AI's epistemic crisis is not new but the natural result of decades of corporate power corroding regulation and weakening public judgment.

AI is alarming not just because it is a financial bubble, an environmental catastrophe, or a wage killer, but because it is an epistemic disaster. Deepfakes let anyone produce realistic fake videos and voices, making real and fake indistinguishable.

Vladislav Surkov, Putin's media strategist, had a deadly tactic: he announced he secretly funded some opposition groups, but didn't say which. That made any group suspect, turning discussion into quarrels about authenticity. The goal isn't to make you believe a lie — it's to stop you believing anything is true.

Regulatory capture, trust collapse

AI only deepens an epistemic void that was already there. From food safety to building codes to car brakes, nobody can verify everything alone, so people defer to expert agencies. These supposed neutral, incorruptible regulators have long been bought off: pharma execs move into the FDA, FDA officials move to pharma. Tobacco, food, climate — the system is broken.

Why you fall for it

When 'your bank' calls asking for personal info, you give it, because banks have conditioned you to; when a family member urgently needs cash, you believe it, because the justice and healthcare systems already extort like that. Celebrities shill shitcoins, newspapers print fake news — all familiar.

Covid was an opportunistic infection, hitting the already vulnerable; AI's epistemic attack is the same. For decades, monopolies shredded the systems for verifying truth, leaving everyone frail. AI isn't a new lie — it's the final blow to a truth already at death's door.