Can identity theft by AI models lead to a consciousness explosion?

While not everyone might have encountered the question, “Who am I?” directly, we all experience its scattered fragments everyday. Maybe while watching an Instagram Reel and whispering, “This is so me”, or letting go of some of your thoughts realizing, “This is not who I am”.

“Identity is the qualities, beliefs, personality traits, appearance, and/or expressions that characterize a person or a group”, as per Wikipedia.

However, it is a fluid, complex, and ongoing phenomenon with our neural connections and experiences directing its course.

But can technology, AI, in particular, impact how our identity forms and evolves?

Our identity, from the perspective of self,  normally acts as a ‘framework that runs’ our behavior and helps us feel a sense of self-control and hence, safety.

But what would happen if anyone could steal your identity?

Since the early 2000s, social media has popularized the concept of ‘digital identity’. The embodiment of the ‘extension of one’s persona’ online allows one to seek validation, find meaning/purpose, and experience the "sameness with others".

While most of it is supported by algorithmic engines, one still remains illusioned by a sense of autonomy in their online expression.

However, the recent rise of Generative AI models opens the door to re-evaluating our conversations around ‘digital identities’.

A Generative AI model’s ability to mimic, practically, almost any style of writing, voice, art style, mental models and frameworks, etc will force us to identify with something transcendental. 

The gazillion AI chatbots by companies like character.ai, Meta, etc, are a wake-up call to consider that ‘Digital Identity’ may remain just a voluntary or (mostly) involuntary representation of the aspect of one's self.

Taylor Swift’s recent deep fake pictures are a testament to it.

With the upcoming US Presidential elections, we’ll see more misinformation and disinformation attacks on individuals hindering their collective and personal identities.  Not just that, half of the world is set to vote in 2024 and hence vulnerable to propaganda.

For a long time, I thought that tokenization of every AI-generated asset on the blockchain would be an answer, however, the problem lies not just in production but on the distribution front as well.

Digital rights are currently a bowl of soup with popular social media (X, Instagram, Reddit, etc), ”informational” websites (or dark web), and porn sites floating like rotten vegetables in it.

So what immediate defense mechanism does it leave an average human being with? I think the answer is two-fold:

• Inward Approach of Acceptance: 

  
  To identify with something deeper within us that is transcendental. It can be the idea of Consciousness or Selflessness (or anatta/non-self).
  

• Outward Approach of Resistance: 

  
  To identify more radically with their ‘in-group’ or community. It usually manifests itself as polarization, protests, conservative-ity, and sometimes violence.

However, the intensity of both depends on one’s present identity formation strategy as proposed by Cote and Levine.

So while identity theft can leave us feeling unsafe, alternatively, it can also push us to find a deeper safety in ourselves or what we consider transcendental, leading to a revival of consciousness exploration through biohacking, psychedelics, or meditation.

Regardless, what remains unsure is how this self-awareness evolves from hysteria to courage, to tranquility. Companies like Culturepulse will play an important role in helping us make informed decisions in these times of uncertainty.

^{NOTE: Identity is a vast area of exploration, therefore, the contents of this article are limited to its scope.}