Rethink - Rethink... authenticity

As generative AI and Deepfake technology has progressed over the last decade, you could be forgiven for thinking that it's never been more difficult to try to work out what is authentic and what is fake.

The search for authenticity is not new. It's a task that's challenged humanity for hundreds of years. Forgers have always tried to pass off copies as great artworks, but it's not always clear when an artist was responsible for an entire painting or farmed out parts of the job to apprentices. A few well-known modern artists outsource all of the construction and manufacture of some of their works to skilled craftsmen and women.

Although the idea is theirs, does that make the final product somehow less than the genuine article?

Idiosyncrasies, perceived flaws or personal flourishes are often key indicators that show an image is authentic. We use those same tell-tale signs to judge the authenticity of another type of image: the one that politicians want to portray.

How important is it to be a politician who is seen as authentic by voters? How can we measure political authenticity? If someone is carefully crafting their image on social media, how real is it? And even if it is fake, do voters care, if they have been seduced by the illusion?

Presenter: Ben Ansell
Producer: Ravi Naik
Editors: Lisa Baxter and Nick Holland

Contributors:
Estelle Lovatt, FRSA. Art Critic, Writer and Lecturer.
Lone Sorensen, Associate Professor of Political Communication, University of Leeds
Nick Clarke, Professor of Political Geography, University of Southampton
Tracy Dennis Tiwary, Professor of Behavioural Neuroscience, Clinical Psychology and Developmental Psychology, at the City University of New York.

Rethink is a BBC co-production with the Open University.

Published on Thursday, 5th February 2026.

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