Rethink... authenticity

As generative AI and Deepfake technology has progressed over the last decade, you could be forgiven for thinking that it's never been more difficult to try to work out what is "authentic" and what is "fake".

It's a task that's challenged humanity for hundreds of years.

As well as forgers who have tried to pass off copies as great artworks, it's not always clear when an artist was responsible for an entire painting. Some - extremely famous - artists would focus on particular parts of a portrait, while leaving the rest to other workers. Commissions would be passed-on to apprentices in their studio. And modern artists like Damien Hirst and Jeff Koons have often delegated the construction or manufacture of their works to skilled craftsmen and women.

But does that make the final product somehow less than the genuine article?

Idiosyncrasies, perceived flaws or personal flourishes are often key indicators that show an image is authentic. And we use those same tell-tale signs to judge the authenticity of another type of image: the one that politicians want to portray.

How important is it to be a politician who is seen as "authentic" by voters? How can we measure political authenticity? If someone is carefully crafting their image on social media, how "real" is it? And even if it is fake, do voters care, if they've been seduced by the illusion?

Presenter: Ben Ansell
Producer: Ravi Naik
Editor: Lisa Baxter

Contributors:
Estelle Lovatt, FRSA. Art Critic, Writer and Lecturer.
Lone Sorensen, Associate Professor of Political Communication, University of Leeds
Nick Clarke, Professor of Political Geography, University of Southampton
Tracy Dennis Tiwary, Professor of Behavioural Neuroscience, Clinical Psychology and Developmental Psychology, at the City University of New York.