They’ll Use AI to Erode Reality. We Must Use It to Anchor Shared Truth.
Thanks to AI, regimes don’t need to persuade — they only need to pollute.
By Trygve Olson
This is the fourth in a seven-part series: AI vs. Autocracy: Seven Lessons in the New Battle for Democracy.
Authoritarian regimes don’t just lie.
They destroy the idea that truth can be known at all — until people stop trusting what they see, hear, or even feel.
They don’t need you to believe the regime.
They just need you to stop believing anyone else.
That’s the playbook — and now AI is scaling it.
What the Autocrats Will Do
In the past, disinformation was crafted by hand.
Now, with LLMs, deepfakes, synthetic media, and botnets powered by generative tools, regimes don’t need to persuade — they only need to pollute.
According to the 2025 Bad Bot Report from Thales:
49.6% of all internet traffic this year was from bots — the highest ever recorded.
And the most sophisticated class — "Advanced Persistent Bots" — now impersonate humans, bypass CAPTCHAs, scrape content, and flood comment sections undetected.
These bots aren’t spamming promotions.
They’re manufacturing reality — or more precisely, shredding it:
AI-generated articles appearing under fake bylines
Deepfaked videos of political figures saying inflammatory things
Bot armies pushing contradictory narratives to overwhelm news cycles
Synthetic influencers blending real content with state-crafted lies
The result isn’t just confusion.
It’s submission — people stop trying to know what’s real because it’s too exhausting.
As I wrote in The Battle for Democracy:
“The regime doesn’t need belief to rule. It only needs exhaustion.”
They’ll Use AI to Engineer Division. We Must Use It to Strengthen Solidarity.
In fear-based systems, division is the fuel. Autocrats don’t need to be loved. They need people to distrust each other enough to give up on cooperation.
What Democracy Must Do
Democracy can’t survive a collapse in shared reality.
So we must rebuild it — with intention.
That means:
Pre-bunking disinformation, especially tactics that will be AI-driven
Using AI tools to verify media integrity and flag synthetic content
Re-establishing human credibility anchors — local reporters, educators, civic leaders who still carry trust
Slowing the firehose — reducing the reach of bot-driven narratives before they go viral
Reality is now a frontline.
We don’t defend it with nostalgia.
We defend it with infrastructure, speed, and clarity.
Three Things You Can Do Today
1. Make truth checkable.
Don’t just debunk. Explain how you know what’s true. Teach people to check, not just react.
2. Support humans over volume.
Boost real reporting. Quote local leaders. Share verified sources. Let people know whom they can still trust.
3. Flag the tactic, not just the lie.
When you see AI-generated chaos, name it. Say, “This is designed to confuse you.” That gives people agency back.
Bottom Line
Autocrats will use AI to flood the zone with fiction — until people give up on truth altogether.
We must anchor reality with credibility, clarity, and community.
Because when you lose the thread of what’s real, you lose everything else that depends on it.
And democracy is first in line.
Trygve Olson is a strategist, pro-democracy fighter and a founding Lincoln Project advisor. He writes the Searching for Hope Substack. Read the original column here.
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Thank you for being here to help us all get through this absolutely ridiculous time.
Life has become so complicated. First we had humanly created "alternative facts." Now AI floods the zone with anything and [often] sounds believable.
Nevertheless, I remain optimistic about our democracy and the strength of the Constitution. Hang in there!