This content was translated from french to english with the conversationnal agent Le Chat de Mistral. Thank you for your attention.
Over the past fifteen years, from 2010 until today, you may have already wondered whether the images you see on television or in movies are real or if they are special effects.
Computers are capable of reproducing images, videos, and texts that appear real, meaning authentic.
There are also optical illusions that magicians particularly use.
This leads us to wonder whether what we see is truly real, or if what we read was actually written by a human.
Various probabilistic technologies since 2023, such as virtual image generation or conversational agents, have been made available to the general public, either for free or for reasonable sums. Video generation has also been trending for a few months and is evolving rapidly.
Technologies that were reserved for American blockbuster production companies nearly 30 years ago are becoming accessible to the general public. In the coming years, one can easily imagine being able to create one’s own cinema movie or documentary without having to invest sums of money that few people possess. Some are already making a living from this activity today, with tools they keep secret.
Writers, film actors, and artists in general are being rivaled by farms of computers connected to the Internet that can imitate what these professions do best. Poetry, marketing, philosophy — conversational agents have amassed all legally available knowledge as of 2025.
The latest trend is the remuneration of website owners so that artificial intelligence companies can feed their models with their content, whether it be text, images, or videos, which are protected by copyright.
Conversational agents and other artificial intelligence tools remain governed by various laws.
The scam of artificial intelligence and those who misuse it, consists of sowing doubt between what we perceive as real and reality itself.
However, no scientist can confirm to you that what we perceive as real truly is.
In other words, when you dream and feel like it’s real, it’s similar to how you perceive your reality when awake. This has been known long before the first computer was designed.
Artificial intelligence changes nothing about this insoluble problem of what is truly real or only appears to be, which philosophers were already discussing centuries ago.
The scam of artificial intelligence can become one of additional uncertainty about what is real or not, even though we have never been able to truly certify it since time immemorial.
Of course, artificial intelligence makes possible what previously required significant professional teams or great experience, concerning content production.
However, as you have certainly also tested these technologies, obtaining a satisfactory result with the tools we currently have at our disposal, according to our means, requires practice and initial knowledge of what we want to create, according to our quality criteria.
It’s the problem of the chicken and the egg, which can ultimately be reduced to that of the birth of our universe.
Is it possible to create something from nothing? One can doubt it.
Conspiracy theorists, certain sects, or science fiction works have long imagined the possibility that our real world was created by a much more advanced extraterrestrial civilization.
And we cannot prove that they are wrong.
Artificial intelligence can add an additional uncertainty to what we believe or used to believe.
However, this is not the initial objective of these technologies, nor the vision of the creators of these systems.
As it has never been possible to prove that what we live is a dream or reality, it is the same problem with artificial intelligence.
What I can guarantee you is that everything that seems real has been imagined by humans.
Artificial intelligence may be the greatest technological revolution of this century; however, will we use it in a constructive approach, or will we consider it just another scam?
In a few years, it will become increasingly difficult to certify that what is visible on a screen or in a magazine was produced manually or with the help of artificial intelligence.
Moreover, it can become increasingly difficult to know if the news or images we consult are authentic or not.
There is a new generation being born, for whom these technologies will become second nature and who will be capable of great achievements.
It is knowledge and experience that will be most telling for our future.
Wishing you to think on what is real or imaginary,
José D.