In 2026, it's never been easier to be fake. AI can generate fake images, fake posts that sound exactly like you, fake your voice, fake influencers on Instagram, and even fake apps that are actually websites. Soon, we won't even know if it's AI or real.
Short-term hacks can even create fake growth and fake unicorns.
I remember the authenticity trend started when people became sick of Instagram fakeness, and apps like BeReal took off. But BeReal died. Turns out, raw authenticity on its own isn't that entertaining. Most people's unfiltered lives are boring. People said they wanted real, but when they got it, they went back to the polished, curated, entertaining stuff.
Authenticity alone isn't enough. You still have to be great. You still have to be interesting. The argument isn't "be real, and people will care." The argument is "be real AND be great", because in an AI world, being great without being real won't be believable anymore.
AI just increases the magnitude of fakeness by orders of magnitude.
The obvious take is that authenticity and proof-of-personhood will matter 100x more.
Why being fake always worked
You can gain short-term growth – likes, reach, funding – by being fake. Engagement hacks, inflated ARR, pretending everything is fine when it's not. You can get wins by trading the long-term for the short-term.
The prevailing logic: winning is the most important thing, and if no one can tell, it's okay to farm engagement with half-truths. It's okay to lie to your users if it's getting you growth. Back in the day, we even said "fake it till you make it", but that was about projecting confidence while you're still learning. What's happening now is different. It's not faking confidence. It's faking reality.
But imagine a post-AGI world where everything is clonable. No one will be able to tell if your content is real or not. No one will be able to tell if your growth is real or not. No one will be able to tell if you are real.
People will want to connect with real stories even more. Faking engagement and telling half-truths won't lead to growth. Trust will become even more scarce.
Fakeness will stop working everywhere. Posting a beautiful story on Instagram when you're actually miserable won't be considered high status if no one can say whether the story was real or AI. Your company brand won't get fixed if you switch from fake to real overnight.
In a world where everything is AI and fake, you eventually learn to stop trusting everything.
The same pragmatic people who chose to be fake because it performed better will now choose to be real, because it performs better. The incentive structure is flipping. The fakers get filtered out eventually. AI just accelerates the filter.
Being fake is bad for you
Even if you could fake it forever and never get caught, it would still be wrong. Not because of what it does to others. Because of what it does to you.
The reason we want to fake stuff is that we are not okay with failing. If you are okay with failing, it's safe to be real: you can have the courage to tell your story authentically without fear of being disliked.
Being okay with failing doesn't mean not wanting to win. The real way to win is to be great: actually create great content that's authentic to you, actually build a great team, actually build a great product, actually be a world-class specialist.
In the long run, only real greatness wins. When you optimize for looking good instead of being good, you lose the feedback loop that makes you better.
Don't chase short-term wins – your goal should be to be really great. If you're not great, you will realize it sooner and start working hard to become great. Faking it actually prevents you from becoming great because everything will look great on the outside, but deep down, you'll always know. If you admit it sooner, you will arrive at greatness much sooner.
If you are stuck in a short-term optimization loop, at least be aware that short-term growth hacks will not make you great – you'll have to stop at some point and face reality. Growth hacks may get you in a better position, as the world is unfair, and sometimes you need them to solve money issues. But don't let them run your life forever. They are named "short-term" for a reason.
Others make decisions based on a lie
Being fake kills you internally. But it's not just about you.
When you fake your growth, someone invests real money based on that. When you fake engagement, a brand spends its marketing budget on a fiction. When you say "we're growing fast" and an engineer leaves their stable job to join you, they made that decision based on something you distorted.
Fakeness isn't just self-deception. It's taking from others under false pretenses. You're not participating in equal trade of value – you're extracting something you haven't earned.
And these aren't separate problems. The person who fakes externally will eventually fake internally. And if you can't see reality clearly, you can't build anything great.
Counter-Points
First, you could claim that people want to be tricked. Most of us want to believe things are better than they are, and are naturally attracted to the best narratives, not caring much whether they are half-true. While this is true, I'd argue that in the age of fakeness abundance, people will desperately seek what's real just to stand out from the noise, so it will stop being true.
Second, one can say there is nothing bad about being fake. Who cares if it's fake if that's what our primal brains love? Being fake kills you internally. Thus, if we agree that everything that helps a human live is good, it's objectively bad to be fake, and we should strive to be real if we want to live our fullest lives.
Third, you can say it's impossible to win by being real if everyone else is being fake. It could be true now, but I suspect it's going to change. Also, if you are great, you can win because you're great, not because of tricks. So all of this just increases the bar for greatness.
How to win?
Ironically, the strategy to win is just to be yourself. To tell your real human story. To have the courage to be vulnerable. To build in public.
How do you outcompete those who are great at being fake right now?
You don't outcompete them. You outlast them. Be great. Be real.