Counterfeit People

The most alarming phrase in Daniel Dennett’s late work is not a philosophical technicality but a verdict: that AI systems capable of impersonating persons in digital environments are “the most dangerous artifacts in human history.” Dennett introduced the concept in a 2023 Atlantic essay, arguing by analogy to counterfeit currency. Societies have always treated currency counterfeiting as among the gravest crimes, not because any individual fake bill causes catastrophic harm, but because widespread counterfeiting destroys the trust that makes money work. Apply the same logic to persons: for the first time in history, it is possible to manufacture agents that pass for real people in the digital environments where an increasing share of human life unfolds—at a cost and scale that make mass production trivial. The mechanism of danger is trust, and trust is the substance of civilization. Almost everything we know about the world beyond immediate sense experience, we know because we trust the testimony of other people. Counterfeit