false information can be now generated and an even bigger emerging crisis is that societies are becoming psychologically desensitized to the distinction between authenticity and fabrication altogether. REALITY ITSELF IS BECOMING NEGOTIABLE.
This transformation is already visible across digital platforms. Political speech is manufactured, fake videos of fighting are posted, fake appearances by celebrities are generated, and silly videos go viral at an amazingly rapid speed.
In early 2026, one particularly revealing example emerged during the wave of online speculation surrounding Benjamin Netanyahu.
In a single moment the internet is brimming with images and videos, created by AI that featured him supporting the rumors claiming that he has been killed. The next multiple videos surfaced showing him alive in public settings including one filmed in a coffee shop in Jerusalem. Ordinarily such footages would have ended the speculation but it intensified it. A lot of people immediately dismissed the videos as deep fakes given some glitches.
On the other hand, after the circulation of videos and images of the reported martyrdom of Ayatollah Khameini, across platforms like Instagram, X and TikTok, many users instinctively dismissed the visual evidence itself as possible AI fabrication. Some openly questioned whether he was truly dead, arguing that the footage looked “too artificial” or “too cinematic” to be trusted. The immediate public reaction was no longer, “Did this happen?” but rather, “Can anything online still be believed?” Even death itself appeared digitally contestable.
Meanwhile millions have been casually creating fake videos and absurd content, such as China trapping a living dragon. Many digital platform users are familiar with these videos, and know that they are fake but this is the same reason that this phenomenon is more dangerous than less. Despite knowing about the generation of fake videos, we fall for these traps every day, obstructing our knowledge of what is real and what is fake.
The modern-day algorithms are frying peoples’ nervous systems. Humans were not supposed to have access to such a large amount of information in such short time spans, nor were they supposed to witness such violence in such conditions. First, we see a funny AI generated video then a clip of genocide happening in some part of the world, then we move to elites and billionaires having their grand weddings and MET Galas, then we see influencers promoting their brands. This is causing a constant state of stress and confusion for our brains, and if someone gets up and questions any immoral or unethical action, it is simply dismissed as being generated by AI.
Social Media platforms are further promoting AI. They have multiple AI features where you can edit photos, create captions, translate videos, and even have AI summarize longer chats. These may seem like helpful shortcuts but are actually a violation of our human rights. So many photo editing apps can use the photos uploaded for their own agenda, the chats we have is used to further train AI, so it sounds more human like. META has recently announced that chats are no longer end to end encrypted, meaning they can access and use our private data however they like. This is a blatant violation of right to privacy and ownership. All this use of AI is leading to water shortage, because AI data centers are drinking up all the fresh water to cool off their machines. Residents of such areas are facing water shortages, lack of clean water, increase in utility bills, noise pollution and just overall disruption of peace. UN declared water bankruptcy in the beginning of the year, raising even more concerns regarding generative AI’s use of freshwater.
AI is destroying everything we know and love, whether that is our homes, our climates, our brain’s cognitive ability to think, our brain’s ability to create, so my so it is even destroying peoples access to clean water, or even sufficient amounts of water.
All this is violation of internation law. Access to clean water (Article 11 of ICECSR), right to privacy (Article 12 UDHR), right to ownership (Article 17 UDHR), right to security of person (Article 3 UDHR) which addresses not only a person’s physical wellbeing, but emotional and mental as well.
International law is not sustained solely through treaties, courts, or diplomatic institutions. At its core, it depends upon authenticated evidence, documented events, identifiable actors, and collective trust in factual reality. Human rights investigations rely on video documentation. War crimes tribunals require authenticated footage. International organizations depend on traceable evidence to establish accountability. Even the principle of state responsibility assumes that actions can be identified, verified, and proven.
The central question of the coming decade, therefore, is not whether artificial intelligence can generate false realities. It already can. The more urgent question is whether legal systems, political institutions, and societies themselves can survive the psychological erosion of certainty that follows. Because once reality becomes permanently negotiable, justice itself becomes increasingly difficult to prove.
MD does not stand behind any specific agenda, narrative, or school of thought. We aim to expose all ideas, thinkers, and arguments to the light and see what remains valid and sound.
© 2023 moderndiplomacy.eu. All Rights Reserved.
