Face value: Exposing AI’s threat to your reality

How the new tech is forcing a worldwide double take.

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June 12, 2026 12:01pm EDT

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A counterfeit world

The internet’s oldest rule to “remember the human” is being wrenched apart by AI. Fake videos, forged photos, ready-made scams, and flat-out lies now crowd the web, and AI’s biggest boosters are charting a dangerous new path: Forget the human, forfeit the truth.

A new Malwarebytes report exposes the hidden cost of AI on the public. Beset by an excess of AI-powered fraud, everyday people are losing their trust in reality—and in one another.

Nobody asked for this

Among daily users of AI, one in three say it’s okay to generate explicit images of someone without their consent.

Real fears amid
a reality breakdown

One in ten have had someone use AI to generate sexually explicit content of them without permission. As one Gen Z respondent said: “I had someone make fake nudes of me using AI on my photos from my social media and threaten to post them on Facebook after I realized that they had scammed me.”

Finding relief through retreat

Without clear safeguards to confront AI, some are withdrawing from online life, taking their digital likenesses with them.